Keynote Speaker
Christa Davies
Executive Vice President, Global Finance and Chief Financial Officer, Aon Corporation, Chicago, IL
Christa Davies serves as Executive Vice President, Global Finance, and Chief Financial Officer of Aon Corporation. She joined Aon in November 2007 as Executive Vice President, Global Finance, and became Chief Financial Officer in March 2008. Before joining Aon, Ms. Davies worked for Microsoft and held a series of positions with increasing responsibility from 2002 to 2007, including her last role as Chief Financial Officer of the Platform and Services Division, the largest and most profitable division within the company. Ms. Davies is an Aerospace Engineering graduate from the University of Queensland in Australia, and as a Fulbright Scholar, she earned a masters degree in business administration from the Harvard Business School.
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Abramovitz, Michael
RSM McGladrey, Inc./McGladrey & Pullen LLP, Denver, COMike Ambramovitz has over 18 years of experience in both public accounting serving clients as well as working in industry as a tax director. He has worked extensively with both privately and publicly held domestic and multinational companies in a variety of industries. In addition to general tax planning, he provides tax consulting related to mergers and acquisitions, accounting methods and state and local income tax planning. Mike has also served as national tax accounting subject matter expert for his previous firm. In this role, Mike assisted other tax directors as well as clients with matters that included reporting for FAS 109, implementing FAS 123(R) and lectures in such areas. Mike earned a Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Accounting from the University of Michigan.
Auer, Scott
Praeses, LLC, Shreveport, LAScott J. Auer, CPA is Chief Financial Officer of Praeses. As CFO, he is accountable for all aspects of Praeses' financial functions, including accounting, corporate controllership, treasury, tax, financial operations and strategic planning and analysis. His responsibilities also encompass human resources as it pertains to retention, onboarding and offboarding.
In 1999, Scott began his employment at Praeses as a Network Analyst before assuming a position as a Staff Accountant and Special Projects Facilitator within the company's accounting department. Scott is both a CPA and a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. His depth of knowledge and experience that spans both accounting and information technology has strengthened Praeses' financial processes and fostered the company's growth as an established firm that remains nimble.
Scott graduated Cum Laude from Centenary College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Business with a minor in Economics. He attended Louisiana State University in Shreveport, studying Computer Science at the graduate level. In 2003, he became a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Louisiana. Scott is also a Certified Management Accountant and Certified Internal Auditor.
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Belt, William
LeClair Ryan, Richmond, VABill Belt is a shareholder in the Discovery Solutions Practice group at LeClairRyan. His team provides technology and legal advice to help clients comply with court rules governing electronic discovery in small, medium and large cases that involve electronic discovery. Mr. Belt has worked on large electronic discovery projects in numerous mass tort and complex commercial cases including the Exxon Valdez, MTBE, EMF, Latex Gloves, and Medical Insurance Hospital Discount litigation, as well as intellectual property and employment cases. He has also helped clients respond to FTC, SEC and Department of Justice investigations. Mr. Belt provides guidance to clients preparing electronic and document retention policies as well as litigation hold policies. He has developed policies and practices that comply with document retention rules and regulations, privacy and security laws, and the 2006 Supreme Court rules governing electronic discovery.
Prior to joining the Discovery Solutions Group, he worked with a team of attorneys as national coordinating trial counsel in EMF litigation, latex medical glove litigation, and MTBE litigation. He was recognized by the National Law Journal, the flagship publication of the Litigation Services Network, as defense counsel for one of the "Top 10 Defense Wins for 2002", and was recognized by the American Bar Association for his work on the Exxon Valdez litigation.
Mr. Belt earned his J.D., cum laude, from the George Washington University and the University of Virginia where he received his Bachelor's degree.
