Employee Benefit Plans Conference

Alan D. Ross, CPA

Alan D. Ross, CPA is the founder and President of Alan Ross & Company, PC, which is a CPA firm located in Reading, Pennsylvania.  He is a 1978 graduate of Albright College, where he earned his BS in Accounting. He is a member of the adjunct faculty of Albright College, where he teaches accounting and auditing courses. 

In 1985, he founded Alan Ross & Company, PC, where he provides a wide range of accounting, auditing and tax related services for a variety of employee benefit plan clients.  He currently provides auditing services for a number of employee benefit plans, including very large plans with thousands of participants.  His firm provides consulting services relative to the design and formation of employee benefit plans, as well as administrative services and compliance services in connection with administering small plans for closely held companies. They also provide auditing services for large plans, including 401(k) Plans, Defined Benefit Pension Plans, Defined Contribution Retirement Plans (including money purchase and profit sharing plans), and a variety of Health and Welfare Plans. Alan Ross & Company, PC provides services for single employer plans and multiemployer plans. 

Mr. Ross serves as an instructor who teaches Continuing Educational Courses for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.  He currently teaches the courses Employee Benefit Plans Audit and Accounting Essentials, Audits of Defined Contribution Plans and Audits of 401(K) Plans. He has taught these courses for state societies throughout the country. He has been recognized by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants as an authority in this specialized area of practice, and was appointed as a member of the AICPA Employee Benefit Plans Expert Panel in 2003.  He currently serves as a member of the PICPA Employee Benefit Plan Committee.  He also recently served on an AICPA task force to draft a primer on multiemployer plans. Mr Ross has also been identified as one of the top AICPA instructors in 2016.

Roland J. O’Brien, CPA
Director, Quality Control
Novak Francella LLC

Roland J. O’Brien has over 25 years of accounting experience with local, regional, and national public accounting firms. He has been responsible for all areas related to the audits and reviews of single employer, multiemployer, and multiple-employer sponsored plans, including employee benefits, qualified retirement, health and welfare, and fringe benefits plans.

In 2007, Roland was the founder of the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs (“PICPA”) Employee Benefit Plan (“EBP”) Committee and was instrumental in creating the annual PICPA Employee Benefit Plans Conference.

Roland has been responsible for creating and presenting technical training programs at the national, regional, and local level, as well as providing quality assurance services, including national EBP quality inspections. Roland is a frequent speaker on various technical issues for industry and professional organizations.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
AICPA Emerging Industries and Risk Areas Taskforce
AICPA Practice Monitoring Task Force – Employee Benefit Plans

Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Founding Member and Chair (2007-2010), PICPA Employee Benefit
Plans Committee 2007-current
PICPA Employee Benefit Plans Technical Subcommittee
PICPA Employee Benefit Plans Conference Subcommittee
PICPA Ethics Committee 2011-2012, Chair 2013-2014

EDUCATION
B.A., M.A., Bob Jones University

Post-graduate studies:
Temple University 
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Feb 2018

Mark G. Metzler, CPA
Partner in Charge of Employee Benefit Plan Practice
Kreischer Miller

Mark Metzler has over 25 years of audit and accounting experience, including
time with KPMG as well as in industry. Although he has a wide range of
experience providing business advisory, audit, and accounting services to a
variety of businesses, Mark’s primary area of expertise involves employee
benefit plans, where he leads the firm’s practice area. In this regard, he works
with sponsors of single employer, multiple employer, and multi-employer
plans, including defined contribution and defined benefit plans, ESOPs, and
health and welfare plans.
Mark is responsible for developing and presenting the firm’s employee
benefit plan technical training and is the firm’s liaison to the AICPA’s
Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center. He has written articles for
various publications and has served as a speaker for a variety of professional
and industry organizations.

Deborah A. Schneider, CPA
Director of Accounting and Assurance Services

Debbie is a director in the accounting and assurance practice area at Morris J. Cohen & Co. Throughout her career, Debbie has performed financial statement audits, reviews, compilations and tax services for companies ranging from pre-revenue startups to multi-entity operations. She has experience with manufacturing, construction, software development, wholesale distribution and not-for-profit entities with a concentration in employee benefit plans.

