Speakers

David Bean, Governmental Accounting Standards Board
Friday, March 8, 2019, 8:30 am – 9:45 am

David R. Bean is the director of research and technical activities for the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. He assigns and provides oversight to the GASB’s research, technical, and administrative activities. 

Prior to joining the GASB in 1990, David worked in public accounting and government. He also has served as Deputy Chairman of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB). He was the lead author on the 1988 Governmental Accounting, Auditing and Financial Reporting and was the founder of the GAAFR Review. He was the last director of the National Council on Governmental Accounting before the formation of the GASB in 1984. 

David is a member of the Government Finance Officers Association, the Connecticut and Illinois Government Finance Officers Associations, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Illinois CPA Society, the Association of Government Accountants, the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, and the Municipal Analysts Group of New York. 

Rebecca Bloch, Fairfield University
Foundations of Teaching GNP
Friday, March 8, 2019, 4:00 pm–5:00 pm

Rebecca Bloch, Ph.D., CPA, is Chair and Associate Professor of Accounting at Fairfield University. She joined the Fairfield faculty in 2013 and has received awards for excellence in both teaching and research. Rebecca specializes in governmental and nonprofit accounting research, and she teaches a service-learning course in nonprofit accounting at Fairfield. Prior to her academic career, Rebecca worked as an auditor specializing in nonprofit and governmental entities, and as an Accounting Manager for a nonprofit organization, which fueled her interest in this area of research. Her research has been published in the Journal of Governmental and Nonprofit Accounting, Advances in Public Interest Accounting, the Municipal Finance Journal, Current Issues in Auditing, among others. Rebecca serves on the Executive Committee of the Governmental and Nonprofit Section of the American Accounting Association, and is currently the Education Committee Chair.

Peter Block, Ramirez & Company.
Perspectives on the Role of Governmental Accounting in Municipal Bond Analysis
Friday, March 8, 2019, 10:15 am - 11:30 am 

Peter Block is the Head of Credit and Market Strategy with 20+ years as a municipal credit and market analysis, with specialization in both general market and high yield municipals.

Peter previously served as Executive Director at Morgan Stanley Institutional Trading Desk, and as Director in Standard & Poor’s State and Local Governments, Public Power, and Tax-Exempt Housing Groups, and Sector Leader for Derivatives and Public Pensions.

Peter earned an MPA from Syracuse University Maxwell School of Public Affairs.

Thad Calabrese, New York University
Foundations of Teaching GNP
Friday, March 8, 2019, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Thad Calabrese studies public and nonprofit financial management, broadly focusing on the management and governance of public and not-for-profit organizations, as well as the institutions that affect managerial decision-making in these entities. His research has appeared in numerous nonprofit, accounting, public administration, and finance academic journals, and he is the co-author of three textbooks. Thad currently serves on the board of editors for Nonprofit Management & Leadership and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Thad is the director of the school's finance specialization, the current Treasurer for the Association for Research on Nonprofit and Voluntary Action, and is the Vice Chair for the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management (ABFM). He also serves on the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council representing ABFM. Prior to academia, Thad worked in the New York City Office of Management and Budget in tax policy and also as a financial consultant working with nonprofit organizations in New York City.

Rick Cole, Financial Accounting Standards Board
Friday, March 8, 2019, 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm

Rick Cole, Financial Accounting Standards Board FASB Update Friday, March 8, 2019, 1:00 pm–2:15 pm Rick Cole is a Supervising Project Manager at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). In that role, he provides oversight to projects involving not-for-Profit organizations (NFPs), consults on other projects affecting NFPs, and participates in some of the FASB’s broader outreach activities. He was the Supervising Project Manager on the FASB’s Financial Statements of Not-for-Profit Entities Accounting Standards Update (ASU), as well as a member of the project team for the FASB’s recently issued Revenue Recognition of Grants and Contracts by Not-for-Profit Entities (ASU). He is the project manager on the Financial Performance Reporting for business entities project.  Mr. Cole also is the coordinator for the FASB’s Not-for-Profit Advisory Committee and the Private Company Council.

Mr. Cole earned a B.S. and an M.B.A. from Montclair State University. He is a CPA in New York and New Jersey and is a member of the AICPA and the New York State Society of CPAs.

