Speakers

CEO

Great Place to Work

Michael C. Bush is CEO of Great Place to Work, the global research and analytics firm that produces the annual Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, the World’s Best Workplaces list, the 100 Best Workplaces for Women list, the Best Workplaces for Diversity list, and dozens of other distinguished workplace rankings around the world. Driven by a love of business and an unwavering commitment to fair and equitable treatment, Bush joined Great Place to Work as CEO in 2015, bringing 30 years of experience leading and growing organizations. This includes serving as CEO of Tetra Tech Communications, which he grew from $40 million to $300 million in revenue. Bush is a former member of President Obama’s White House Business Council and a founding board member of the private equity seed-fund, Fund Good Jobs, which invests in small inner-city businesses.

#1 New York Times Best-selling Author

Award-winning Former ABC News Anchor

Dan Harris is the former co-anchor for the weekend edition of Good Morning America on ABC News, as well as a former correspondent for such broadcasts as Nightline and World News Tonight. He is also the author of 10% Happier , a #1 New York Times best- selling book about a fidgety, skeptical news anchor who stumbles upon meditation. This ancient practice– too long associated exclusively with hippies and robed gurus – has been shown by modern science to boost resilience, focus, creativity, emotional intelligence, and overall mental and physical health. With meditation and mindfulness now being embraced by executives, athletes, educators and entertainers, Harris has become a leading voice for pushing for the practice into the mainstream, using plain English and dry humor. He has spoken in front of a variety of audiences — corporations, health and wellness organizations, and schools and universities. Harris’ new book, Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, was released in December 2017 and quickly made its way onto the New York Time’s Bestseller list. Previously, Harris was the anchor of the Sunday edition of World News. He regularly contributed stories on ABC for such shows as 20/20, World News Tonight with David Muir, and the weekday edition of Good Morning America. Harris has reported from all over the world, covering wars in Afghanistan, Israel/ Palestine, and Iraq, and producing investigative reports in Haiti, Cambodia, and the Congo. He has also spent many years covering America’s faith scene, with a focus on evangelicals — who have treated him kindly despite the fact that he is openly agnostic. Harris has been at ABC News for 16 years, receiving Murrow and Emmy awards for his reporting. Prior to joining ABC, he was in local news in Boston and Maine. Harris grew up outside of Boston and currently lives with his wife, Bianca, and their son, Alexander, in New York City.