JulieAnn C. Verrekia, CPA

Independent Contractor

American Institute of CPAs

Torrillo & Associates LLC

JulieAnn Verrekia has over twenty five years of experience in accounting and auditing specializing in employee benefit plans. Julie is the Director of Quality Control for Torrillo and Associates, LLC, a Philadelphia area public accounting firm that provides assurance and valuation services specializing in audits of employee benefit plans.
Julie also currently assists the AICPA in the development and update of various employee benefit plan publications.
Julie is a former Managing Director of the employee benefit plan practice in the Philadelphia office of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) LLP. Her responsibilities included serving Fortune 500 clients as well as major financial services firms. She also was responsible for employee benefit plan quality issues for the southeast region of PwC and was a key member of a team of national office employee benefit plan specialists who oversaw the development of practice aids and training for the entire firm. Julie also has experience with SSAE 16 engagements.
Julie received her Bachelor of Science degree in accounting, summa cum laude, from Widener University. She is a certified public accountant in the State of Pennsylvania and is a member of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA). Julie was appointed to the Employee Benefit Plan Committee of the PICPA in 2009.

Richard F. Fischer, CPA, CGMA
Partner
Louis Plung & Company LLP

Rich is the Partner-in-Charge of the Accounting and Auditing Department of Louis Plung & Company. He has more than 27 years of experience in audits, reviews, compilations, and internal control engagements in the public, private, non-profit and governmental sectors. His clients range in size from start-up companies to multi-billion dollar corporations. His extensive industry experience includes real estate, manufacturing, construction, communication, wholesale distributors, and retail. Rich joined Louis Plung in 1999, and previously had worked for two of the “Big Four” accounting firms.

In addition to the above industries, Rich specializes in employee benefit plan audits, which includes financial statement audits, reviews, and compilations, as well as service organization examinations. In addition to providing the traditional employee benefit plan accounting and audit services, he has worked with clients to successfully negotiate with the Department of Labor on matters related to their plan.

Rich also assists public companies in addressing and resolving comments related to their accounting positions or financial disclosure-related issues raised by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In his role as Technical Review Partner, Rich is responsible for ensuring that all financial statements the Firm issues are in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles, and he assesses the impact of new accounting and auditing pronouncements on clients. Rich frequently develops training materials and conducts seminars for clients and the Firm on new accounting and auditing pronouncements, and on hot topics related to accounting, auditing and financial reporting.

Community Involvement and Professional Associations
• Approved Peer Reviewer (AICPA)
• Chair, Construction Committee (PICPA)
• Chair, Technical Committee of the Employee Benefits Plan Committee (PICPA)
• Member, Peer Review Committee (PICPA)
• Member, Accounting and Auditing Procedures Committee (PICPA)

Krista A. Showers, CPA, MBA, CEBS
Partner
Trout Ebersole & Groff LLP

Krista joined Trout, Ebersole & Groff, LLP after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree (magna cum laude) in Accounting and Economics/Business Administration with a Certificate of Management from Immaculata College. In addition, she has received a Master of Business Administration degree from Lebanon Valley College.
As a professional, Krista is responsible for the Single Audits of all the firm’s local educational agencies and other local governments. She is chair of the firm’s Employee Benefit Plans Practice Group and serves on the firm’s Governmental Practice Group and Quality Control Committee.
Krista is actively involved with the Lancaster Day Care Center as President and is a member of the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists and Immaculata University Business Advisory Board.
Recently, Krista was one of 25 women selected to receive the 2013
Central Penn Business Journal’s “Women of Influence” award in recognition of her outstanding leadership, integrity, and accomplishments.
Krista enjoys the arts and travel. She lives in Lancaster County with her family.

David A. Torrillo, CPA/ABV, CVA
Managing Member
Torrillo & Associates LLC

David A. Torrillo, CPA/ABV, CVA, is the managing member of Torrillo & Associates, LLC, a local public accounting firm which specializes in the audits of employee benefit plans. Dave oversees the accounting, auditing, and valuation services for the firm. Formerly a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Dave has over twenty-five years of accounting, auditing, and financial reporting experience, primarily in employee benefit plans. Dave also volunteers on several committees, boards, and associations. He has instructed courses and authored papers on several accounting topics, and also performs quality control reviews. Dave currently serves on the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants Employee Benefit Plans Committee, as well as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Employee Benefit Plans Expert Panel.