Susan Convery, Michigan State University
Friday, March 8, 2019, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Susan Convery, Michigan State University. Susan Convery has been a professor of practice at Michigan State University (MSU) since 2008, where she teaches intermediate financial and government and not-for-profit accounting.  She is a CPA and CMA, as well as an emeritus professor from Eastern Michigan University (EMU) where she was department head for six years.  Professor Convery earned her PhD and BA from MSU and MS from EMU. She has served as the AAA representative to the GASB and president of the AAA GNP section. Her current educational publications include Governmental and Not-for-Profit Accounting and Auditing (Cambridge), A Managerial Accounting Project: Gatsby Manufacturing, Inc.  (Armond-Dalton), and three chapters in Advanced Accounting (Cambridge). 

 
Kurt Gee, Financial Accounting Standards Board
Luncheon Moderator
Friday, March 8, 2019, 11:30 am–1:00 pm

Kurt Gee joined the FASB in July 2018 as its first postdoctoral academic fellow. As part of his year-long fellowship, he serves as a liaison between the accounting academic community and the FASB, working closely with FASB staff to incorporate relevant insights from academic research into the standard-setting process. 

An assistant professor of accounting at The Pennsylvania State University, Smeal College of Business (on leave for the duration of his fellowship), Mr. Gee conducts academic research on how companies communicate financial information to investors, with particular focus on qualitative
(i.e., textual) information and non-GAAP metrics. His research has been published in premier academic journals including the Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, and Contemporary Accounting Research. 

Mr. Gee received his Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Prior to studying at Stanford, Kurt graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, with a master’s degree in accountancy.

Russell Golden, Financial Accounting Standards Board
Luncheon Speaker
Friday Lunch, March 8, 2019, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Russell G. Golden began his term as the seventh chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on July 1, 2013, reappointed in 2016 to a second term that extends his chairmanship to June 30, 2020. He was originally named to the FASB in 2010, after serving six years on the FASB staff.

Mr. Golden brings to his role deep experience in technical accounting issues. From 2008 to September 2010, he was Technical Director of the FASB, overseeing FASB staff work on accounting standards and technical application and implementation activities. He also chaired the FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF). 

Previously, Mr. Golden was Director of Technical Application and Implementation Activities for the FASB. Appointed to that position in July 2007, Mr. Golden managed FASB activities relating to the application and implementation of accounting standards and other Board pronouncements. From 2004 until 2007, he served as a Senior Technical Advisor to the Board.

Before joining the FASB staff, Mr. Golden was a partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP in the National Office Accounting Services department. In that role, he was responsible for providing timely and accurate accounting consultations to partners and clients throughout the United States and around the world. 

Mr. Golden earned his Bachelor’s degree from Washington State University. He is a licensed CPA in the state of Connecticut.

Jeff Mechanick, Financial Accounting Standards Board
FASB Update
Friday, March 8, 2019, 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm

Jeff Mechanick is Assistant Director—Nonpublic Entities for the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). In that role, he provides strategic and technical oversight of all activities involving not-for-profit (NFP) organizations and private companies, chairs the FASB's NFP Advisory Committee , oversees support of the Private Company Council, and participates in some of the FASB’s broader outreach activities. He has also been the lead staff person for the AICPA/FAF/NASBA Blue-Ribbon Panel on Standard Setting for Private Companies and the FASB/IASB Financial Crisis Advisory Group, and is currently a member of the International Forum of Accounting Standard Setters' Working Group on NFP Issues.

Prior to joining the FASB in 2006, Mr. Mechanick spent a combined twenty years working in and with the NFP sector, as the chief financial officer of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., and before that, as a senior audit manager with KPMG, LLP. Mr. Mechanick earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biological sciences from The University of Chicago and an MBA in professional accounting from Rutgers  University. He is a member of the AICPA and the New York State Society of CPAs, and he has served on the AICPA’s NFP Expert Panel. He is also a lecturer at Columbia University's School of Professional Studies in their Non-Profit Management Program.

