Deadlines
School of Accountancy Conference 2018
Presenters
W. Steve Albrecht is a Professor Emeritus in the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University. Dr. Albrecht, a certified public accountant (CPA), certified internal auditor (CIA), and certified fraud examiner (CFE), came to BYU after teaching at Stanford and the University of Illinois. Earlier, he worked for Deloitte. Dr. Albrecht is married to the former LeAnn Christiansen of Waukesha, Wisconsin and they have six children (five sons and one daughter) and twenty-seven grandchildren. Dr. Albrecht has held numerous leadership and volunteer positions in his church and the community.
Weston Coulam is a member of Ernst & Young’s Washington Council Ernst & Young practice where he represents clients before Congress and the Administration and provides services related to a broad range of policy areas, including financial services, corporate taxation, employee benefits, pass-through taxation and energy tax issues. Wes received a B.S from the University of Maryland University College and an MBA from The George Washington University.
Jodie Hewitson is a Tax Partner with Tanner LLC. She spent over 10 years with Deloitte before joining Tanner’s tax team in 2007 bringing extensive experience in all phases of tax consulting and compliance. Jodie is a cum laude graduate of the University of Utah where she received both a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and a Masters of Professional Accountancy (Tax Emphasis). In 2012, Utah Business recognized Jodie as one of “30 Women to Watch” and in 2014 named her as one of Utah’s “Forty under 40”. Jodie is married and has two daughters, and in her spare time likes to travel and keep up on the latest movies.
Chad Lewis played football in the NFL for nine years with the Philadelphia Eagles and the St. Louis Rams. He currently works as the Associate Athletic Director/Development at BYU where he is responsible for fundraising, Cougar Club trips and serves as a member of the athletic Senior Leadership Council. Chad is married to Michele Fellows and they have seven beautiful children.
Mrinal Manohar is a Venture partner with Reflective ventures. He has been personally investing in the crypto space for 6 years now. Prior to this, he was a principal and the Technology/Media/Telecom sector head at a ~$1b long-only hedge fund. Prior to that he was a private equity associate at Bain Capital in Boston and was an associate consultant at Bain and Company in Boston. He has an MS from Carnegie Mellon University and has been passionate about computer science since he began programming at age 11.
Jeff Pickett is CEO and founder of Connor Group, a specialized global IPO services firm in technical accounting and financial operations.
Jeff also co-founded Leeyo Software and pioneered the market’s first fully automated revenue recognition solution. Jeff served as Leeyo’s chairman from founding until its successful sale to Zuora in 2017.
He is a frequent presenter at nationwide seminars and expert panels, a contributor to published accounting articles and a guest lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
Originally from Silicon Valley, Jeff graduated in Accounting from BYU and started his career with E&Y in Palo Alto. He and his family now reside in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Reno-Tahoe region.
Joseph P. Price is a Fellow at the Wheatley Institution and an Associate Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University in 2007. Dr. Price manages a large research lab at BYU that includes more than 60 undergraduate research assistants. While at BYU, he has mentored over 300 research assistants and coauthored academic publications with 14 undergraduate students. Current projects include examining the importance of mother-child reading, the impact of marriage on poverty, mismatches in the marriage market, the prevalence of marriage penalties in US welfare policies, adoption placement rates in the US, and the link between marriage and mortality. He and his wife, Emily, are the parents of seven children (4 boys and 3 girls) and try to read as much to their seventh child as they did with their first.
Alan Rudd is the Founder and President of the Beit Lehi Foundation. Established in 2009, the Beit Lehi Foundation funds the excavation and preservation of the Beit Lehi Archaeological site located 20 miles south of Jerusalem.
Alan earned his B.S. degree from Brigham Young University and his Juris Doctorate. from J. Ruben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. He is a member of both the Utah and Illinois Bar Associations and was is a licensed and practicing member of the United States Supreme Court Bar.
Mr. Rudd has twice been recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young LLP., first in 1997 as CEO of Vinca and again in 2004 for his leadership as co-founder and CEO of Arkona, a publicly traded company. Both companies were acquired during his tenure as CEO, resulting in significant, positive returns to their respective shareholders.
Kecia Williams Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). She holds degrees from North Carolina A&T State University and Texas A&M University, where she completed her PhD in June 2016. Dr. Smith’s research interests include audit regulation, audit quality, audit market structure, and auditor judgment and decision-making. Dr. Smith currently serves as an American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Inclusion Champion which focuses on promoting diversity and inclusion in the accounting profession. She is also a member of The PhD Project Faculty Alumni Association which advocates for diversity in collegiate business schools.
Kevin is an astute and trusted advisor experienced across a range of roles including venture capital, business development, and financial modeling. Kevin started his career as an analyst at Moody's Investor service where he focused on financial analysis and risk management. He then partnered with a team of tech executives and scientists to form Q-Bank Group, a fund with an investment mandate focused on the commercialization of intellectual property (Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience).
Kevin became an investor in blockchain related projects in 2013 and serendipitously learned about RChain on Twitter from RChain board member Vlad Zamfir. Today, Kevin is a member of RChain’s Executive and Governance Committees.