ACPEN Signature: Accounting and Auditing Update

Jeff Mechanick is Assistant Director—Nonpublic Entities for the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). In that role, he provides strategic and technical oversight of all activities involving nonpublic entities (private companies and not-for-profit organizations (NPOs)), oversees support of the Private Company Council, chairs the FASB's Not-for-Profit Advisory Committee, and participates in some of the FASB's broader outreach activities. He has also been the lead staff person for the AICPA/FAF/NASBA Blue-Ribbon Panel on Standard Setting for Private Companies and the FASB/IASB Financial Crisis Advisory Group.

Prior to joining the FASB in 2006, Mr. Mechanick spent a combined twenty years working in and with the not-for-profit sector, as the chief financial officer of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., and before that, as a senior audit manager with KPMG, LLP. Mr. Mechanick earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biological sciences from The University of Chicago and an MBA in professional accounting from Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey. He is a member of the AICPA and the New York State Society of CPAs, and has served on the AICPA's NPO Expert Panel.

Noah Kaufman, CPA is a Systems Accountant/Project Manager in the Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services at the U.S. Department of State (DoS). He is the Government-wide Momentum User Group chair. Noah has worked at DoS since 2014, and previously held positions in for-profit and federal entities, including CGI/AMS, Department of Homeland Security, and Arthur Andersen. Noah has over twenty years of experience, including in financial systems implementation/enhancements, and auditing Local/State/Federal/Non-Profit/For-Profit entities.

Noah has also worked as an Adjunct Professor at UVA (School of Continuing Education), UMGC (was UMUC), and taught for Becker CPA for over fifteen years. Noah has presented for several conferences, including at the 2022 AGA Professional Development Conference and an AIPCA Not for Profit conference. Noah received an BS at the University of Virginia, an MBA from the University of Maryland Smith School of Business, has a CPA, CGFM and CGFMA, and was in the 2022 (initial) cohort of the NextWave Federal Finance Leadership Program.

J. Michael Inzina, CPA, CGFM, CGMA is founder and chief executive officer of Audit Litigation Training and Efficiency Consulting, Inc. (ALTEC), a consulting company serving public accounting firms and other accounting and auditing organizations on matters of audit efficiency, continuing education, litigation and ethics. He has over 40 years of public accounting experience, and remains a partner in the firm of Stagni & Company, LLC, whose practice is concentrated in government and nonprofits organizations. Mike holds a BBA in accounting from the University of Louisiana (Monroe), where he graduated summa cum laude in May 1976.

He is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, Society of Louisiana CPAs, Government Finance Officers Association of Louisiana, and the Association of Government Accountants. Mike earned the CEA in governmental in 1990, was awarded the Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM) designation in 1996, and the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation in 2012. He is a past chapter president and member of the Society of Louisiana CPAs Board of Directors and served two terms as chairman of the Governmental Positive Enforcement Program of the Louisiana State Board of CPAs. He has served on a number of committees of the Society of Louisiana CPAs, and currently serves on its Ethics Committee. Mike also served on the GASB Service Efforts and Accomplishments Task Force.

Mike has twice been a member of the AICPA Professional Ethics Executive Committee (1989-1992 and 2000-2003), and served on the Auditing Standards Board from 1997 to 2000. From 1986 to 1993, he also served as a member of AICPA Independence and Behavioral Standards Subcommittee, and as Subgroup Chairman of the Governmental Technical Standards Committee. During this time he conducted numerous investigations of complaints filed by federal, state and local agencies alleging substandard performance of audits of governmental and nonprofit entities, and represented the Professional Ethics Division at hearings of the Joint Regional Trial Board.

He contributed to the Implementation Guide for GASB Statement 34, AICPA Statement of Position 98-3, Audits of States, Local Governments and Not-for-Profit Organizations Receiving Federal Awards, revisions to the AICPA Audit and Accounting Guide, Audits of State and Local Governmental Units, the AICPA Practice Aid Fraud Detection in a GAAS Audit, revisions to the Louisiana Governmental Audit Guide and in drafting state legislation affecting governmental accounting and auditing requirements. He has served as technical consultant and instructor for the Louisiana Division of Administration (Office of Community Development) and as consultant to the Louisiana Department of Education. Mike frequently appears as moderator and panelist on the Accountants' CPE Network. (ACPEN).

Mike has been named twelve times as an Outstanding Instructor by the American Institute of CPAs and several state societies, and received a Special Recognition Award from the Society of Louisiana CPAs Board of Directors for his contributions to continuing education in 1994. In addition, he was awarded the 2001 National Education and Training Award from the Association of Government Accountants and in 2009 was named national Beta Alpha Psi Business Information Professional of the Year. In 2016, Mike received the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Louisiana CPAs.

Laura A. Billingsley, CPA, is a senior technical editor of PPC products for the Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters, in Fort Worth, Texas, where she is responsible for the technical content and annual update of several PPC products, including PPC's Guide to Compilation and Review Engagements, and PPC's Checkpoint e-Tools. She is a coauthor of PPC's Guide to PCAOB Audits, PPC's Guide to Religious Organizations, and PPC's Guide to Fraud Risk Assessment: Implementing SAS 99 and Related Guidance.

Before joining PPC, she was a senior audit manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, where she managed audit, business assurance, and consulting engagements for a wide variety of domestic and international clients.

Ms. Billingsley is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She has a M.S. degree in accounting, a Masters degree in education, and a B.S. degree with a major in mathematics.