Dan Neely, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Foundations of Teaching GNP
Friday, March 8, 2019, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Dan is an associate professor of Accounting at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He received a BBA and a MPA degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and his PhD from the University of Houston. He is a certified public accountant (Texas).Dr. Neely worked in public accounting for several years before joining academia. Currently, he is active in professional associations and nonprofit organizations. In addition to teaching not-for-profit accounting, Dr. Neely serves on the Journal of Governmental and Nonprofit Accounting Editorial Board. He has served on the FASB NFP Financial Statements Project Resource Group and the FASB NFP Other Financial Communications Resource Group. Professor Neely has published articles in Contemporary Accounting Research; Journal of Accounting and Public Policy; Journal of Governmental and Nonprofit Accounting; Accounting Horizons; Issues in Accounting Education; Journal of Accounting Education; Nonprofit Voluntary Sector Quarterly; and Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management, among others. He is a co-author on the 18th edition of Accounting for Governmental & Nonprofit Entities.

Mandy Nelson, KPMG
Governmental Auditing
Friday, March 8, 2019, 2:45 pm – 4:00 pm

Mandy is a partner in KPMG's Department of Professional Practice and in her role issues guidance to KPMG offices on not-for-profit accounting, performing audits under Government Auditing Standards, and performing Single Audits. She serves as KPMG's liaison to federal agencies on Uniform Guidance Audit issues and other compliance audits for federal agencies. Mandy currently serves on and was the first chairman of the executive committee of the AICPA's Governmental Audit Quality Center (GAQC). She is reviewer of the annual OMB Compliance Supplement and serves on many informal task forces developing clarifications. Mandy is a former member of and the past chairman of the AICPA Expert Panel for not-for-profit organizations. During her time as chairman she oversaw the 2013 revision of the AICPA Audit and Accounting Guide, Not-for-Profit Organizations. Mandy is a member of GAO's Yellow recommends necessary changes. Mandy is also a Board member of the Association of International Certified Accountants (AICPA).

Terry Patton, Midwestern State University
Foundations of Teaching GNP
Friday, March 8, 2019, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Terry Patton, Ph.D., CPA, CGMA, CGFM, is the Robert Madera Distinguished Professor of Accounting and Chair of the Accounting, MIS, and Legal Studies Department in the Dillard College of Business Administration at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he teaches governmental accounting and auditing courses.  He is the author of numerous articles on governmental accounting; co-author of a governmental and nonprofit accounting textbook, Accounting for Governmental and Nonprofit Organizations, 1stEdition (Cambridge Business Publishers); and was co-author on PPC’s Guide to Governmental Financial Reporting Model:  Implementing GASBS No. 34. Dr. Patton serves on the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council representing AAA.  He serves as Chair of the United Regional Health Care System Board of Directors.  He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Dallas Better Business Bureau and the Wichita Falls Alliance for Arts and Culture.  Dr. Patton received his doctorate in accounting from Texas Tech University. Previously, Dr. Patton was the Research Manager at the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).  

Eden Perry, S&P Global Ratings
Perspectives on the Role of Governmental Accounting in Municipal Bond Analysis
Friday, March 8, 2019, 10:15 am - 11:30 am 

Eden Perry is the Head of U.S. Public Finance (USPF) at S&P Global Ratings. In this position, she is responsible for managing all the USPF sectors across the country. Her role includes ensuring analytical excellence across all sectors while executing operational efficiency.  

Prior to transitioning into this role, she was a Senior Director for the U.S. States Group where she managed the team, while being the primary analyst on the states of New York and Minnesota. Eden has published sector-wide reports on state pensions, debt derivatives, and debt statement analysis. In the past, Eden was a sector leader for the lease and federal lease, debt derivatives, and debt sector teams and contributed to criteria development within these sectors.

Eden is a boardmember of Northeast Women in Public Finance and a member of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts (NFMA). She is the Membership Chair and on the Board of Directors for the NFMA’s local affiliate the Municipal Analyst Group of New York (MAGNY). Eden is also the Secretary of the Board of ParentsNet and is actively involved in WINS; S&P Global employee resource groups.

Eden received a Bachelor’s degree in French from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. In 2000, she received a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Upon graduating, Eden was a volunteer in the United States Peace Corps in Morocco, specifically involved in maternal and child healthcare.

