2022 AFWA CPE Seminar Speakers
Register for this year’s event here!
Mark Brumbelow, CPA is a Principal of Tax Services with PYA. Mark has nearly two decades of experience assisting middle-market, private equity-backed, and public companies located across North America. His industry experience includes manufacturing, for-profit healthcare, construction and development, and transportation. He has supported clients on federal and multi-state tax compliance and consulting engagements, domestic tax reporting of both in-bound and out-bound international transactions, and has provided consultation and review of income tax provision calculations under ASC 740.
Alissa Sharp is the Business Development Officer for Bitwise Asset Management. Alissa has spent over a decade representing asset managers such as Deutsche Bank, First Trust, Janus Henderson and others. Professionally, she has covered an array of financial products, sectors and markets across the nation. Alissa is a DAC certified financial professional, currently focused on Crypto and Digital Assets.
Kimberly Bozich with Pinnacle Bank has 33 years of experience and serves as Senior Treasury Management Advisor. She is a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP). Kimberly began her career in financial services in 1990. She previously worked for SunTrust Bank, where she managed treasury management services in their East Tennessee and Chattanooga regions. Kimberly spent 15 years in private accounting and joined Pinnacle in 2007. She earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. Kimberly also served as past president on the East Tennessee Susan G. Komen Foundation board of directors and on the Bearden High School Parent Teacher Service Organization boar
Prior to joining the FBI in 2002, Duke Speed was an Accountant for the Walt Disney Company. His first FBI office was in McAllen, Texas, where he worked trans-national criminal enterprises, public corruption and White Collar Crime. In 2008, Duke transferred Knoxville, Tennessee and has worked White Collar Crime since 2008. During that time period, he was temporarily assigned as a Supervisory Special Agent at FBI Headquarters where he was a Program Manager over our covert operations. Duke has a BS in Accounting and a MBA and an active CPA license in Maryland.
Tim Phillips is a 1971 University of Missouri graduate with advanced training in Federal Tax Law and IRS Practice & Procedures from the Internal Revenue Service, 1971-1974. Tim began his career as a Revenue Agent of the Internal Revenue Service for sixteen (16) years, attained the position of Chief, Quality Review, Nashville District of the IRS before entering public accountancy in 1985. His over thirty (37) years of public accounting experience includes ten (10) years’ service as Director of Tax Services at the Knoxville office of Coopers & Lybrand, LLP, and Vice President-International Taxes, at Coulter & Justus, PC 1995-2014, before founding International Taxation Consultancy LLC in 2015.
Tim’s public accounting experience involves tax planning and compliance services for individuals, partnerships, trusts, estates, private and publicly held corporations, involving U.S. taxes (domestic and international), state and local taxes, representations (with Power of Attorney) in federal and state tax audits and appeals, and litigation support service as an expert witness.
Julie Wheeler, CPA has over thirty years of experience serving clients in such diversified fields as not-for-profit, associations, healthcare and governmental organizations, publicly-traded companies, retail / wholesale and ecommerce businesses. Julie supervises the majority of not-for-profit and Single Audit engagements for the firm and has extensive experience with technical accounting and auditing matters applicable to not-for-profit organizations as well as Single Audit compliance.
Diane L. Yetter is the “Sales Tax Nerd®” as well as a strategist, advisor, speaker and author in the field of sales and use tax. She is president of YETTER Tax, a sales tax consulting and tax technology firm. She is also the founder of The Sales Tax Institute, which offers live and online courses to educate business professionals about sales and use tax.
Diane works with clients of all sizes in a myriad of industries to deliver sales tax services ranging from tax technology to tax policy and planning and training. She also regularly partners with other advisors to help them serve their clients. Prior to founding the company in 1996, Diane was a tax professional for Arthur Andersen, Quaker Oats and the Kansas Department of Revenue.
Diane is a member of many tax organizations and is frequently asked to present to industry groups concerning sales and use tax issues on a local, state and national level. As an author, Diane has published three books and numerous articles concerning sales and use tax issues. She also is the author of the US Sales Tax Chapter for the IBFD VAT Worldwide Research Database. Diane was named in Accounting Today’s 100 Most Influential People in Accounting six times between 2011 and 2020. As an entrepreneur, she was honored as Woman Business Owner of the Year 2020 by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) Chicago Chapter. Her twitter handle, @SalesTaxInst is one of Forbes Top 100 Tax Twitter Handles for the 4th year in a row and @YetterTax is in the Accounting social media leaders.
Leslie Beale is the CEO and founder of Profusion Strategies, an executive and leadership development firm focused on helping mission critical leaders and teams deliver top-notch results. Leslie has twenty years of experience in building and leading teams and hundreds of hours of training and experience in coaching and developing leaders. Prior to launching Profusion Strategies, she spent fifteen years as an attorney and executive in a variety of settings, including international corporations, large regional law firms, and high-growth start-ups. She draws on her first-hand experience, as well as her extensive training as a professional coach, facilitator, and trainer to help clients develop strategies to face their biggest professional challenges.
Jason D. McCarter, CPA; currently works as the Financial Controller for Mastermelt America in Sweetwater, TN. Mastermelt America is part of the Mastermelt Group of Companies specializing in the recovery of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and other precious metals from a variety of sources from spent diesel catalysts to jet turbine engines with operations in London, England; Buxton, England; Sweetwater, Tennessee; Terrell, Texas and Singapore.
Abhijit Verekar, the Founder & CEO of Avèro Advisors, is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with 15 years of experience serving the public sector as an IT advisory professional. He has extensive experience leading IT and organizational modernization initiatives with State and Local government and housing agencies across the United States. Over the years, he has helped his clients achieve significant efficiencies through IT strategic planning, cybersecurity, business process redesign, project management & implementation, and general advisory & stewardship when dealing with substantial organizational and technological changes (e.g., software system implementation project management).
Victoria Senninger is the Area Sales Executive for East Tennessee with ADP. She has been with ADP for 11 years and works specifically with the accounting community in order to help clients with strategic solutions for payroll, HR, and benefits. Victoria also manages a team of ADP representatives in both Knoxville and Chattanooga.
As a leader of Kennerly Montgomery’s pension and employee benefits practice, Kathy D. Aslinger assists public and private employers, plan fiduciaries, trustees, third party administrators, and advisors maneuver through the complex world of employee benefit plan design, implementation, and compliance. Additionally, she uses her experience and knowledge to assist companies in the following areas: due diligence and benefit considerations during merger and acquisitions; controlled group and affiliated service group analysis; executive compensation; audits; fiduciary liability issues; multiple employer and multiemployer benefit plan issues; DOL and IRS compliance; HIPAA; COBRA; ERISA and state law obligations; and Affordable Care Act compliance.
Rhett Gagon is Vice President of Cost Segregation Authority. Rhett has worked on thousands of cost segregation projects valuing hundreds of millions in commercial and rental property alike, saving clients hundreds of millions in taxes each year. Rhett holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brigham Young University. He is an active member of CalCPA, and is enthusiastically involved with two statewide committees for the same. When not at work Rhett enjoys spending his time being active with his wife and 5 children, especially when able to do so outdoors.