Ken Schermann is a senior technical advisor at the Governmental Accounting
Standards Board (GASB) in Norwalk, CT. He joined the GASB in 1984 and was the
project manager on several projects, including Concepts Statement 1 on the
Financial Reporting Objectives, Statement 6 on Special Assessments, Statement 9
on Cash Flow Reporting, and Statement 14 on the Financial Reporting Entity. He
was also the lead manager for Statement 34 and primary author of the Statement
34 Implementation Guides. He recently completed a technical bulletin regarding
tobacco settlement reporting issues. He is currently working on projects
addressing Sales and Pledges of Receivables and Future Revenues, Fund Balance
Reporting, and Economic Condition Reporting. Ken also serves as the GASB's
liaison to the AICPA and other professional organizations. Before joining the
GASB Ken was an audit partner with a regional CPA firm in Peoria, Illinois where
he was responsible for the services provided to many local governments and
not-for-profit organizations. He graduated from Bradley University in 1972 and
has been a CPA since 1974. Ken writes and speaks extensively on a variety of
governmental accounting and financial reporting issues.
Dave
Cotton is chairman of Cotton & Company LLP, Certified Public Accountants.
Cotton & Company is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. The firm was
founded in 1981 and has a practice concentration in assisting United States
Federal and State government agencies, inspectors general, and government
grantees and contractors with a variety of government program-related assurance
and advisory services. Cotton & Company has performed grant and contract,
indirect cost rate, financial statement, financial related, and performance
audits for more than two dozen Federal inspectors general (including the
Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement
Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security) as well as numerous
other Federal and State agencies and programs. Cotton & Company's Federal
agency audit clients have included the U.S. Government Accountability Office,
the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the
U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the U.S.
Marshals Service. Cotton & Company also assists numerous Federal agencies in
preparing financial statements and improving financial management and accounting
systems.
Dave received his BS in mechanical engineering (1971) and an MBA in
management science and labor relations (1972) from Lehigh University in
Bethlehem, PA. He also pursued graduate studies in accounting and auditing at
the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business (1977 to 1978). He is a
Certified Public Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner, and Certified Government
Financial Manager. Dave served on the Advisory Council on Government Auditing
Standards (the Council advises the United States Comptroller General on
promulgation of Government Auditing Standards-GAO's yellow book) from 2006 to
2009. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Academy for Government
Accountability.
He is also a member of the advisory board of the Institute for Truth in
Accounting. He served on the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Anti-Fraud
Programs and Controls Task Force and co-authored Managing the Business Risk of
Fraud: A Practical Guide. He served on the AICPA's Anti-Fraud Task Force and
co-authored Management Override: The Achilles Heel of Fraud Prevention. He is
the past-chairman of the AICPA Federal Accounting and Auditing Subcommittee and
has served on the AICPA Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee and the
Government Technical Standards Subcommittee of the AICPA Professional Ethics
Executive Committee. Dave served on the board of the Virginia Society of
Certified Public Accountants (VSCPA), and on the VSCPA Litigation Services
Committee, Professional Ethics Committee, Quality Review Committee, and
Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee. He is member of the Greater
Washington Society of CPAs (GWSCPA) and is serving on the GWSCPA Professional
Ethics Committee. He is a member of the Association of Government Accountants
(AGA) and is past-advisory board chairman and past-president of the AGA Northern
Virginia Chapter. He is also a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors and
the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Dave has testified as an expert in
governmental accounting and auditing issues and fraud issues before the United
States Court of Federal Claims and other administrative and judicial bodies.
Dave has also spoken frequently on professional ethics and auditors' fraud
detection responsibilities under SAS 99, Consideration of Fraud in a Financial
Statement Audit. He currently teaches at George Washington University (Fraud
Examination and Forensic Accounting), and the George Mason University Small
Business Development Center (Fundamentals of Accounting for Government
Contracts).
2004 GOVERNMENT CONFERENCE
Bert Nuehring, CPA, of PTW & Co., is responsible for planning, administering and supervising audit and management advisory service engagements for governmental and not-for-profit entities. In addition to auditing and accounting services, Mr. Nuehring's experience has included projects related to payroll outsourcing, rate and cost analysis and structure, cash flow forecasting, compliance analysis, debt restructuring, budgeting, federal program administration and tax increment financing.