CPA, CGMA

President and CEO

AICPA

CEO, Association of International Certified Professional Accountants President & CEO, American Institute of CPAs Barry C. Melancon is the CEO of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the most influential body of professional accountants in the world with more than 650,000 members and students, living in 179 countries and territories. Formed in 2017, the Association combines the strengths of The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), which Melancon also leads as President & CEO. During his 41-year career, Melancon has served as an advocate for the accounting profession. He has built extensive relationships with governments around the world, extending the reach of the public and management accounting profession to new regions and opportunities. Melancon joined the AICPA in 1995. He is now the longest serving CEO in the organisation's 133-year history. Under his tenure, the AICPA has grown to become the largest membership body of CPAs in the world and has directed numerous initiatives to benefit not only the profession, but also investors, business owners, lenders and the general public. These include audit quality centers, private company reporting standards, the computerized CPA exam and two consumer financial literacy education programs. Under Melancon's leadership in 2011, the AICPA formed a joint venture with CIMA to elevate management accounting globally. Together, the organisations created the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation for those professionals who meet the highest benchmark of rigor and quality. Today, approximately 150,000 professionals hold the CGMA designation worldwide. Then, in 2016, Melancon led a process for members of the AICPA and CIMA to combine and form the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. The effort was supported by more than 85% of the members voting. The combined entity has 33 offices in 23 countries, all under Melancon's direction. Melancon has led the Association in the release of two integrated reports that share a holistic view of how the AICPA, CIMA and Association come together to create value in the short- and long-term. This complements his service as chair of the Board of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), a global coalition of stakeholders that promotes integrated reporting as the next step in the evolution of corporate reporting. Additionally, Melancon serves as chairman of the board of CPA.com, a for-profit subsidiary of the AICPA which was his brainchild in 1998. In a unique approach, he raised more than $70 million to fund an organisation controlled by the AICPA but with minority owners. CPA.com today provides leading-edge technology services to tens of thousands of small CPA firms in the United States. Further, under his direction, the AICPA has been awarded the .cpa domain, which will help CPAs promote themselves online through a clear connection with the CPA profession. The new domain will only be available to the CPA community. Melancon is also chairman of eXtensible Business Reporting Language-US (XBRL), a founding member and current board chairman of the Global Accounting Alliance (GAA), and a founding and current board member of the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ). He serves on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness and is a member of the delegation to the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). During 2007-2008, Melancon served on the U.S. Department of the Treasury Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession. He has also testified for the profession before Congress numerous times. His extensive experience also includes spearheading the development of a new cybersecurity assurance service in 2017, the professionalisation of a cloud-based client accounting service in 2007, the next generation of leadership academies, the computerisation of the US-CPA exam, the global CGMA exam, uniform licensure for CPAs throughout the country, and has helped elevate CPA and CGMA skills globally for technology and business service. He is also leading a renewed commitment to diversity in the profession and countless legislative and regulatory approaches to benefit businesses and the profession. On the international stage, he has spoken on business, technology and change management issues to professional accountants and business leaders throughout the world, and met with government leaders, regulators, and stock exchanges focusing on the future of business and business information. Prior to joining the AICPA, Melancon served for eight years as executive director of the Society of Louisiana CPAs. He began his accounting career in 1979 at a small CPA firm in Louisiana. In 1984, he was elected a firm partner. Melancon graduated in 1978 from Nicholls State University in Louisiana, majoring in accounting with a minor in government. He also earned an MBA in 1983 from Nicholls State University and subsequently served as an adjunct professor of accounting at his alma mater for four years. Melancon was awarded his alma mater's first and only Honorary Doctorate of Commerce in 2008. He has been honored with many awards, including the 2011 National Association Executive of the Year award. He presents to profession and business leaders more than 100 times per year. INT - 11/20

President & CEO

CPA.com

Erik Asgeirsson has been President and CEO of CPA.com for the past fifteen years and was part of the original founding team. Under Erik’s leadership, CPA.com has established itself as a leader on emerging technologies and as a key solution provider to accounting firms in the United States, with a growing global focus. CPA.com is a subsidiary of the AICPA, the world’s largest accounting association. Erik is viewed as a leading change agent for technology adoption across the accounting profession. He has been on Accounting Today’s list of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the Accounting Profession for the past decade and is a member of numerous advisory boards. He is a frequent speaker at professional conferences and is regularly quoted in the accounting and business trade press. For the past decade, Erik has driven CPA.com’s focus on cloud computing solutions and more recently on artificial intelligence. During Erik’s tenure CPA.com has led the development of the cloud-based client accounting services category which has become one of the highest growth firm practice areas. Over the past few years, Erik has broadened CPA.com’s focus to include the audit practice as the co-sponsor of the Dynamic Audit Solution initiative, which is looking to leverage artificial intelligence and other technologies to transform the future audit practice. Erik also led the creation of RIVIO, a private company financial information clearinghouse, and is overseeing the launch of .CPA, a new top level domain for the profession. Before joining CPA.com, Erik held a variety of positions over a ten-year period at AT&T in business development, operations, and product management. Erik holds an MBA in Finance from The New York University Stern School of Business and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University, where he was elected to the Eta Kappa Nu engineering honor society. Early in his career, Erik served for two years as a United States Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania. Erik lives in Rye, N.Y., with his wife, Claudia, and their four daughters. He is also an avid sailor and skier.

