The Speakers

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The Speakers

Denise Silon Louie, Protiviti

Denise Silon Louie joined the Protiviti Cleveland office in 2004 and leads its technology risk practice as Associate Director.  She has over 18 years of experience primarily in information technology (IT) audit and controls consulting, and spent the majority of her professional career with Price Waterhouse and PricewaterhouseCoopers until she left in 2001 to start her own consulting business.  Denise relies upon her accounting background and keen understanding of business processes to assess how all aspects of IT - people, processes and technology - are deployed and managed to meet business and control objectives.  She has a knack for deciphering technical jargon and demystifying IT in a way that executives can understand and take action upon.  She has supported a large client base of primarily consumer products and manufacturing clients throughout the Midwest, having lived and worked in Columbus, Pittsburgh, Omaha and Cleveland.  Denise was in the small vanguard of PW's SAP audit practice in 1995 and currently serves on Protiviti's national Oracle leadership team.  She was responsible for developing and enforcing IT governance over ConAgra Foods' intranet portal in 2003.   Denise holds a bachelor of science in Business Administration from The Ohio State University as well as the designations of Certified Information System Auditor (CISA) and Certified Internal Auditor (CIA).  She wants to be the first advisor you call when you have a question about IT governance, risk or control.

Jonathan Marks, Crowe Horwath LLP

Jonathan Marks is one of the leaders in Crowe Horwath LLP's Risk Consulting practice. He has a unique blend of professional experience spanning more than 20 years. Marks is a nationally recognized thought leader in Sarbanes-Oxley, risk, governance, internal audit, technical accounting, and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) matters. Jonathan is currently leading both the anti-fraud and IFRS initiatives for the firm. Prior to joining Crowe, Marks was a co-owner of national consulting practice where he directed the firm's SEC, Technical Accounting, Governance, Internal Audit, Risk Management, Fraud, Quality Assurance Review and Education/Training practices. He also has more than 15 years of experience in public accounting (Big Four) and internal audit. Marks spent six years in private industry serving in the chief operating and financial officer role. During his tenure in public accounting and internal audit, Marks planned, organized, administered, and supervised all phases of financial and operational engagements, including managerial responsibility for audits of several Fortune 100 companies. In addition, he managed several mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and IPOs. Marks specializes in dealing with complex accounting matters, SEC reporting, registrations, and compliance with the Securities Act of 1993, the Exchange Act of 1934 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Marks has co-authored a paper on reverse mergers. He has provided litigation support services, including forensic accounting and fraud auditing, for publicly and privately held corporations. Marks spent more than a year working closely with the attorney general of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and U.S. Customs officials in recovering more than $24 million of assets lost by a public concern from a series of thefts and contract breaches. He regularly teaches and lectures nationally on SEC, accounting, SOX, governance, ERM, internal audit, fraud, IFRS and other topics. Marks has published several articles, white and point of view papers on accounting, governance, risk management, and compliance, in many cases before the topics covered developed into issues of general concern and/or received regulatory attention. He also co-produced a multi-dimensional survey to better understand the chief audit executive, CFO and audit committee relationships, which gained national attention. Marks is an active member of FEI, IIA, ACFE, NACD, AICPA, NJSSCPA, and NYSSCPA. He is also an instructor for IIA. He holds BSBA in Accounting from Temple University/Bloomsburg, and certifications in CPA, CFE and Accreditation in Internal Audit Quality Assessment/Validation from the IIA.