Dave received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting with highest distinction and honors from Pennsylvania State University. He has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1994 and is licensed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and New York. Dave has been a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) since 2004 and was awarded the Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) credential by the AICPA in 2006. He is a member of both the American and Pennsylvania Institutes of Certified Public Accountants, as well as the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts. In 2016, Dave received the Advanced Defined Benefit Plans and the Advanced Defined Contribution Plans Audit Certificates from the AICPA.

Feb 2018

Allison M. Henry, CPA
Vice President, Professional & Technical Standards
PICPA

Allison is presently the Vice President - Professional & Technical Standards for Pennsylvania Institute of CPA’s (PICPA) where she is responsible for overseeing the administration of the AICPA’s Peer Review Program in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands. She also administers PICPA’s Joint Ethics Enforcement Program with the AICPA, and serves as the technical staff liaison to seven state-wide committees and two newly-created task forces; specifically, the Peer Review, Professional Ethics, Accounting and Auditing Procedures, Forensic and Litigation Services, Business Valuation, Not-for-Profit and Employee Benefit Plan Committees and the Healthcare Reform and Marcellus Shale Task Forces. In addition, she fields technical inquiries, writes columns for the CPA Journal and Pursuit publications, provides technical updates at PICPA chapter events, and assists in writing responses to technical exposure drafts.

Allison has been in the profession for about twenty years, including twelve years in public accounting and over eight years with PICPA. Her public accounting experience consists of several years as senior manager with a regional accounting firm and nine years at Deloitte & Touche, LLP, where she worked in their assurance and advisory services group. Her diverse client service experience includes many not-for-profit, healthcare, and world relief organizations, as well as small and large manufacturing, distribution, and other service-oriented entities. She has also served as the designated employee benefits specialist. Prior to her experience with Deloitte, she spent four years in internal accounting positions including the Department of Defense, while her husband was serving on active duty with the U.S. Army.

Allison is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and holds an accounting equivalency from the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She is also a member of Washington Crossing United Methodist Church, where she serves on the financial accountability team, and volunteers for the children’s ministry. She is a native of St. Louis, Mo. and is an avid runner.

Jill E. Gilbert, CPA
Partner
Trout Ebersole & Groff LLP

Jill joined Trout, Ebersole & Groff, LLP after  graduating from Elizabethtown College  with  a Bachelor of Science degree  in Business Administration with  concentrations in Accounting and Finance, and
a math  minor. As a partner,Jill is chair of the firm's Governmental Practice Group and serves on the Employee Benefits  Practice Group. She also serves on the firm's Business Development Committee, Audit  Efficiency Committee, and Quality  Control Committee.

As a professional, Jill is often called upon to speak at various conferences and workshops on both the state and local levels.

Jill is also an active member of the community. She is a member  of the Elizabethtown Rotary Club and the vice-chairman of the Elizabethtown Fire Company  Endowment  Fund.

Jill enjoys activities with  her family, golf, reading, and the beach. She lives in Elizabethtown with  her husband  and two children.

Carolyn M. BryNildsen, CPA, CFE
Senior Manager, Accounting & Auditing Services
Herbein + Company Inc.

Carolyn M. BryNildsen, CPA, CFE joined Herbein in 2003 and is a senior manager in the accounting and auditing department. Carolyn works with a variety of clients including manufacturing, service, and financial institutions. She is also extremely active with the firm’s employee benefit plan audit group.

Prior to Herbein, Carolyn worked in the finance industry. Her experience has helped her become a key member of the Financial Institution Service Team. She provides asset based lending services, audit services and various consulting services to financial institutions.

Roman Leshak, Jr., CPA
Director, Audit & Accounting
Employee Benefit Plans Specialty Area Leader

Roman specializes in employee benefit plan engagements and has a wide range of experience providing audit and advisory services to all types of retirement plans including defined contribution and defined benefit plans, ESOPs, multi-employer plans and health and welfare plans. He has worked with small single employer plans, large corporations with multiple types of plans, and large multi-employer plans. Roman also educates plan fiduciaries and plan administrators to help them understand their responsibilities and he provides assistance with plan compliance issues and best practice recommendations. He is responsible for developing and providing firm wide training in the employee benefit plan area and attends both national and local conferences.

