Bob Laux is an Associate Director at the SEC Institute, a Division of Practising Law Institute, and is responsible for conducting programs on various reporting and financial accounting topics. Bob is also the North American Lead for the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).  The IIRC is a global coalition of regulators, investors, companies, standard setters, the accounting profession and NGOs promoting communication about value creation as the next step in the evolution of corporate reporting.  Previously, Bob spent 16 years at Microsoft Corporation, most recently as the Treasury Controller.  Prior to joining Microsoft in 2000, Bob was an Industry Fellow at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) where he was responsible for coordinating the activities of the Emerging Issues Task Force.  Prior to joining the FASB, Bob spent eight years at General Motors.

 

Bob’s external corporate reporting related activities include:

• Member of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) Board of Directors
• Member of the American Accounting Association (AAA) Audit Committee
• Member of the AAA’s Finance Committee, 2014-2017
• Member of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) Global Preparers Forum, 2007-2017
• Member of the IASB’s XBRL Advisory Council, 2009-2013
• Member of the AICPA’s Board of Directors, 2008-2010
• Member of the Center for Audit Quality SEC Regulations Committee, 2006-2009
• Member of the AICPA’s Accounting Standards Executive Committee, 2001-2004

Mark LaMonte is a Managing Director and the Deputy Head of Ratings and Process Oversight at Moody’s Investors Service.  In this role, Mark is responsible for improving the quality and consistency of credit standards and broad portfolio monitoring activities across Moody’s rating franchise, with a particular focus on the financial institution and structured finance ratings businesses.

Mark previously had oversight responsibility for a team of analysts with specialized expertise in accounting, financial reporting and internal controls; corporate governance; and hybrid financial instruments. These specialists analysts work alongside Moody’s credit analysts to incorporate issues and complexities related to their areas of expertise more systematically into the credit rating process. They also publishes research comments on issues within their areas of expertise and conduct training for Moody’s analysts on relevant topics which impact ratings.

Mark is also a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC), the FASB’s Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF), past member and former co-chair of the FASB’s Investor Advisory Committee (IAC), a member of the Institute of Management Accountant’s Financial Reporting Committee, and was a member of the Financial Stability Board’s recently disbanded Enhanced Disclosure Task Force.

Mark joined Moody’s in 2003 from KPMG LLP’s Department of Professional Practice. There he was responsible for consulting with audit teams on accounting, financial reporting, risk management and audit related issues. He also contributed to a number of the firm’s publications on various accounting and financial reporting topics.

During his 12+ years with KPMG, Mark also spent time in KPMG’s Boston and Stamford, Connecticut offices where he was responsible for audits for clients in the consumer and industrial products industries.

Mark is a CPA and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Siena College.

Cheryl is Professor of Accounting and former Associate Dean, College of Business at the University of Texas, San Antonio. She served as Academic Fellow at the U.S. SEC in 2005-2006 in the Office of the Chief accountant, and in 2007-2008 at the Division of Corporation Finance, where she participated in IFRS filing reviews and led staff training. She teaches financial and international accounting at the undergraduate, executive MBA and PhD levels and has been honored with college level and university-wide teaching awards.

Her research interests include the application of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and SEC reporting issues, including SEC comment letters and IFRS reporting.  Her publications appear in Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of International Accounting Research, Accounting Horizons, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting, CPA Journal, Strategic Finance, and the Multinational Business Review. Cheryl is the past President of the International Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association.

Gargi is the Vice President -Global Controller of Revenues for Infosys Limited(NYSE-INFY), with over 12+ billion USD in revenues. She is primarily responsible for monitoring revenue leakage in contracts with 1000+ customers and reporting revenues as per the global accounting standards. She leads a global team of 100+ professionals. She specializes in deal strategy and assessment and mitigation of contract risks.

She has been the Technical Accounting and SEC reporting Head and also the head of Investor Relations in Infosys. As an evangelist she has made a lot of contribution with the national and international standard setters in testing of accounting standards and also the XBRL language.

By profession she is a licensed CPA, since 2005, from the State Board of California and Colorado and Chartered Accountant from India for over 17 years. She is also an alumni of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and has been a member of the Accountancy Standard Board and the Research Board of Indian Chartered Accountants of India. She is also a committee member of the Securities Exchange Board of India- IFRS committee for evaluation of the IFRS standards and its application.

She has been awarded the Professional Achiever Award by the National Standard setter in India. She has completed the leadership certification from Stanford, Graduate School of Business, CA, USA.

Carol is a Director with The SEC Institute and is responsible for conducting seminars on various reporting and financial accounting topics. She created the SEC Institute's programs IFRS Conference: Today’s Landscape …Tomorrow’s Challenge and Accounting for Business Combinations. Carol was the Chief Accountant of the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, an appointment she held for over five years beginning in February 2002.

Carol began her SEC career in 1996 and her other roles included Deputy Chief Accountant, Associate Chief Accountant, Assistant Chief Accountant, and Staff Accountant. Before joining the Commission, Carol worked for an SEC registrant in various capacities, including Director of Financial Reporting and Divisional Controller. Prior to that, Carol was an auditor in the Boston office of PricewaterhouseCoopers.