2010 Speakers

Wayne E. Carnall is Chief Accountant of the Division of Corporation Finance for the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).  He is responsible for advising the Director and working with the other senior officers in planning and developing polices, programs and procedures relating to accounting matters with respect to the work of the Division; rendering decisions on accounting, reporting and auditing issues; collaborating with the Chief Accountant of the SEC and other Divisions and Offices on unique issues and policy matters. Previously, Mr. Carnall was a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers.   He was responsible  for establishing policy and resolution of complex or contested issues involving GAAP, GAAS and the SEC's accounting and disclosure requirements; addressing all accounting and reporting issues involving non-U.S. companies; and drafted several amendments to rules and forms that simplified the SEC's reporting requirements as well as drafting Staff Accounting Bulletins and other staff publications.

Robert H. Herz is Chair of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), appointed July 1, 2002. Previously, he was a senior partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers (“PwC”).  Prior to joining the FASB, Mr. Herz was PwC’s North America Theater Leader of Professional, Technical, Risk & Quality and a member of the firm’s Global and U.S. Boards.  Mr. Herz joined Price Waterhouse in 1974 upon graduating from the University of Manchester in England with a B.A. degree in economics. Mr. Herz has authored numerous publications, including having coauthored the recent book, The Value Reporting Revolution: Moving Beyond the Earnings Game. Mr. Herz’s has chaired the AICPA SEC Regulations Committee and the Transnational Auditors Committee of the International Federation of Accountants, and served as a member of the EITF, the FASB Financial Instruments Task Force, the American Accounting Association’s Financial Accounting Standards Committee, and the SEC Practice Section Executive Committee of the AICPA.

Carlo D. Pippolo is a Partner and the Director-Standard Setting in Ernst & Young’s Accounting Standards Department in New York.  Carlo is responsible for leading EY’s efforts involving standard setting activities of the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Carlo is a member of the FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force and of the Institute of Management Accountants’ Financial Reporting Committee.  Prior to joining EY’s Accounting Standards group, Carlo served as an auditor in the firm's Houston Office and in Ernst & Young’s National SEC Practice in Washington D.C. He also participated in a two-year fellowship at the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and worked for two years in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance.

Donal Byard is Associate Professor of Accountancy, Baruch College, CUNY. He is an ad hoc reviewer for The Accounting Review;  Contemporary Accounting Research;  The Journal of Accounting, and Public Policy;  the Journal of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance; the Journal of Business, Finance, and Accounting, the Financial Review; and Review of Finance and Accounting.  He is author of numerous articles that have appeared in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Investor Relations Quarterly, and Review of Accounting and Finance.  Mr. Byard is a faculty advisor for the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting. He is a member of the Dean’s Taskforce on Research, Zicklin School of Business and the review panel for PSC-CUNY awards, CUNY.

Umberto P. Fedeli is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Fedeli Group, one of the largest privately held insurance brokerage firms in Ohio and multi-year recipient of Weatherhead 100's list of the fastest growing companies in northeast Ohio.  He was selected by Inside Business as one of Cleveland's most "powerful" people in the Business/Community/Political Arena.  He has been recognized by John Carroll University's Business School as one of Fifty of Its Finest, and has been the recipient of both the Grand Illusion Award from the Ohio Cancer Research Associates and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's Norman Cohn Hope Award for Outstanding Philanthropic and Community Service.

Dr. William F. Baker is University Professor of Fordham University, NY, Executive-in-Residence at the Columbia Business School and president emeritus of Educational Broadcasting Corporation, becoming president emeritus in 2008 after 20 years as CEO. During his tenure, the broadcasting station grew and prospered, creating new programming, such as “Charlie Rose.”. He established the Educational Resources Center, which has become America’s most prolific teacher trainer in multimedia techniques, and developed Metro Arts/Thirteen’s first cable channel.  He also helped stabilize the finances of the station by building the largest endowment in public television history, and oversaw the station’s transition to digital broadcasting. Baker is recognized as one of America’s most prolific fundraisers, having raised more than $1 billion in his career. 

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.