Professional Speaker Series
Offered Fall and Spring semesters, the Professional Speaker Series (ACG3802) is designed to expose students to technical topics and emerging issues in accounting, business, and in related professions such as law. Guest speakers will provide a practicing professional’s insights regarding technical issues and concerns affecting the accounting profession. Some sessions will relate to professional career planning, and the speakers will discuss various specialty areas, unusual occupations, unique firm practice structures, or non-traditional career opportunities. Presentations are followed by a reception during which time students can interact one-on-one with the speaker and his or her associates.
Attendance is limited to those students who have registered for the course or have advanced approval from the course coordinator. The course may not be repeated.
Fall 2019
Lori Sims, CPA and Scott Bridgman, CPA
Topic: How Large Accounting Firms are Managed
CLA
6:15-8:15pm, Gerson 126
Michael Kohner
HBK CPAs and Consultants
6:15-8:15pm, Gerson 126
Chris Martin, Tax Partner
Grant Thornton
6:15-8:15pm, Gerson 126
Topic: The Curse of Being a High Achiever
Bio: Chris is a Partner in Grant Thornton’s Florida Market Territory. He has more than 20 years of experience in Public Accounting. Chris’s expertise includes working with both public and private companies, with a focus on servicing organizations with complex/ multinational operations. Over his career he has serviced clients within a broad base of industries, including technology, life sciences, manufactures and distributors, professional service organizations, insurance and real estate. Chris is the Tampa Office Managing Partner, a member of Grant Thornton’s People Experience Leadership Team, is head of the CLEARRly1 Action Team in Florida and leads the GTUnited Council in Tampa.
Jefferson Johnson
EY
6:15-8:15pm, Gerson 126
Bob Feldmann, Gary Jenkins, and Danny Jackson
RSM
6:15-8:15pm, Gerson 126
Topic: Ethics in Accounting
Speaker Bios:
Bob Feldmann, Office Managing Partner – Fort Lauderdale and Miami
Bob is our Southeast market public sector practice leader and the Miami office managing partner. He was recently appointed as the National public sector audit leader for the firm. Bob is part of the firm’s tribal services and national gaming practice.
Bob has over 27 years of audit and accounting experience, serving as partner on various nonprofit and governmental clients. His experience includes performing audits in accordance with Government Auditing Standards, OMB Uniformed Guidance, Federal Single Audit Act, Florida Single Audit Act, and the Rules of the Auditor General of the State of Florida.
Gary Jenkins, Partner, Tax Services
Gary has over 27 years of experience providing tax consulting, planning, compliance and controversy services to corporations, partnerships and individuals. He has significant experience consulting on complex accounting for income tax issues, including valuation allowances, multi-national operations, stock compensation, interim reporting and uncertain tax positions. Gary previously served as RSM’s National accounting for income tax leader and continues to serve in that role for the Florida practice and is currently the South Florida tax practice leader. As the tax leader, Gary is responsible for insuring service quality to priority clients in the market.
Prior to joining RSM, Gary was the Florida tax practice leader for a national top eight accounting firm and spent several years as a managing director with a Big Four firm. In his role at the Big Four firm, Gary served as the South Carolina tax practice leader for the consumer markets and manufacturing, retail and distributing segments. Gary served on national tax technical teams for accounting for income taxes and served as a quality review specialist for internal and external peer review of other Big Four firms.
Industry focus includes construction, individual tax services, manufacturing, pass-through entities, restaurants, retail, telecommunications, and wholesale distribution.
Danny Jackson, Managing Partner, Tampa
Danny has over 24 years of experience and has worked with all industries, including many key accounts in technology, real estate, and health care. His commitment and presence in the market has built a reputation as a strong leader and trusted strategic advisor to his clients.
In his current role, Danny’s primary objective is to deliver personalized consultation to businesses to understand their key initiatives, help identify their needs, and delegate appropriate firm resources to provide quality service and an exceptional client experience.
Christopher Rux and Dara Simon
Cherry Bekaert
6:15-8:15pm, Gerson 126
Topic: The Business of Accounting
Ed Salek, Terri Sailor, and Jerry Avena
DHG
6:15-8:15pm, Gerson 126
Topic: Inside Public Accounting
Muthu Raj
Crowe
6:15-8:15pm, Gerson 126
Topic: Digital Audit
Bio: Muthu is the Audit Analytics Leader for Crowe Audit BU. Muthu leads several strategic transformative initiatives including Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and RPA initiatives for Audit BU. Muthu has more than 15 years of professional experience advising fortune 500 companies in Analytics, AI, RPA and IT initiatives on Data Analytics Strategy, Process Improvement and Delivery Excellence. Muthu worked for companies including CapGemini, Microsoft and EY. Muthu holds a Masters’ degree in computer science and MBA from SMU Dallas. He is a technology enthusiast and likes to keep up with the latest trends and development in Data Analytics, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial intelligence (AI). As a hobby, Muthu co-founded a social media analytics platform.