People and firms on the move: A new chair for the CAQ

June 21, 2019 9:05 AM

RSM donates more than a quarter of a million, the Connecticut Society of CPAs names its new board, and EY's Kelly Grier will lead the board at the Center for Audit Quality in October.

BRAZIL

HLB Brasil Pryor Consulting Solutions Ltda. has joined global network of advisory and accounting firms HLB. The firm was started in 1995 and has over 700 people.

CONNECTICUT

The Connecticut Society of CPAs installed its Board of Directors for the 2019-2020 year: Dennis Cole (pictured) a partner with Beers, Hamerman, Cohen & Burger PC in New Haven and Fairfield, will serve as president; Marie Benedetto, owner of Marie L. Benedetto CPA MST Innovative Business Solutions in Middlefield, as president-elect; Brian Reilly, senior vice president and chief auditor with Travelers in Hartford, will serve as treasurer; and Mark Torello, partner-in-charge of Whittlesey Technology in Hartford, will serve as secretary. In addition, Timothy Hedley, Katherine Patnaude and Michael Maksymiw will serve as members-at-large.

FLORIDA

Schellman & Co., Tampa, has been recognized as an Accountability Agent, which means it can assess and certify organizations on their compliance with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Cross-Border Privacy Rules. For more information, visit www.schellman.com/APEC.

GEORGIA

Woodard Network, a professional community of small-business advisors run by Joe Woodard, has rebranded itself as Woodard Alliance. The rebranding is meant to reflect a new vision for the community, and to highlight an expanded list of benefits.

Howard Zandman (pictured), parter-in-charge of the litigation support and forensic accounting services practice of Aprio LLP, Atlanta, received the Thomas R. Porter Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts in recognition of his more than 40 years of leadership in the financial litigation community.

Photo courtesy of RSM US LLP

ILLINOIS

The RSM Foundation recently donated $258,000 to four nonprofit organizations — Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Girl Scouts USA, Junior Achievement and The Rosen Foundation — during RSM US LLP’s biennial owners’ meeting at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando. Funds were raised through the meeting’s “bold step” challenge, which promoted health and wellbeing during the event. Winners of the bold step challenge received donations from the RSM US Foundation to their local “Birdies Fore Love” charitable efforts. In addition, RSM owners attending the meeting donated 1,300 pairs of shoes and socks to an Orlando-based nonprofit for children in need.

KANSAS

The Kansas Society of CPAs is launching its inauguarl Accounting Kick Start Program's INSPIRE Business Camp, a one-and-a-half day camp on Aug. 2-3 for high school juniors, seniors or recent grads. It will be hosted by the Wichita State School of Accountancy and the Epsilon Tau Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi. Interested students can apply online by June 30. For more information, contact KSCPA CEO and president Natasha Schamberger at (785) 272-4366 or natasha@kscpa.org.

LOUISIANA

Dustin Mire and Ben Vance (pictured) have been promoted to consulting director in the Baton Rouge office of Postlethwaite & Netterville. Mire focuses on developing customized services for client and project needs in the areas of project management and complex litigation claims administration, while Vance focuses in the areas of business valuation and litigation support.

MAINE

Nicole Shaffer, a senior business development specialist and proposal writer at Berry Dunn, Portland, has been named one of the 2019 APMP 40 under 40 by the National Association for Proposal Management Professionals.

MICHIGAN

Kyle James Smith has been promoted to manager in the Audit Department at Maner Costerisan, Lansing. He joined the firm earlier this year as an associate.

Crowe LLP recently named Josh Cole managing principal of its consulting team at Crowe, a convergence of the firm’s former performance consulting and risk consulting teams. Cole leads the new business unit, which includes approximately 1,200 personnel and generates nearly $325 million in revenue. He has been with the firm for over 25 years, and is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

NEW JERSEY

Natalie McVeigh has joined the Iselin office of EisnerAmper as a director in its Center for Family Business Excellence. She was previously vice president of family dynamics at Wells Fargo Private Bank, and a partner in her own enterprise consulting and coaching practices.

MARK MCQUEEN

NEW YORK

Michael Leigh has joined Grassi & Co. to lead the firm's cyber and information security practice. He previously served as global head of digital forensics and incident response for an international security consulting firm and has held senior leadership positions in information security for major technology providers, including Cisco Systems and Oracle.

Stuart Mayer (pictured) has been named office managing partner of the New York City office of Prager Metis CPAs.

NORTH DAKOTA

Eide Bailly, Fargo, is accepting submissions for its seventh annual Eide Bailly Resourcefullness Awards, which recognize outstanding nonprofit revenue generation initiatives with a $10,000 award and two $2,500 awards given in five states — Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, North Dakota and Utah. Details and a submission form can be found here: www.eidebailly.com/resourcefullness. Winners will be announced Sept. 20.

OHIO

Skoda Minotti, Cleveland, has launched an Emerging Companies Group, which delivers an array of accounting, tax, operational, governance and investor relations services to early stage companies. It will be led by Marilea Campomizzi and Rich Mazzola. For more information, visit, https://skodaminotti.com/emergingcompanies/.

PENNSYLVANIA

Immanuel John K. has joined Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP as a partner in the Philadelphia commercial practice, where he will focus on the firm’s growing life sciences and technology industries. Separately, partner Jonathan Marks has been appointed the American Institute of CPAs’ Forensic and Litigation Services Fraud Task Force.

TAJIKISTAN

Sabr Consulting LLC, Dushanbe, has joined the international network of independent accounting and consulting firms Nexia International. It has five locations, with three partners and five staff members providing audit, tax and advisory services.

TEXAS

Brian Baumler and Danielle Supkis Cheek (pictured), directors at Pannell Kerr Forster of Texas, received awards at the Texas CPA Society Houston Chapter’s annual Accounting Excellence Awards: Baumler was named Outstanding Committee Chair for his work leading the Energy Committee, and Supkis Cheek was named Distinguished Member of the Profession for her work with the AICPA Technical Issues Committee.

UTAH

MB Raimondi was named the 2019 QuickBooks ProAdvisor of the Year by Insightful Accounting at the 2019 Scaling New Heights conference in Salt Lake City. A number of category awards were also presented. For more details, visit the Insightful Accountant

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WASHINGTON, D.C.

Kelly Grier, U.S. chairman and managing partner at EY, will become chair of the Governing Board of the Center for Audit Quality, effective Oct. 1, while Wayne Berson, CEO at BDO USA LLP and global chairman at BDO International, will serve as vice chair. Both will serve for two-year terms.