Birney, Matthew
United Technologies Corporation, Hartford, CTMatthew Birney is a manager in the United Technologies Corporation corporate office Financial Reporting Department. He and his group are responsible for developing the Corporation's IFRS conversion and implementation plan, establishing IFRS policy, and developing and disseminating IFRS guidance to the worldwide corporate finance organization. His group also maintains the UTC Financial Manual, which provides US-GAAP financial reporting guidance and IFRS reporting considerations to the corporation's reporting entities around the world. Prior to joining UTC, Matthew was a Senior Manager in the Assurance Practice of KPMG LLP where he audited public and private companies within the aerospace and government defense contracting industries. He joined KPMG in 1997 after graduating from Boston College with a BS in Accounting and Computer Science. Matthew is a certified public accountant, a member of the AICPA's XBRL Assurance Task Force, and sits on the XBRL-US Domain Steering Committee.
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Cokins, Gary
SAS, Cary, NCGary Cokins is a global product marketing manager involved with performance management solutions with SAS, a leading provider of performance management and business analytics software headquartered in Cary, North Carolina. Gary is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, and author in advanced cost management and performance improvement systems. Gary received a BS degree with honors in Industrial Engineering/Operations Research from Cornell University in 1971. He received his MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in 1974.
Gary began his career as a strategic planner at FMC's Link-Belt Division and then served as Financial Controller and Operations Manager. In 1981 Gary began his management consulting career first with Deloitte Consulting, next with KPMG Peat Marwick. Gary was trained on ABC by Harvard Business School Professors Robert S. Kaplan and Robin Cooper. More recently, Gary headed the National Cost Management Consulting Services for Electronic Data Systems (EDS)/A.T. Kearney.
Cowles, Matthew
UnitedHealth Group, Hartford, CTAs Controller, Matt Cowles is responsible for assuring the financial integrity of our business as we continue to deliver affordable health care solutions to clients. Matt is a 14 year veteran in the insurance industry having held strategic finance positions representing Health Care, Pension and Life Insurance businesses. Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, Matt was a Director of Finance supporting MassMutual Financial Group's Retirement Services organization in addition to providing financial and audit oversight for their clients, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and risk management. He also held the position of Director of Expense Management.
Matt started his career in business assurance with PricewaterhouseCoopers and held various positions. Matt has a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Western New England College. He is located in the Hartford Connecticut office.
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Davies, Christa
Executive Vice President, Global Finance and Chief Financial Officer, Aon Corporation, Chicago, ILChrista Davies serves as Executive Vice President, Global Finance, and Chief Financial Officer of Aon Corporation. She joined Aon in November 2007 as Executive Vice President, Global Finance, and became Chief Financial Officer in March 2008. Before joining Aon, Ms. Davies worked for Microsoft and held a series of positions with increasing responsibility from 2002 to 2007, including her last role as Chief Financial Officer of the Platform and Services Division, the largest and most profitable division within the company. Read more...
Drucker, Daniel
Intaact, San Jose, CADan Drucker joined Intacct as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development in 2007. Dan brings more than 20 years of executive, strategy and operational excellence to Intacct. Prior to Intacct, Dan served as executive vice president of global marketing for Postini, transforming sales, marketing and channels for this $90 million Software as a Service communications security leader and leading to a $625 million acquisition by Google.
Dan holds an MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
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Elder, Dave
RSM McGladrey, Inc., West Palm Beach, FLF
Fleenor, Will
K2 Enterprises, Hammond, LAWill Fleenor is currently a Shareholder of K2E, LLC. Will has conducted seminars for 47 State CPA Societies, and has spoken at numerous accounting technology conferences, including the AICPA Information Technology Conference. He has also done training for other organizations such as the FBI. Will is a past Chairman of the AICPA Information Technology Conference, as well as past chairman of other conferences and professional committees. Will is a co-author of the Practitioners Publishing Company's Guide to Installing Microcomputer Accounting Systems and has had numerous articles published in professional journals including the Journal of Accountancy, the CPA Journal, and others.
Will received his BBA in Accounting from Loyola University, MS in Accounting from the University of New Orleans, and Ph.D. in Accounting from Louisiana State University.
