Speakers

Susan Crosson
Director for the Center of Advancing Accounting in Education

Susan Crosson joined the American Accounting Association in 2015 as its first Director of the Center for Advancing Accounting Education. Prior to coming to the American Accounting Association, Susan served on the faculties of Emory University, Santa Fe College, University of Florida, Washington University in Saint Louis, University of Oklahoma, Johnson County Community College, and Kansas City Kansas Community College and worked in public accounting, banking, and higher education administration. Susan continues to be guided by her mission to create a learning process as individual as each student requires to master the course content and actively apply with confidence what's learned. She is pleased to be able to speak and write on the effective use of technology throughout the accounting curriculum. In addition to her over 300 YouTube videos, she has co-authored several accounting textbooks. Susan earned her Master of Science in Accounting from Texas Tech University and her undergraduate degree in accounting and economics from Southern Methodist University. She is a CPA.

Paul Stebbins
Chairman Emeritus, World Fuel Services Corporation (NYSE:INT)

Mr. Stebbins, a graduate of Georgetown University, served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of World Fuel Services Corporation (NYSE:INT) from July, 2002 to January 2012 and became Executive Chairman in January of 2012. In May of 2014, he retired as Chairman Emeritus and serves as a member of the board of directors. A life long entrepreneur, he and his partner, Mike Kasbar, founded Trans-Tec Services in New York, in 1985 and sold their company to World Fuel in 1995. Today World Fuel has 107 offices in 36 countries and was ranked 74 on the 2013 Fortune 500.

Mr. Stebbins also serves as a director of Phoenix, Arizona-based, First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR), the world's leading manufacturer of thin film solar panels. He served for many years as a member of the Business Round Table, an influential association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies and currently serves on the Leadership Council of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's "Fix the Debt" campaign, the Energy Security Leadership Council of S.A.F.E. (Securing America’s Future Energy) and the Florida Council of 100, a business leadership group focused on public policy to support long term sustainable growth in Florida. He is a member of the board of trustees of Amigos de las Americas, a youth leadership development program headquartered in Houston, Texas and the New World Symphony, a world renowned orchestral academy based in Miami, Florida and founded / directed by Michael Tilson Thomas.

Mr. Stebbins has authored numerous industry articles and lectured frequently around the world on fuel procurement strategy, derivatives, fuel quality, entrepreneurship and general business. More recently he has given numerous talks around the country on the national debt and the challenges of political dysfunction. He was a participant in the Herbert A. Wertheim lecture series at Florida International University’s Graduate School of Business.

Hughlene Burton
AAA Past Council Chair, University of North Carolina-Charlotte

Hughlene Burton, is Past Council-Chair of the American Accounting Association (2015-16).  She is a Certified Public Accountant, and joined the Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina Charlotte in 1996 from San Jose State University. Before her career in academia, she was a tax manager with Ernst & Young in Charlotte and Greensboro, N.C. Dr. Burton has taught tax courses for numerous professional groups. Her research interests include corporate integration, tax policy, and corporate and international tax issues. Dr. Burton is a member of the American Accounting Association, the American Taxation Association and the tax division of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She currently serves on the Partnership Taxation Tax Resource Panel for the AICPA. She has published numerous articles in tax and legal journals. Dr. Burton is currently serving as Chair for the Accounting Department.

Alex Casas
Supervising Project Manager, FASB

Alex Casas joined the research and technical activities staff of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in September 2014. As a Supervising Project Manager, Alex is responsible for leading projects that analyze technical accounting issues and recommend solutions that contemplate the needs of financial statement users and the related implementation considerations.
Alex has 14 years of financial services industry experience in the banking and insurance sectors. Before joining the FASB staff, Alex was Vice President and Director of Global Accounting Policy for State Street Corporation in Boston. As the global head of accounting policy for a systemically important financial institution, Alex led a team of accounting professionals advising on a wide range of complex transactions, new product developments and other strategic initiatives, as well as implementing new accounting standards across the organization. Prior to joining State Street, Alex held accounting policy roles in the insurance sector at The Hartford Financial Services Group and MassMutual Financial Group, and began his career in public accounting at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Alex holds a CPA license in the state of Massachusetts, and graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Business Administration magna cum laude.