Mr. Nuehring is also a member of the firms' tax review team of individual, corporate, partnership and not-for-profit returns. He has presented seminars to the Illinois CPA Society, the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), the Association of School Business Officials (ASBO), the Illinois Municipal Treasurers Association and the Illinois Chapter of CPA's for the Public Interest. Mr. Nuehring has also been a guest lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago on governmental and nonprofit accounting. Mr. Nuehring is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Illinois CPA Society (Chair, Governmental Report Review Task Force), the Government Finance Officers Association (Special Review Committee for the Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting), and the Association of School Business Officials (ASBO Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting by School Systems Panelist). Mr. Nuehring holds a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and Business Administration from Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa and is a certified public accountant.
David H.
Sinason is the PwC Professor of Accountancy, at Northern Illinois University
(NIU), teaching Auditing and Assurance Services including directing the NIU
Internal Audit program.
Dave has over 50 publications mostly in the areas of
assurance services, fraud prevention and detection, and auditor liability and is
the co-author of the Auditing and
Assurance Services, one of the leading auditing textbooks in the United
States. Dave is a question writer
and reviewer of the audit section of the CPA exam and a member of the Illinois
CPA Society’s Audit and Assurance Committee. He has received research and manuscript
awards from The Academy of Accounting and Finance, The International Consortium
of Government Financial Management, the Jacksonville Chapter of the Institute of
Management Accountants, North American Accounting Society, and the Mid-West and
Southeast Regions of the American Accounting Association. In 2003, Dave recieved
the excellence in undergraduate teaching awards from the Department of
Accountancy, the College of Business, and Northern Illinois University. In addition, Dave serves as the advisor
to the Student Accountancy Society and as a board member and treasurer for both
the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Congregation Beth Shalom.
Leita Hart-Fanta makes finance and auditing fun and easy. She converts the complex topics of accounting, finance, auditing, and strategic planning into information that professionals can absorb and use.
Leita is the author of the McGraw-Hill book, Accounting Demystified, The Four Principles of Happy Cash Flow, and STEP-by-STEP: Building a Persuasive Audit Report. She is the author of two CPE self-study manuals on cash flow and governmental accounting for Bisk Education and is working on two governmental auditing self-study manuals. She is the developer and facilitator of Texas State University's online curriculum for the Public Funds Investment Act.
During her five years with the Texas State Auditor's Office, she acted as both an auditor and a communications specialist. Leita led the team that produced a national-award-winning report summarizing the financial condition of the State.
Leita has owned and operated Leita Hart-Fanta, CPA, a training and professional development company, since 1995. She has conducted and developed courses on balanced scorecard management, audit supervision, financial analysis, budgeting, business writing, finance for non-financial managers, cash flow, presentation skills, government auditing standards, and client relations.
Leita's clients include EDS, Dell Computer, First Data Corporation, Joseph Eves CPAs, the Texas Society of CPAs, the National Association of State Auditor's, Comptrollers, and Treasurers, the University of Texas, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Steck Vaughn Publishers, the Texas State Auditor's Office, Broadwing, Inc., the Association of Government Accountants, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, The Alaska State Auditor, Western CPE, The Montana Society of CPAs, the Texas Department of Human Services, Great West Insurance, Valero Energy, USAA, the Louisiana Department of Transportation, Southwest Texas State University, The Minnesota Society of CPAs, the Arizona Society of CPAs, and the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services.
Leita is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor's in Business Administration. She is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Government Financial Manager. She serves on the conference planning committees of the local chapters of the Institute of Internal Auditors and the Texas Society of CPAs.
Jason L.
Franken, FSA, EA, MAAA
Mr. Franken is a consulting actuary with Foster & Foster, Inc.
in Oakbrook Terrace, IL.
Jason has 16 years of experience consulting employers
on a wide range of pension and postretirement welfare plan issues, including
statutory funding requirements, Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)
and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) accounting for pension and
postretirement medical plans, plan administration, experience studies and plan
design.
He has been
with Foster & Foster for five years. Prior to that, he spent over 11 years
with Hewitt Associates. His clients have ranged from small public entities to
large public plans and Fortune 500 companies.
Jason is a
Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Member of the American Academy of
Actuaries and is an Enrolled Actuary per ERISA. He earned a B.S. degree in
actuarial science from the University of Iowa.
Sean M.
Walker, CPA, CGFM,
CGMS
is CliftonLarsonAllen’s
Partner-in-Charge for the state and local government industry practice
group. This group is responsible
for delivering accounting, auditing, and consulting services to their
clients. He is a member of the
AICPA’s Governmental Audit Quality Center’s Executive Committee and a former
member of the State and Local Government Expert Panel. He service on the GFOA’s Special Review
Committee for the CAFR awards. He
lives in the Midwest and focuses his practice in Illinois and Wisconsin.