Jeff Previdi, Governmental Accounting Standards Board
Perspectives on the Role of Governmental Accounting in Municipal Bond Analysis
Friday, March 8, 2019, 10:15 am - 11:30 am

Jeffrey J. Previdi was appointed to serve as vice chairman of the GASB effective July 1, 2017. He began serving as a member of the GASB on July 1, 2016. Mr. Previdi’s first term concludes on June 30, 2021 and he is eligible for reappointment to a second term. Previously, Mr. Previdi served in a variety of roles for more than two decades at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, now known as S&P Global Ratings. Most recently he served as managing director and project leader in the agency’s risk program. In that role, he led a global team of individuals who analyzed and implemented rules stemming from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Prior to that role, Mr. Previdi was a municipal credit analyst with S&P for 20 years. Starting as a tax-exempt housing bond analyst, he progressed to leading S&P’s team covering municipal structured finance ratings, and then to co-leading the group responsible for all tax-backed ratings in the United States. Mr. Previdi also served on the U.S. Public Finance Criteria Committee for many years.

Mr. Previdi received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Connecticut College and a master of public policy degree from the College of William & Mary. He is a member of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.

Mr. Previdi’s current term on the GASB concludes in 2021. At that time, he will be eligible for reappointment to an additional term of five years.

Gilbert Southwell, Wells Capital Management
Perspectives on the Role of Governmental Accounting in Municipal Bond Analysis
Friday, March 8, 2019, 10:15 am - 11:30 am

Mr. Southwell is a Vice President and Senior Municipal Research Analyst with Wells Capital Management in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a municipal analyst, Mr. Southwell focuses on high-yield, structured/synthetic, land secured, affordable housing, special revenue, project finance, and municipal lease transactions. As a former restructuring and fixed income lawyer, Mr. Southwell handles the restructuring of municipal securities and municipal securities fraud litigation matters. Mr. Southwell has spoken at recent National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL) panels on municipal restructurings, primary market/continuing disclosure, and public pension disclosure; has spoken at recent National Federation of Municipal Analyst (NFMA) conferences on high yield municipal securities, expert reports/market studies, municipal workouts/restructurings and municipal indenture analysis; and has spoken on municipal leasing and the UCC-9 aspects of municipal bond financings. Mr. Southwell was a NFMA Board member (2015-2016), is the current chairperson of NFMA’s governmental accounting standards review committee, and has co-authored NFMA disclosure whitepapers involving charter schools, conflicts of interest, and new issue market practices. Mr. Southwell was the NFMA representative on the NABL public pension disclosure initiative in 2012. Mr. Southwell was a member of the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council representing NFMA, serving part of that time as an Executive Committee member.  Mr. Southwell has spoken at the California Bond Buyers Conference on expert reports. Mr. Southwell co-authored “The Role Of The Buy-Side Analyst In Distressed Situations” published in the Municipal Finance Journal (Fall 2010) and “Using And Evaluating Expert Work Product In Municipal Offerings” published by the Municipal Finance Journal (Winter 2018). Mr. Southwell is on the Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA) Wisconsin Advisory Committee. Lastly, Mr. Southwell was awarded the NFMA 2016 Meritorious Service Award for his industry advocacy on municipal disclosure.

David A. Vaudt, Chairman of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board
Luncheon Speaker
Friday Lunch, March 8, 2019, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm

David A. Vaudt was named chairman of the GASB effective July 1, 2013.  His term concludes on June 30, 2020.  Mr. Vaudt joined the GASB after serving 10 years as Iowa’s elected state auditor. In addition to auditing the state of Iowa, he was responsible for annually auditing more than 200 Iowa counties, cities, school districts, and other governmental subdivisions and providing guidelines to CPA firms performing local governmental audits. His distinguished service in this position earned him the “Iowans for Tax Relief Watchdog Award” in 2009.

Prior to his election, Mr. Vaudt worked for 25 years in the Des Moines, Iowa office of KPMG LLP, including 13 years as an audit partner. In 2001, he retired from the firm to pursue public office.

Mr. Vaudt served as chairman of the Iowa Accountancy Examining Board from 1995—2002. He also served 10 years on the board of directors of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and completed his term as chairman of NASBA in October of 2004. 

In addition, Mr. Vaudt served as president of the National State Auditors Association and on the boards of numerous nonprofit service organizations in Iowa. In 2004 and 2013 through 2018, he was named to Accounting Today’s annual list of the “100 Most Influential People in Accounting.”

Mr. Vaudt, a graduate of Upper Iowa University, is a certified public accountant.