Background

Roman joined Kreischer Miller in 2004. Prior to joining Kreischer Miller, he worked as a senior accountant at a local public accounting firm, where he provided accounting, audit, and tax services for a diversified client base of closely-held companies and employee benefit plans. He also served as accounting manager at SunGard, the largest privately held software and services company headquartered in Wayne, PA.

Professional and Business Affiliations

• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants – Member, member of the Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center
• Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants – Member, member of the Employee Benefits Plan Committee

Education and Certifications

• Certified Public Accountant in Pennsylvania
• B.S. – Accounting, Shippensburg University

Jennifer Rhea, CPA
Senior Manager

An assurance senior manager, Jennifer has been a member of the Baker Tilly team for over fifteen years and is heavily involved in the employee benefits plan practice.  Jennifer’s involvement includes scheduling team members to complete engagements, coaching and mentoring team members throughout the engagements, and reviewing engagement workpapers, financial statements, and IRS Form 5500. Jennifer has extensive expertise in defined contribution (including 403(b) plans), defined benefit, employee stock ownership, and health and welfare audits.   Jennifer is a member of the Industry Centers of Excellence- Technical Committee for employee benefit plans which works closely with the practice leader and assists in the development of the firm’s annual training and best practices. In addition Jennifer is considered a technical resource for the employee benefit plan practice group.

Jennifer is a graduate of the firm’s leadership development program.  Team members chosen to participate in this three year program explore the characteristics that established leaders leverage to create organizational cultures that attract and retain key talent.  Jennifer was also a recipient of the 2009 40 under 40: PICPA Members to Watch.

Melissa M. Wolf, CPA, Senior Manager
Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP

An assurance senior manager, Melissa is a leader of our northern Pennsylvania region’s employee benefit plan practice. Melissa’s responsibilities include the coordination and completion of all audits and preparation and review of IRS Form 5500. Her areas of expertise include employee stock ownership, defined contribution, defined benefit and health and welfare plan auditing. In addition, she is the firm specialist for Form 5500. Melissa conducts both internal and external education regarding this practice line.

Melissa is a graduate of the firm's leadership development program.  Team members chosen to participate in this three year program explore the characteristics that established leaders leverage to create organizational cultures that attract and retain key talent. She is also a 2010 graduate of Leadership Wilkes-Barre, where she currently serves as Treasurer of the Board of Directors, and was the recipient of the 2010 40 under 40: PICPA Members to Watch. More recently, Melissa has participated in the La Salle University 2014 Women’s Leadership Conference.

JoAnn Szupka, CPA
Assurance Manager, Employee Benefit Plan Specialist
BDO USA LLP

Joanne has over 15 years of accounting experience with regional and national public accounting firms in the areas of employee benefit plans. She has been responsible for all areas related to audits and reviews of single employer, multiemployer and multiple-employer sponsored plans, including defined benefit, defined contribution, 403(b), ESOP and health and welfare benefit plans.
Joanne is a Local Office Coordinator for BDO’s National Employee Benefit Plan Team. She is a member of the National Employee Benefit Plan Team and is involved with national and local training.
She is also the BDO Counts Coordinator and Local Champion for the Women’s Initiative. Joanne is responsible for events under both programs that challenge the office while promoting the significance of the programs and growth of employees.

Lori A. Rider

Employee Plans Specialist

IRS Tax Exempt/Government Entities Division

Mr. MacKay is responsible for directing the Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center; monitoring Federal government activities (other than tax and governmental accounting) and communicating issues to AICPA members, providing technical assistance on federal legislation; liaising with Federal government agencies on audit and accounting matters, and monitoring and commenting on proposed regulation.