Ford, Chip T. IV
Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, Charlotte, NCG
Gallman, Charles
Grant Thornton, LLP, Charlotte, NCCharles Gallman is a Senior Manager located in Grant Thornton's Charlotte, North Carolina office. He manages and coordinates the technical and administrative aspects of valuation and financial consulting engagements on a local, regional and national basis. Charles has been actively engaged in financial valuation and consulting since 1994. Prior to joining Grant Thornton, he led the valuation practice at a Big Five public accounting firm. Prior to his public accounting experience, Charles was a middle-market corporate lender with a major financial institution.
Charles specializes in the valuation and analysis of equity securities and financial and intangible assets. He has conducted valuation assignments for mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, shareholder disputes, allocations of purchase price and tax planning in a broad variety of industries. He has extensive experience in valuing companies in the manufacturing, health care and financial services industries, as well as valuing start-up and emerging growth companies. He is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of North Carolina and has been awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. He has also earned the Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) designation from the AICPA.
Charles is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the CFA Institute and the CFA North Carolina Society. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Finance from Clemson University, and a Masters in Taxation from the University of South Carolina.
Gaudreau, Phillip
Comcast Corporation, Philadelphia, PAPhillip J. Gaudreau is currently the Manager of Accounting Projects for Comcast Corporation. In this capacity, Phil oversees various projects and initiatives including XBRL implementation, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, Enterprise Risk Management, as well as other transactional and technical accounting matters. Prior to joining Comcast, Phil was employed by Liberty Property Trust in various roles and by PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP serving clients in the firm's audit practice. Phil is a CPA and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He has a B.S. in Accounting from Philadelphia University and a MBA from Penn State University.
Gerber, Marsha
Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP, Houston, TXMarsha Gerber is a partner with the law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. She has over twenty years of experience in the legal industry in Houston, and prior to joining Fulbright in 2000 she was a partner with the law firm of Butler & Binion L.L.P. where she practiced for over eleven years.
Marsha is a member of Fulbright's Government Investigations and Enforcement and White Collar Crime practice areas. She regularly represents clients faced with responding to government investigations and enforcement actions, including those of the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of Foreign Asset Control and Congress. Marsha also regularly leads anti-corruption due diligence reviews for merger and acquisition transactions; develops and implements regulatory compliance programs consistent with the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines protocol; and develops and presents anticorruption and related trade controls training to employees of clients involved in international business operations. She has years of experience working with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other statutes and regulations affecting international commerce.
Marsha also counsels clients in establishing effective records management protocols.
Greiner, William
UMB, Kansas City, MOWilliam B. Greiner joined UMB in 1999 as Chief Investment Officer for both Scout Investment Advisors and UMB Bank. Mr. Greiner is manager of the UMB Trust Investment Division and has ultimate responsibility for all of UMB Investment Advisors. He also serves as chairman of the UMB Asset Allocation and Large Cap Equity Strategy Committees. He is also a member of the UMB Fixed Income Committee. Mr. Greiner has appeared on Bloomberg Television, CNBC and CNBC Worldwide. He has been featured in major financial publications such as Barron's, The Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek discussing his views on the U.S. economy. Mr. Greiner received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Economics and Finance from Washburn University.
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Joline, Chris
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, New York, NYChris Joline is a Director in the New York office of PricewaterhouseCoopers with over fourteen years of experience in serving clients in the insurance industries. Chris's experience includes providing advisory services to insurance companies. His advisory experience includes operational analysis and review, internal control, due diligence, regulatory and compliance, and process redesign services. Chris has led multiple large Insurers with Internal Control over Financial Reporting engagements. He has spent a majority of his time over the past fourteen years working with clients in this industry specialization. Through these experiences, Chris has gained in-depth knowledge of the operations and financial reporting of insurance companies and is frequently consulted regarding issues impacting this industry.
Jones, Lawrence
Encore Enterprises, Inc., Dallas, TXLarry Jones is currently the managing director for Encore Enterprises, Inc. Equity Funds, responsible for raising equity to finance this fully integrated real estate development company. Larry retired as the regional partner in charge of the Real Estate Assurance Practice for the Southeast and Southwest regions of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in 2007. Larry rejoined PwC in 1999 after serving as Executive Vice President and Treasurer of Wyndham International, Inc. Larry holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and Corporate Finance from the University of California at Berkeley and a master's degree in corporate finance from UCLA. He is a long-standing member of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) and a former program director of NAREIT's Law and Accounting Conference. He is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and is a licensed CPA in California, Texas and Illinois.
