2023 National Registry Summit - Guest Speakers

Chief Ethics & Diversity Officer, NASBA

Alfonzo Alexander serves as NASBA’s chief ethics and diversity officer and president of NASBA’s Center for the Public Trust (CPT). In his role as president of CPT, Mr. Alexander oversees the day-to-day operations and the growing number of CPT programs, including the Student Center for the Public Trust, the Ethics Certification program and the Being a Difference Award program, all of which position the organization to accomplish its mission to champion public trust. Prior to joining NASBA in 2006 as a staff director and vice president of the CPT, Mr. Alexander served as regional manager and managing director for the Southeast region of INROADS, Inc., where he led operations and business development in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Before joining INROADS, Mr. Alexander held several leadership positions in operations management and human resources at the Quaker Oats Company. He holds a B.S. degree in business administration with an emphasis on human resources management from Tennessee Technological University, and an M.B.A. degree from Lipscomb University.

Director, Audit & Assurance, Eisner Advisory Group LLC

Erika Bialek is the Director of Audit & Attest Learning and Development at EisnerAmper, with over 20 years of experience in public accounting. Erika is responsible for designing audit curriculum, assessing, and responding to audit knowledge and learning needs, and executing projects to improve the audit department’s ability to provide an effective, efficient, and compliant audit. Prior to joining the firm, Erika was Senior Manager of Learning and Development at a national public accounting firm. During her 14 years there, she built their internal university from the ground up. Most recently, Erika had managed the technical learning and development for 3,600 professionals and her responsibilities included curriculum and content design, delivering training, and CPE sponsorship, to name a few. In addition to developing and designing curriculums, Erika ran continuing education compliance, the learning management system, the mentoring program, and the performance evaluation process. Before that, Erika was an auditor at a Big 4 accounting firm.

Professor, Director of Course Development, Co-Founder of TD Publishing

Craig Gordon created the innovative financial research firm, Blueshift Research, that generates ideas for clients from a proprietary "pattern mining" approach. Gordon also founded Off The Record Research, one of the first "sell side" companies to utilize market research in the investment field. Gordon was a partner at RCM Capital Management, where he created Grass Roots Research, the first survey group started on the "buy-side" of the market. Gordon taught as a professor of Business at Golden Gate University and UC Berkely. Most recently he served as an Executive-In-Residence and Professor of Practice in the Marketing Department at Lehigh University. Gordon is a noted academic author within the field of market research in the financial industry. Among his numerous academic articles published on market research, "Going Off the Record with Reg FD" closely examined and outlined how to use market research within Regulation Fair Disclosure guidelines. Gordon holds a BS in Accounting from Lehigh University and a Masters degree in Public and Private Management from Yale University. 

Director, Ethics & Compliance, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Beth Hopkins is a director at PwC on the Ethics and Compliance team responsible for individual CPE compliance monitoring.  Beth’s career at PwC has spanned 37 years and has included working in audit, Learning & Development functions and Ethics & Compliance CPA licensing and CPE compliance areas.  Beth is a member of the NASBA CPE Standards Working Group and the Joint AICPA and NASBA Committee on CPE Standards and has helped to shape revisions to the CPE Standards for several years.

EY

Nick is a Venture Leader for EY Foundry, EY’s Corporate Venturing unit, where he runs ConvoCoach™, an AI powered SaaS simulation business for mastering difficult workplace conversations. This unique patented product is one of the first commercial GPT applications.

Nick is a seasoned venturing expert, with a track record of standing up new companies, business units and products in corporations and start-ups: including Virgin, Unilever and Citi.

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Conferences i/o

John Pytel is the cofounder and CEO of Conferences i/o -- an award winning tool that automates the process of tracking CPE attendance at any Group Live, Group Internet or Hybrid CPE event. John graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship and after a brief stint with The Nielsen Company, left to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.

Learning and CPE Compliance Leader | Risk Management Americas, Ernst & Young       

Rita Sehgal serves as Ernst and Young LLP’s US Learning and CPE Compliance Leader. In her current role Ms. Sehgal oversees the day-to-day operations of the Firm CPE and Mandatory Learning Compliance function including both individual and Firm level compliance. She has over 20 years of experience in the CPE and learning compliance space including course compliance, individual CPE compliance, NASBA Registry CPE sponsorship compliance as well as CPE compliance tracking technological solutions. Prior to boomeranging back to EY in 2016, Ms. Sehgal served as an Account Manager at Xerox where she developed, took to market, and managed a Firm level CPE compliance tracking solution for CPAs. She holds a B.S. in Allied Medicine and an M.H.A. in Finance degree from The Ohio State University.

Chief Unlearning Officer, Positive Impact Force, Keynote Speaker

Sherri Sutton is a professional reinvention specialist whose clients gain confidence, overcome obstacles, and maximize their human potential using existing assets. For many of her clients Sherri steps in as a talent manager to help people upskill and reskill their workforce in today's fast-changing and turbulent world. With over 25 years in the learning and development industry, Sherri knows that human technology is often underutilized. She’s designed her services to accelerate results.

Learning Effectiveness & Product Manager, Brain Aware Training, Keynote Speaker

Meet Heloisa, an immigrant, lover of plants, and a curious human that is passionate about making change stick. For over 15 years, Heloisa has worked with 3,000+ leaders and various organizations nationwide to bring about lasting change in mindsets, behaviors, processes, and systems, ultimately helping individuals, teams, and organizations to thrive. An expert in learning and talent development and an executive coach, Heloisa has collaborated with C-level executives and front-line staff to deliver a range of projects, including designing evaluation frameworks, developing hundreds of learning solutions, and leading large-scale change initiatives. To make change sticky, Heloisa has explored the power of neuroscience in creating engaging learning programs that lead to lasting behavior change. She has gained a deep understanding of how the brain learns and codes failure, which she applies to consistently deliver impactful and engaging learning solutions. Heloisa holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park, and numerous certifications in change management, executive coaching, and adult learning design. When she is not learning something new, she is likely sharing how Spanish and Portuguese are similar but not.