TONY CHAPMAN
CPA, CITP, PARTNER AND SOC SERVICES PRACTICE LEADER
SOC Practice Leader for the Firm, is designated as a SOC 1SM and SOC 2SM specialist by
the Oversight Task Force of the AICPA Peer Review Board.
30 years of experience and is one of the Firm’s leading internal control assessment
specialists
Concentrates his practice in the areas of Service Audits and Internal Control Consulting
Extensive experience with the following industries:
Investment Custodians and other service providers
Government Programs
Telecommunications and other Utilities
Technology
Third Party Administrators
Healthcare
Financial Services
Application Development & Data Hosting Services
Communications
Insurance
Payroll, third party administration
SaaS Providers
▪ Development of extensive expertise in assessing internal control effectiveness
▪ Serves as a “Firm on Firm” and AICPA peer reviewer for SOCSM Audit engagements

Ben Hall, VP & Managing Director, JKJ Retirement Services
Ben began his career in financial services in 1999, where he worked for 5 years in the practice that today is branded as JKJ Financial Services.  Ben re-joined JKJ in 2013 to head the JKJ Retirement Services (“JKJRS”) practice, and became a partner in the firm in 2014.
In leading JKJRS, Ben remains laser-focused on employer-sponsored retirement programs, with breadth of knowledge across multiple plan types.  He leads the firm initiatives around plan design strategy, participant education, investment review analytics, vendor selection, cost benchmarking & fee negotiation, and ultimate account oversight & advocacy, operating as a fee-based co-fiduciary.
In the decade from 2003 through 2013, he held positions of ever increasing responsibility for a pair of Fortune 500 financial services firms.  Most recently, prior to re-joining JKJ, he completed a successful & fulfilling tenure with The Principal Financial Group, where he served as Regional VP responsible for the oversight of all executive benefit & nonqualified deferred compensation endeavors in the mid-Atlantic & northeastern regions.
Ben graduated from Swarthmore College with a B.S. in Engineering, and went on to complete his MBA at Villanova University.  He has continued his professional education by earning his Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF®), Charted Financial Consultant (ChFC), and Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU).  He lives in Wallingford with his wife & 2 daughters both under the age of 5.

Joseph F. Hicks, Jr., FCA, MAAA, EA, MSPA

Since 1994, Joe has been assisting clients design, administer, fund, and communicate employee benefit plans.  He currently consults and provides actuarial services to a number of clients, with a focus on multiemployer pension plans.  His most recent assignments include asset/liability projections and retirement plan redesign studies.  Joe specializes in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 compliance, withdrawal liability calculations, and funding strategies/projections for multiemployer funds.

Joe is the Multiemployer Practice Leader at Savitz, overseeing all aspects of the practice and its staff.  He is also a member of the American Academy of Actuaries Multiemployer Plans Subcommittee and is currently pursuing the Society of Actuaries’ Fellowship designation.

Before joining Savitz in 2004, Joe was an assistant vice president for a national actuarial consulting firm where his primary responsibilities included providing valuation and other actuarial consulting services as account manager, actuary, and consultant to a variety of clients.  He was also Training Director and a member of the National Valuation Report Task Force where he oversaw the development of the proprietary pension valuation system.

Joe frequently presents at the Enrolled Actuaries Meeting, the Society of Actuaries Meeting, the Conference of Consulting Actuaries Meeting, and the IFEBP Meeting.  He also co-authored an article on Reorganization for the Journal of Pension Benefits.

Anurag Sharma, CISA, CISSP, CRISC, MBA
Principal, Team Leader, Cyber and Information Security and System and Organization Controls
Withum, Inc.

Mr. Sharma is a principal in the Cyber and Information Security Services practice for the firm. He was selected by the AICPA to write and present the first ever education program for "Reporting on an
Entities Cybersecurity Risk Management Program and Controls" to cybersecurity professionals obtaining SOC for Cybersecurity certification. This Program is the first of its kind, and as  the author and presenter, Anurag is one of the first in the U.S. to become certified. He is designated as a SOC 1 and SOC 2 specialist by the Oversight Task Force of the AICPA Peer Review Board. He has more than 18 years of professional experience in risk assessment and information security consultancy, information technology and compliance audits, NIST cybersecurity assessments, service organization controls audits,establishing IT controls framework, Sarbanes-Oxley 404 compliance, COSO framework and CobiT controls. He has written a number of articles on cybersecurity and SOC topics and regularly speaks and presents on
cybersecurity and SOC topics.
 
He has a Master of Business Administration in Information Systems and a Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering. He is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
as well as  Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and is also Certified in Risk and Information
Systems Controls (CRISC). He is an AICPA Oversight Task Force SOC Specialist.