Chair, AICPA and AICPA & CIMA

Okorie Ramsey serves as Vice President of Sarbanes/Oxley (SOX) of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. (also known as Kaiser Permanente) and has served as a finance executive since 2011. As an experienced finance executive, Ramsey has responsibility and oversight for the SOX Program at Kaiser Permanente, which includes strategy, testing and evaluating internal controls and assessing business risk to help build effective internal controls over financial reporting for the $93 Billion Dollar integrated health care enterprise. Ramsey has a proven 30-year track record of leadership and supporting financial and operational performance by enabling effective financial control environments, driving affordability and identification of internal control best practices to mitigate risk while achieving operational goals within Healthcare, Real Estate and Financial Services. Ramsey quarterly meets with the Kaiser Permanente Audit and Compliance Committee Chairman to discuss financial risk and controls as well as reports to the Audit and Compliance Committee on SOX and Model Audit Rule conclusions and work performed to drive a culture of control consciousness with the organization. Ramsey has served in several permanent and interim finance executive roles to support organizational needs. Prior to his current role, Ramsey served as Vice President, Finance Compliance Officer, where he was responsible for establishing a finance compliance program to support compliance with regulatory and enforcement agencies as well as leading compliance investigations and co-developing remediation activities to address issues identified. During this period, Ramsey also served as the Interim Vice President of Tax and Interim Vice President, Operational Risk Management. During these interim roles, which were performed while also executing core job responsibilities, Ramsey, ensured tax compliance and developed and executed on a strategic plan for compliance and risk management for the enterprise shared service organization. Ramsey is a nationally recognized leader in Accounting and Finance. He serves as Chairman of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Association of Certified Professional Accountants (the Association). He has also served as Chairman of the Audit and Finance Committee for the AICPA and the Association in addition to serving as the first African American President of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants (CalCPA) Education Foundation in 2017 - 2018. He was named one of the Most Influential Minority CPAs by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2018 and one of the Top 50 in Finance by the National Diversity Council in 2020 for his contributions to the growth and profitability of his company and community as well as mentoring the next generation of professionals in the financial industry. Ramsey was also featured in Forbes discussing Leading with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Finance Function and he served as an adjunct professor for the Master of Business Administration program at San Francisco State University. Ramsey has also served on several not-for-profit boards supporting diversity and inclusion in the fields of accounting and finance including the National Association of Black Accountants, the Accounting Career Awareness Program and LIFE Courses. Before joining Kaiser Permanente, Ramsey was an audit and risk management leader with EY, Andersen and Coopers & Lybrand (predecessor to PwC). He also served in operational management with Robert Half International. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University and is a member of the Harvard Business School Kaiser Permanente Executive Leadership Program Class of 2016. He and his wife, Dr. Tracy Evans-Ramsey have two children and live in Orinda, California.

CEO - Public Accounting

AICPA & CIMA

Susan S. Coffey, CPA, CGMA is Chief Executive Officer of Public Accounting at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. Sue leads the Association's strategy to advance public accounting domestically and globally as well as strengthen the pipeline and competencies of U.S. licensed CPAs. Sue sets strategy for the Association's assurance, advisory, tax and practice management initiatives in the U.S. and abroad. Her most recent focus is on securing a robust and highly skilled U.S. CPA pipeline; promoting the value and relevancy of U.S. CPAs and CPA firms, including evolving the profession's core services, leveraging emerging technology and advancing practice quality; and creating opportunities for practice growth around the use of new technologies and in emerging service areas, including environmental/social/governance. Sue's responsibilities span a number of diverse communities and stakeholders, both domestic and international, giving her a unique, global perspective. Building on a wide range of experience, she brings a broad view to strategic planning, risk management and problem-solving, which guide the Association as it executes on its public interest activities, develops opportunities for CPA firms, and works with firms and other key stakeholders. Sue is a licensed CPA in the States of New York and New Jersey, as well as a CGMA. She has been honored over the years by being recognized as one of the Most Powerful Women in Accounting by the CPA Practice Advisor and by inclusion on Accounting Today's Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting list. Prior to joining the Association, Sue was with PricewaterhouseCoopers' accounting and auditing practice. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Fairfield University.

At only 19 years old, Tanmay Bakshi is an accomplished tech prodigy with an impressive list of credentials. He's a Bestselling Author, TED & Keynote Speaker, Google Developer Expert for Machine Learning, AI & Software Architect for IBM Watson Applications, Instructor at University of Winnipeg, Visiting Professor at iUniversity Tokyo, Media Personality, and YouTuber. Tanmay's passion lies in creating technology that enhances the lives of others, with a goal of empowering over 100,000 people to use technology to change the world.

Over the past eleven years, Tanmay has addressed over 300,000 executives, developers, and students in more than 30 countries. Some of the organizations he's keynoted for include The United Nations, Apple, Walmart, Microsoft, Google, The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), KPMG, Linux Foundation, Deloitte, HSBC, Scotiabank, and Amazon.