Sridhar Ramamoorti, Grant Thornton LLP

Sridhar Ramamoorti is a Partner in the National Corporate Governance Group of Grant Thornton LLP in Chicago. He leads the firm's thought leadership initiatives in corporate governance and accountability, advising on Sarbanes Oxley, professional standards and other technical matters, contributing to the firm's professional development programs, promoting university faculty relations, and mentoring younger professionals. He serves as a Grant Thornton practice liaison with the Business Advisory Services (BAS), Economic Advisory Services (EAS) and Global Public Sector (GPS) practices globally. A core member of the Grant Thornton authoring team for the soon-to-be-issued COSO Guidance on Monitoring Internal Control Systems, Dr. Ramamoorti is also a co-author on the well-received 2007 textbook, "Internal Auditing: Assurance and Consulting Services" published by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), and being translated into Spanish and Japanese. Earlier, Dr. Ramamoorti served as the Assistant Director of Thought Leadership for the Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services (FIDS) practice of E&Y, was in-house E&Y faculty for training over 1000 E&Y partners and principals in "Assessing Fraud Risk: Awareness and Response", spearheaded the development of an E&Y proprietary litigation risk management simulation model, and was the SOX Advisor for the E&Y National Advisory Practices in North America. Sri also served as a Principal in the Professional Standards Group of Arthur Andersen, and served as a key liaison in the multi-million dollar Andersen-MIT research collaboration. Sri holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Bombay University, India, Masters and Ph.D. degrees from The Ohio State University, served as an Accountancy Faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a few years, and holds numerous certifications. He has published extensively in top tier journals including Management Science, and is a frequent speaker at academic and professional conferences.

Daniel Zittnan, Grant Thornton LLP

Daniel Zittnan is the managing partner of Grant Thornton's Cleveland office with over 25 years of experience working with entrepreneurial, high-growth companies.  Dan joined Grant Thornton in February, 2001 as a partner and served as the Professional Standards partner in Chicago advising partners on various technical accounting and auditing issues during 2003 - 2007; in addition to leading a $200 million Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2006.  From August 2007 through July 2008, Dan served as the Regional Professional Standards partner for the Midwest region, and in August 2008, Dan assumed the current responsibilities of managing partner in the Cleveland office. Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Dan was the CFO with Security Associates International, which was a small public company roll up in the security alarm industry.  With the help of 10 acquisitions in a 3 year period, the company grew from approximately $3 million in revenue to $30 million in revenue. Dan's career in public accounting initially began with Arthur Andersen in 1983 in the audit division, primarily serving privately held companies. Additionally, he served several public companies and was involved in two Initial Public Offerings during that time.   Before leaving Arthur Andersen in 1997, he also spent 5 years in the internal audit outsourcing division working with two very large international public companies.  Dan has co-authored the book entitled, "Control Self-Assessment," in conjunction with the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) that dealt with various self assessment techniques.  Many of these techniques are translatable to the internal audit environment especially when evaluating controls within financial reporting and operating processes. Dan received his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from DePaul University.  He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Michael R. Dickson, Plante and Moran

Michael R. Dickson is a Senior Manager in Plante and Moran's Security Assurance practice with a specific focus on IT Audit and SOX / JSOX compliance.  Prior to joining Plante and Moran, Mr. Dickson was President and CEO of Business Technology Group, LLC and Systrust Services Corporation. He also served as Partner in Charge of the Systems Consulting Group for Crowe Chizek and Company in the Columbus, Ohio office for 13 years.   Throughout his 25 year career in Public Accounting and Consulting, Mr. Dickson has developed and implemented information security solutions and products for clients and other CPA firms. Mr. Dickson has consulted with Global leaders in Manufacturing & Distribution, Entertainment Services, and Automotive industries and he has served in leadership roles as Chairman of the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants, a member of the Governing Council of the AICPA, member of the AICPA Information Technology Committee, and commissioner on the National Accreditation Association.  Mr. Dickson's has been named twice by Accounting Today as one of the "Top 100 Most Influential People in the Accounting Profession". Michael is a CPA, a CITP, and a CISA.

J. Michael Conrad, Deloitte & Touche LLP

J. Michael Conrad is a partner in the Audit and Enterprise Risk Services (AERS) practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP and is based in the Detroit office. He is responsible for coordinating the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) service offerings within Deloitte's North Central Region. He has served companies in the manufacturing and financial services industries for more than 15 years, with a heavy emphasis on automotive clients. He has managed and led a variety of projects in support of the internal audit, finance, and accounting functions for both private and public companies. Mike is also a Finance Transformation service offerings leader for Deloitte. Mike is a Certified Public Accountant, has his BSBA, in Accounting and Finance from Central Michigan University and is a member of the AICPA and MACPA.