Podcasts

Gabrielle M. Luoma, CPA, CGMA, founder and visionary of MOD Ventures, began building her business in 2004 in the living room of her own home. The MOD Ventures firm is unique in that it was built upon the aspiration to not only help businesses grow, but to change the way they see accounting, taxes, day-to-day business operations, and their big-picture vision. Luoma is currently working on her third book, this time for CPAs who are also passionate about innovation. When Luoma isn’t innovating, she can be found rooting on her youngest daughter in her cheer competitions, dreaming, drinking coffee, or watching Game of Thrones. Luoma graduated from New Mexico State University with a bachelor of accountancy and is an advisor for the accounting department at Pima Community College and an executive committee member of the PCPS section of the AICPA.

Christopher Strand leads Carbon Black’s global security risk and compliance program strategy. With more than 20 years of information technology and security assessment experience, Chris oversees the development of enterprise platforms that help organizations deploy proactive security and compliance solutions. Throughout his career he has concentrated on refining a framework that bridges the gap between security policy and cyber-regulatory requirements, while helping to maintain, measure, and improve enterprise risk posture. Previously, Strand held security/compliance positions at Trustwave, Tripwire, EMC/RSA, and Compuware.

Angel Bennett is the assistant vice president of paid leave at Unum, a leading employee benefits and leave services provider.

Kevin Fromer is president and CEO of the Financial Services Forum, which represents the eight largest, most diversified U.S. banking institutions. Previously, Fromer was the executive vice president and head of public affairs for HSBC North America Holdings, where he was responsible for public policy and government affairs at the federal and state levels. Fromer spent over two decades in U.S. federal government, including as assistant secretary of the Treasury for legislative affairs from 2005-2009.

Kenneth E. Bentsen Jr. is president and CEO of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Michael Simon is a consultant for ABBYY and the principal of Seventh Samurai, an e-Discovery and information governance expert consulting firm. Michael is a legal technology thought leader, having made over 100 presentations and written dozens of articles on e-Discovery and legal technology topics, including a book on Internet Law in 2002. He received his J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and his B.A. cum laude from Tufts University.

Andrew Pery is a marketing executive at ABBYY, a global leader in content IQ and AI technologies and solutions. He has over 25 years of experience in the high technology sector focusing on content management and business process automation. Andrew holds a Master of Law degree with Distinction from Northwestern University, is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/C) and a Certified Information Professional (CIP/AIIM).

Olivia Diaz is a business analyst at eTatvaSoft.com, an enterprise level web and mobile application development company. An avid reader and a passionate writer, she enjoys sharing her ideas on ground-breaking IT solutions, current IT trends and more.

Kevin Foster-Keddie is president and chief executive of Olympia, Wash.-based WSECU.

Sean Torr is a Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory managing director for Deloitte & Touche LLP. He leads the Lease Accounting Services group. He has more than 20 years of experience assisting large, complex clients with accounting convergence implications and financial reporting requirements.