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Kim, Joanne Wendy
BDO Seidman LLP, Chicago, ILWendy Kim has more than 25 years of professional experience with a great deal of time spent as a public accountant, a Chief Financial Officer and a business consultant. Her accounting strengths encompass expertise in due diligence, SEC accounting and reporting and M&A. She is also intimately familiar with software/technology, food and beverage, real estate, manufacturing, professional services, financial services, telecommunication, and entertainment industries, having either worked with such companies in a public accounting role or as a financial executive. Wendy is currently on secondment in BDO Seidman's National Assurance – SEC Department in Chicago.
Wendy came to BDO Seidman from Landmark Education Enterprises, an international company with operations in over 20 countries, where she served as Chief Financial Officer. She is an alumnus of KPMG, LLP where she was a senior manager. She also was a Chief Financial Officer in an entertainment media company and commercial bank.
She earned her Bachelor's degree in Business Administration – Accounting and Finance; California State University, Long Beach.
Knowles, Brett
pm2, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaOver the last 25 years Brett Knowles has established a global reputation for his work in the performance measurement and management area. Brett has worked as VP alongside Doctors Kaplan and Norton at the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative. Every book Drs. Kaplan and Norton have written profile Brett's clients as best-practice and have inducted three of his clients into the Hall of Fame. Brett and his organization have completed over 2,000 scorecard projects around the world. His clients in the financial sector include Citibank, Bank of America, State Farm, Sun Life, Meridian Credit Union, and Merrill Lynch.
Krieman, Diane
Hewitt Associates, Lincolnshire, ILDiane Krieman is a Senior Talent and Emerging Workforce Consultant in Hewitt Associates' Talent and Organization Consulting Practice located in Lincolnshire, IL. She has 19 years of HR and organization development experience. She partners with clients to develop talent and diversity and inclusion solutions for attracting, motivating, and retaining employees. Diane also has been trained by Marshall Goldsmith in the Goldsmith Executive Coaching methodology. Diane's recent clients include Abbott; Allstate; American Express; Baxter; Buena Vista University; Capital One; Caterpillar, Inc.; CDW; Deere & Co.; Ernst & Young; Hospira; IBM; Intermatic Incorporated; Intercontinental Hotels, Inc.; MGM Grande; Sears Credit; Spectrum Health; SUPERVALU, TXU and Wal-Mart. Prior to joining Hewitt, Diane spent 10 years with AT&T in HR generalist, organization development, and recruitment roles. Diane has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Delaware and an M.S. in Organizational Psychology from Stevens Institute of Technology.
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Lawrence, Mary Ann
Key Corporation, Cleveland, OHMaryAnn Lawrence is senior vice president and manager of Commercial Credit Risk at KeyCorp. Cleveland-based KeyCorp is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $92 billion. Her group has oversight on about $60Bn of commercial outstandings. In her role, she provides independent and objective assurance services relating to KeyCorp's commercial credit origination, underwriting and approval, monitoring/servicing, default management functions, and resulting portfolio performance. In addition, her group assesses the effectiveness of credit risk management policies, practices, and controls throughout the corporation, makes recommendations to improve risk governance procedures, and helps ensure KeyCorp maintains an effective risk governance framework designed to protect the interests of the company's directors and shareholders. Lawrence is one of the 12 inaugural members of the Private Companies Financial Reporting Committee of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. She is also on the board of directors of the Midwest Finance Association and the Academy of Financial Services. She is also an active member of the Financial Management Association, Banker's Administration Institute and Risk Management Association. She has presented papers and been a discussant at their annual meetings and conferences. She also is adjunct professor of finance at Cleveland State University. She is ABD in finance from Cleveland State, holds an MBA from the Weatherhead School of Business at Case Western Reserve, and a BA in Business Administration from Baldwin Wallace College.