Tanmay's love for coding started at the young age of five, and by nine, he had published an iOS app on the App Store. He was even named a Newsmaker of the Year by The Toronto Star, inspiring aspiring developers across the world.

One of Tanmay's most impressive feats is developing AI techniques at IBM that are revolutionizing the drive-thru experience at McDonald's. He's also created applications that can augment songwriters, recognize people by their heartbeat, and decode mental states from EEG data, among other projects.

His work has been recognized globally with awards and titles such as Young Entrepreneur by Bloomberg Businessweek, the Knowledge Ambassador Award by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation, Twilio Doer Award, Life Mentor Award by the Creative Foundation, Young Edison Award by Shanghai TV, Top 30 Under 30 Canadian Developers Award, and Top 25 Tech Influencer on LinkedIn by Onalytica, to name just a few.

Tanmay's accomplishments have been featured in international media outlets such as The Toronto Star, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNBC, CBC, and more.

Through his work, Tanmay is making a positive difference in the world, striving to create technology that benefits humanity. He continues to undertake projects that are close to his heart, driven by his desire to use his knowledge to change the world for the better.

Firm Runner & Content Creator

Realize

CPA, MBA

Jason owns an accounting & tax firm in Oregon, and runs Realize, an online community for accounting firm owners. In 2020 Jason began producing video content from his garage. He now runs a YouTube channel for accounting firm owners, and has produced commercials for companies like LinkedIn and Zapier. When he isn't tweeting, producing or writing, he's spending time with his wife and three young kids.

AI Consultant

As a consultant at the intersection of technology, business and ethics, Juliette Powell has advised large companies on the questions of how to deal with the accelerating change that is underway due to AI-enabled technological innovation coupled with shifting social dynamics and heightened global competition.

Powell’s research at Columbia University is informed by her work with multinational companies like Intel Labs and with governmental institutions where she is focused on the responsible deployment of AI, ethical data exploration, as well as the search and removal of negative biases. Powell identifies the patterns and practices of successful business leaders who bank on ethical AI and data to win.

Her live commentary on Bloomberg, BNN, NBC, CNN, ABC and BBC and powerful presentations at institutions like The Economist, Harvard and MIT emerged from her lifelong interest in community-building combined with a deep knowledge of the people, technologies and business practices at the forefront of connected society.

Powell’s consulting services include global strategy and scenarios around AI and data, banking, mobile, retail, and social gaming which are employed by corporate, government and media organizations including Intel Labs, Reuters, the United Nations, Warner Brothers, l’Union des Banques Suisses, the Department of Justice, the Department of Finance, Microsoft, Nokia, Research in Motion, The Red Cross, Cirque du Soleil and IBM.

A passionate advocate for digital literacy, critical thinking and collaboration, Powell keynotes regularly on the Future(s) of Innovation, Information, Leadership and Education. In 2011, Powell began working with the E-G8, an extension of the G8 summit, created to inform G8 leaders on the future of the internet and connected society.

Editor

Wired UK

Greg Williams is an authority on technology trends and the ways they impact business and society. As editor-in-chief of WIRED magazine, Greg meets the innovators, thinkers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and creatives who are changing the world and writes on a variety of subjects, including innovation, technology, business, creativity, and ideas. The annual trends report he edits, WIRED World, is essential is seen as an essential briefing for senior leaders who want to understand the forces shaping the global business.

Greg possesses a unique combination of storytelling expertise and an in-depth knowledge of the future of technology and how it will impact every sector of business. He speaks on the technology and trends shaping the world, from artificial intelligence to the blockchain, sustainability to fintech, cybersecurity to personalized healthcare, automation and robotics to the space industry, the future of work to the next wave of disruptive forces impacting every organization.

Spending his days scanning the horizon for world-changing technologies, ideas and companies, Greg is constantly on the lookout for genuinely transformative trends and inspires organizations to implement the changes they need to make in order to move their businesses and brands forward is a fast-changing landscape.

Greg enjoys an international career – he has lived in both London and New York – and travels regularly in search of the people and ideas that are transforming our world.

His essay on neuroeconomics was featured alongside essays by Bill Gates and Joseph Stiglitz in the book, Connecting Minds, Creating the Future. Greg's success as a long-form storyteller in novels – he has had six published – and journalism means that he has a particular interest and expertise in the power and role of content as traditional media channels transform and new ones proliferate.