2008 Speakers

Dennis R. Beresford is Ernst & Young Executive Professor of Accounting, J. M. Tull School of Accounting, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia. From January 1987 through June 1997, he was chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Previously, he was national director of accounting standards for Ernst & Young. In 2006, he was selected as one of the inaugural inductees of Financial Executives International’s Hall of Fame. Denny serves on the boards and is audit committee chairman of Fannie Mae, Kimberly-Clark Corporation and Legg Mason, Inc. From July 2002 through January 2006, he served on the board of directors of MCI, Inc. (formerly WorldCom, Inc.) before MCI was merged into Verizon Communications. In July 2007, Denny was appointed to the SEC Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting.

Susan Goetz Markel is the Chief Accountant of the Division of Enforcement of the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America. She was appointed to this position in June 2003. Ms. Markel joined the Commission’s Division of Enforcement in April 1994. She has worked on a number of the Commission’s important accounting investigations, including the investigations of Cendant, WorldCom and Xerox, as well as matters relating to auditor independence. Prior to joining the Commission, Ms. Markel was an auditor for a national public accounting firm and also performed litigation support services for a Washington, D.C. law firm. Ms. Markel received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from The University of Akron in Ohio in 1985 and became a certified public accountant in 1987.
 

Lawrence W. Smith was appointed to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) for a five-year term beginning July 1, 2007. He is responsible for advancing the Board’s mission to establish and improve financial accounting and reporting standards, to increase transparency for users of financial reports, and increasing investor confidence in the capital markets. Previously, Mr. Smith spent five years as FASB Director–Technical Application and Implementation Activities. In this role, he managed FASB activities related to application and implementation issues and served as chairman of its Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF). Mr. Smith joined the FASB staff in 2002 after a distinguished 25-year career at KPMG. He is a past member of the Technical Standards Subcommittee of the Professional Ethics Committee of the AICPA.
 

Chuck Springston Jr. is news editor at the Washington Business Journal. A business journalist for more than 20 years, he previously worked as a reporter or editor for the Shreveport Journal and Times of Acadiana in Louisiana, Orlando Business Journal, Tampa Bay Business Journal, the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville and Jacksonville Business Journal. He is a graduate of Kent State University’s Honors College with a Bachelor of General Studies and has a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Missouri.

Sam E. Antar is President and former CFO of Crazy Eddie Inc. During the 1980s Mr. Antar helped to mastermind with his cousin Eddie Antar and Uncle Sam M. Antar (co-founders of the company) one of the largest securities frauds of his times. Crazy Eddie Antar was coined by former U.S. Attorney Michael Chertoff as “the Darth Vader of Capitalism.” The securities fraud cost investors hundreds of millions of dollars, cost many people their life savings, cost many people their careers, cost creditors hundreds of millions of dollars, and many people’s suffering that cannot be measured. He was the government’s key witness in both the civil and criminal prosecutions. He also fully cooperated with all civil plaintiffs in the prosecution of their claims.