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McGee, JoAnn
Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Shreveport, LADr. McGee is a faculty member in the College of Business Administration at Louisiana State University in Shreveport in addition to being a CPA inactive and a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. She has undergraduate degrees from both the University of Oklahoma and Centenary College, and graduate degrees from Louisiana Tech University. Her areas of academic interest include tax and auditing with special emphasis on research in the area of occupational fraud and abuse. Her publication efforts include numerous articles addressing the issues of fraud and the need for forensic accountants.
Melville, Jude
Business First Bank, Shreveport, LAJude Melville graduated cum laude from Harvard College, which he attended on a military scholarship, and a Master's Degree from the London School of Economics, which he attended as a Rotarian International Ambassadorial Scholar. Jude spent a number of years as an officer in the United States Air Force, achieving the rank of Captain.
Melville was the first employee and co-founder of Business First Bank, a business and entrepreneur focused bank in Louisiana. The bank has quickly grown to five markets and approximately $550MM in assets. Over that time, Melville has served in a number of roles including market president, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Investments Officer, and, currently, Chief Strategic Officer.
Miller, John M.
Aon Investment Consulting – Corporate Risk Services, San Francisco, CAJohn Miller is one of Aon's national experts on surplus optimization and liability driven investing. He is an expert in frozen plan management and plan terminations. He is an author of risk management analytics tools and forecasting tools. He is a stochastic forecasting expert. He has spoken at the Enrolled Actuaries Meeting, P&I Conference, SALGBA Conference and quoted in Global Pensions on LDI. John has over 30 years experience as a consulting actuary.
Mitchell,Todd
Elliott Davis, LLC, Greenville, SCTodd Mitchell's primary emphasis is advising CEOs in areas of business opportunity, including mergers and acquisitions, turnarounds of troubled companies, and strategic planning facilitation. Todd was Elliott Davis' Managing Shareholder from 2003 to 2008. During that time, he directed the acquisition of four CPA firms in the Southeast as the firm grew from net revenues of $23 million to $44 million and became a nationally-recognized workplace of choice. He has been a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Women's Initiatives Executive Committee member since 2005, and is the co-creator and co-presenter of the AICPA seminar, "Retaining & Developing Women Leaders: Organizational Strategy Workshop." Todd earned an MBA from Indiana University where he received the Top Graduate Accounting Student Award from the accounting faculty.
Muller, Cindy Matherne
Cal Dive International, Houston, TXMunter, Paul
KPMG LLP, New York, NYPaul Munter is a Partner in the Department of Professional Practice – Audit with KPMG. He serves as the lead technical partner and professional practice leader for the US firm's IFRS activities and also serves on KPMG's Global IFRS Panel which is responsible for establishing KPMG positions on the application of IFRS. His also is involved in the development of firm positions in response to proposals from the IASB, IFRIC, FASB, SEC and other standard setters as well as the development of the firm's guidance and publications including Comparison of IFRS to US GAAP and First Impressions: Business Combinations (joint IASB/FASB project).
He served as the Academic Fellow in the Office of the Chief Accountant at the US Securities and Exchange Commission where he worked on many of the Commission's Sarbanes-Oxley initiatives and rule-making activities. Previously, he served as KPMG Professor and Chairman of the Department of Accounting at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in accounting at the University of Colorado. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Fresno State University. He is a CPA in New York, Florida, and Colorado.
Mr. Munter was honored by the Texas Society of CPAs as its first "Outstanding Discussion Leader." He has also been honored by the Florida Institute of CPAs as its Outstanding Educator and he was honored by Beta Alpha Psi as the National Business Information Professional of the Year.
