Brian is the General Manager of Tax Workflow for the Thomson Reuters Tax, Audit & Accounting Professionals business.  He has been with Thomson Reuters for nearly 20 years, holding various leadership roles across Tax & Accounting businesses since 2010.  Brian is based in Dallas and is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy with an MBA from MIT Sloan.

Cosmin Nicolaescu is the CEO and Co-Founder of Accrual, an AI-powered accounting platform. Accrual automates complex workflows, centralizes client data, and helps firms scale high-quality tax and assurance work without adding operational burden. Previously, Cosmin was CTO at Brex, where he helped scale the company from 40 to over 1,000 employees and hundreds of millions in annual revenue. Prior to his leadership at Brex, Cosmin was an early engineer and manager at Stripe, building global payments infrastructure and launching Stripe Terminal. He began his career at Microsoft, working on early versions of Azure and Office 365.

Timothy Allen CPA & MST, principal of AWG Wine Advisors, has more than thirty years of winery finance experience, including five years with a Big 4 CPA firm, fourteen years working in operations and finance at wineries, and fifteen years leading AWG Wine Advisors, formerly Allen Wine Group. Timothy began his career at Deloitte in San Francisco in both audit and tax serving wine clients. From there he went on to become controller, CFO and president at wineries including Kendall-Jackson, Sonoma-Cutrer, Robert Mondavi, Rosenblum Cellars, and Kuleto Estate. In 2010 Timothy founded AWG Wine Advisors, a wine industry CPA firm.

Alana Smart, CPA, is a Senior Associate in Assurance Services with six years of experience in public accounting, primarily serving nonprofit organizations. She began her career in tax before transitioning to audit, giving her a well-rounded perspective on the profession and the clients she serves. In her role, she partners closely with engagement leaders on planning, testing, and client communication, while also mentoring and training staff and helping drive engagements forward efficiently.

Based in San Diego and working with Aprio’s West Coast practice, Alana is passionate about education, professional growth, and building meaningful relationships. She believes the future of accounting depends not only on technical excellence, but on firms creating environments where young professionals feel supported, challenged, and genuinely connected to their teams and clients.

Known for her strong organizational skills, analytical mindset, and natural ability to connect with people, Alana thrives at the intersection of structure and strategy. Her CliftonStrengths are Individualization, Woo, Analytical, Strategic, and Futuristic, which reflect her blend of curiosity, forward thinking, and people-centered leadership.

A graduate of California Polytechnic State University with a B.S. in Business Administration (Accounting), Alana has been recognized as Aprio’s Employee of the Month and remains deeply committed to continuous learning. Outside of work, she loves traveling, exploring different cultures, and meeting new people – a curiosity that mirrors how she approaches both her clients and the evolving accounting profession.

Michael is a results-driven leader with over 25 years of experience in market research, across many industries. Michael’s expertise spans the entire survey lifecycle, from initial questionnaire design and vendor selection to data processing, analysis, and reporting.  He excels at leading large scale, complex, global research projects and delivering high-quality research data on time and within budget.  He combines strategic thinking with a passion for collaboration and excels at understanding and meeting client needs.  Prior to joining Arizent, Michael served as Director, Survey Operations at Forrester Research. Michael has a B.S. in Marketing from Philadelphia College of Textiles and Sciences, and a MBA from Saint Joseph’s University.

Neal Schneider is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at K1x, a leading fintech company revolutionizing the alternative investments landscape through innovative technology solutions. Before co-founding K1x, Neal served as a Principal at Crowe, where he honed his expertise in technology and financial services. Neal is not only a tech visionary but also enjoys spending time with his family, cheering on his kids at baseball and cheerleading events, and embracing the lake life.

As CEO and Managing Partner of Armanino, Matt Armanino leads one of the nation’s 20 largest accounting and consulting firms, recognized for its technology-forward culture and bold approach to transformation. He has guided the firm’s Vision 2030 strategy, a roadmap to becoming a $2.5 billion, technology-enabled professional services leader, grounded in innovation, and impact.

Previously, as COO, Matt helped drive the rapid expansion of Armanino’s Consulting practice, tripling revenues through targeted acquisitions, new partnerships, and broader CFO advisory capabilities. His leadership centers on empowering people to thrive amid disruption and balancing modernization with humanity. A frequent speaker on firm growth, leadership, and AI transformation, he brings an optimistic and practical lens to the future of professional services.