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Owen, James
Center for Cowboy Ethics and Leadership, Austin, TXJim Owen is Founder and CIO (Chief Inspiration Officer) of the Center for Cowboy Ethics and Leadership and author of the books Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West and Cowboy Values: Recapturing What America Once Stood For. Jim's Wall Street career spanned 40 years, including 15 years as a partner with NWQ Investment Management Company in Los Angeles. He is co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA). Profiled in The Wall Street Journal as a leading Wall Street "rainmaker," Jim has also been a prolific speaker and author on investment topics. His book credits include The Prudent Investor: The Definitive Guide to Professional Investment Management (McGraw-Hill, 1990) and The Prudent Investor's Guide to Hedge Funds: Profiting from Uncertainty and Volatility (John Wiley & Sons, 2000). In 2004, dismayed by the rash of corporate scandals and growing societal discord, Jim launched a second career as a social entrepreneur focused on ways to strengthen the foundation of shared values in American society. Inspired by his lifelong interest in Western history and lore, Jim coined the phrase "cowboy ethics" and wrote his book Distilling the Code of the West into "Ten Principles to Live By." To date over 95,000 copies of the book have been sold. A summa cum laude graduate of Regis University, Jim is also a past President of the Board of Trustees of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
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Patterson, Alan
Mentoré, East Greenwich, RIDr. Alan Patterson is one of America's best thinkers, teachers and coaches. Having guided more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies in re-thinking how best to elevate their talent, he is an expert at driving effective organizational change. Alan Patterson has 24 years of international consulting experience in change management, leadership development, and executive coaching. He recently formed Mentoré, a consulting organization that focuses on aligning strategy, organization structure, job responsibilities, and skill sets to major shifts in the business. His expertise has been tapped by many global and national organizations, included Anheuser-Busch, CVS, Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett-Packard, Major League Baseball, Merck, Sea World, United States Navy, and Williams Sonoma. A published author, Alan has been a featured speaker and workshop leader for several national associations, including serving as a national expert resource for the American Institute for CPAs (AICPA) and many state CPA associations.
Player, Steve
Beyond Budgeting Round Table, Dallas, TXSteve Player serves as the North America Program Director for the Beyond Budgeting Round Table (BBRT) and works with BBRT member companies to implement continuous planning processes. He has over 20 years experience with improving performance management and implementing strategic planning processes. He is also the Managing Director of The Player Group, a Dallas, Texas-based business consulting firm, and founder of the Activity-Based Management Advanced Implementation Group (ABM AIG).
He is the co-author/editor of four books on Activity-Based Management and currently writes a monthly "Finance Transformation" feature for Business Finance Magazine for which he interviews CFOs from leading organizations on innovative finance and planning processes. Previously, Steve was the Managing Partner of Arthur Andersen's Advanced Cost Management Team.
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Richardson, Greg
Goodman & Company, Newport News, VAGreg is a Senior Partner with Goodman & Company and directs the Human Resource Services Division. With over 30 years of experience, Greg has managed operational functions, training and development programs and human resource challenges. As Director of the HR Division, he spearheads client support that directly impacts all human dimensions in the workplace. He routinely conducts professional development seminars for workgroups, especially leadership development, provides executive coaching programs and facilitates both strategic planning efforts and executive retreats (for-profit and non-profit organizations). Leadership is for Everyone and Dimensions in Behavior are two of his workshops that have received wide acclaim. Greg was selected to write the lead chapter in the recently released book, Leadership Strategies that Work by Insight Publishing. Greg also was a contributing author to the book, Mission Possible.
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Salvi, David
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Atlanta, GADavid is a Director in PricewaterhouseCoopers' Advisory Services specializing in Finance Transformation. He possesses 13 years experience designing and implementing process and organizational improvements across all core F&A processes leveraging his deep knowledge in process best practices, industry benchmarks, and project management. He has specialized experience in driving Close to Report improvements at clients improving the timeliness, transparency, and control over the financial reporting process. David holds an MBA from Purdue University.
Schneider, William
AT&T, Atlanta, GABill Schneider is Director of Accounting responsible for Sarbanes Oxley Compliance for AT&T. AT&T Inc. is a premier communications holding company. Bill joined AT&T as a result of its acquisition of BellSouth Corp in late 2006. While at BellSouth, Bill held a variety of positions including SEC reporting manager, financial compliance manager, shared services project manager and controller positions at three affiliates. Prior to joining BellSouth, Bill worked at Deloitte, Haskins & Sells.
Bill graduated from the University of Georgia in 1988 with two degrees, a Bachelor of Business Administration with general honors and a Master of Accountancy. Bill is also active in community and professional organizations. Bill has served on the AICPA Council since 2006 and on the AICPA Business and Industry Executive Committee since 2007. He also served on a variety of AICPA Task Forces over the past 3 years. Bill served as President of the Georgia Society of CPAs in 2006-2007 and has held a number of other state and local positions including Treasurer, Director, chair of the member services committee, chair of the budget committee, and President of the DeKalb Chapter of the GSCPA.
Sheehan, Norman
Edwards Business School, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CanadaNorman Sheehan, B.Comm, MBA, Ph.D, CGA, CMA, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting, Edwards School of Business at the University of Saskatchewan. He teaches, publishes and advises in the areas of strategy formulation, strategy implementation/performance measurement, and risk management. Dr. Sheehan has published over 18 articles in journals such as The Wall Street Journal, Journal of Business Strategy, Strategy + Leadership, Business Horizons, and Management Decision.
Smith, Matt
Aon Consulting, Seattle, WAMatt is the National Defined Contribution Practice leader for Aon Consulting. He has over 25 years of experience in the defined contribution consulting field. Matt consults with clients of all sizes and industries on their defined contribution plans. His experience covers areas of plan design, administration, investments and plan effectiveness. Prior to joining Aon Consulting in 2008, Matt was Managing Director, Retirement Services at Russell Investments in Tacoma, Washington. In his role at Russell, Matt managed their defined contribution business in the U.S. He has presented extensively on DC issues at industry and client conferences. He has also written articles for and has been quoted in numerous industry publications including Pensions and Investments, Employee Benefit News, SmartMoney.com, Institutional Investor, PlanSponsor magazine, PlanAdviser magazine, Financial Week, Wealth Manager, as well as appearing on Bloomberg TV. Matt is the co-author of the book The Retirement Plan Solution: The Reinvention of Defined Contribution, Ezra, Collie, Smith, John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Matt is a graduate of the University of Kansas.
Stahlin, Paul
Skylands Community Bank, Somerville, NJT
Tormey, Robert
Tatum, LLC, Chino Hills, CABob Tormey is a Partner in the Los Angeles Financial Leadership Practice (FLP) of Tatum, LLC. He is also a member of the Restructuring Practice Segment. Bob has over 30 years of experience. He has managed growth companies, turnarounds, recapitalizations and troubled debt restructurings, leveraged buyouts, acquisitions and roll-ups. Bob has supported portfolio companies for private equity groups such as Summit Partners, Oakhill Partners, Heritage Partners, Graham Partners, Blue Point Capital and FdG Associates. Bob has worked with other advisors such as Houlihan-Lokey, FTI (Policano and Manzo), the Gordian Group, Casas Benjamin and White, and Kirkland and Ellis. Bob holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University of Los Angeles. He is a CPA in California and a member of the Association of Certified Turn Around Professionals and the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors.
Torok, Robert
IBM Global Business Services, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaRobert Torok is an Executive Consultant with IBM's Financial Management services practice. At IBM, Robert is responsible for leading the development and delivery of Enterprise Risk Management services for clients around the world, particularly in regards to the integration of risk and performance management. He has been with IBM and predecessor firms for about 12 years and has over 20 years of both professional services and industry experience. Rob has consulted clients in a wide variety of industries, covering both the private and public sectors, with particular depth in public utilities and consumer/industrial goods organizations. Rob is a Chartered Accountant in Canada and holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto.
Townsend, Derek
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Boston, MADerek B. Townsend is a Director in Advisory Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Derek focuses on advising corporate and financial buyers and sellers on transactions from pre-deal due diligence through post deal integration/separation. Derek has over 10 years of experience in this capacity and has completed over 150 pre-deal due diligence reviews and managed the execution of multiple large scale, cross-border transactions. Major activities performed include assessing the financial back-office and information technology environment at the acquisition target, assisting with the refinement of key deal documents, day one planning and execution, integration/separation planning and execution and value realization. Derek has applied his skills in a wide range of industries including retail, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, financial services and industrial products.
Derek holds a Bachelor of Science from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and an Executive MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