Matt’s background spans corporate strategy, market development, sales, and operations management. Before joining Armanino, he held senior executive roles at Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ: ZBRA) and WhereNet, where he helped scale the business from product launch to more than $50 million in annual revenue. He also spent several years at PeopleSoft in M&A and strategy, and earlier in his career advised technology clients as a corporate attorney, negotiating global software and strategic business agreements with Fortune 500 companies.

Cathy Knepp is a people-first executive leader committed to evolving the accounting profession into a more sustainable, human, and high-performing industry. As Senior Director and Head of Human Resources at Platform Accounting Group, she aligns people strategy with business objectives, helping leaders build trust, improve execution, and create cultures where accountability, empathy, and high performance coexist.

With more than a decade of experience inside accounting firms and eight years helping scale Platform from its early stages to a national organization, Cathy brings deep operational credibility to her work. She has lived the realities of tax season, client pressure, and rapid growth, and now designs people systems that support both professional success and business results. Her focus includes leadership development, manager effectiveness, employee engagement, flexible work models, and award-winning, operationally sound People Operations. Under her leadership, Platform consistently outperforms industry benchmarks for engagement and retention.

Cathy believes the accounting profession advances through better leadership, not longer hours. She challenges outdated assumptions and represents the employee perspective at the executive table, helping the organization grow in ways that honor both business priorities and the relationship-driven strengths of small firms.

Beyond her corporate leadership, Cathy is dedicated to giving back through her work mentoring young women across Utah. She guides high school and college-age students in cultivating confidence, clarity, and a sense of direction, fostering self-awareness and a lifelong commitment to learning and personal growth.

Cathy is a frequent speaker on leadership, workplace culture, and the future of professional services, and is driven by a simple belief: when people are supported to do their best work, organizations and entire industries thrive.

Jonathan Moore is Managing Partner at PKF O’Connor Davies, one of the nation’s leading accounting and advisory firms. He leads the firm’s growth initiatives focused on expanding advisory capabilities and strengthening client relationships.

Under Jon’s leadership, advisory services have become one of the firm’s fastest-growing areas, and PKF O’Connor Davies earned The M&A Advisor’s “Accounting/Due Diligence Firm of the Year” award for three consecutive years, recognizing excellence in deal execution and client service.

With more than 30 years of experience, Jon has advised on hundreds of transactions, including venture investments and public company LBOs with a cumulative aggregate value exceeding $5 billion. His work spans industries such as aerospace, consumer products, distribution, entertainment, healthcare, industrial services, logistics, medical devices, manufacturing, professional services, retail, specialty chemicals and software, as well as cross-border transactions in the UK, Japan, Korea, Australia, Colombia and Canada.

Jon is known for helping firms move beyond compliance-focused services to advisory-led models that drive growth, deepen client relationships and deliver measurable business outcomes.

As Chief Growth Officer at Duffy Kruspodin, LLP, Tracy Kapteyn leads the firm’s unified growth strategy—a cross-functional mandate that connects strategy, marketing, client experience, operations, and innovation into a single, scalable system. She also serves as Chief Marketing Officer, where she is transforming the firm’s marketing operations into a digital-first, AI-accelerated platform for scalable growth.

Tracy is spearheading the deployment of AI-enabled systems across content, campaign, and reporting functions—designing intelligent workflows that reduce manual effort, expand visibility, and improve strategic alignment across the firm’s service lines. She also led the development of the firm’s internal AI Playbook, a foundational resource guiding the responsible and strategic integration of artificial intelligence across functions.

With over 25 years of cross-industry experience spanning financial services, SaaS, education, telecom, and consumer products, Tracy brings a rare combination of strategic insight and executional rigor. She is especially focused on modernizing growth models through better segmentation, expanded advisory services, and technology-enabled service delivery.

Her Skinny Playbook™ framework helps firms turn strategy into action—aligning teams, accelerating decision-making, and creating clear, measurable results. Whether building new revenue streams, launching digital tools, or improving pipeline performance, Tracy helps firms turn complexity into clarity.

Before joining Duffy Kruspodin, Tracy founded and led ThinkpinTK LLC, a fractional CGO consultancy for accounting firms and mid-market businesses. She also served as Chief Growth Officer at Windes and EVP of Marketing at CeriFi, where she led high-impact initiatives in brand evolution, service development, and digital transformation.

Tracy holds a B.B.A. in Management from Athabasca University and a Management Certificate from Grant MacEwan University. She thrives at the intersection of strategy, innovation, and execution and believes the most powerful growth comes from seeing around corners and helping clients do the same.