McConnell & Jones is excited to announce three industry practice leaders who are scheduled to present and speak at conferences and workshops this summer: Eric Ernest, Marlon Williams, and Gilbert Hopkins, will present industry trends and challenges specific to their business niches.
Audit Partner, Marlon Williams, and fraud specialist, Gilbert Hopkins, were selected by the Texas Association of School Board Officials to lead a workshop entitled: “Fraud Avoidance” which discusses how to promote an environment of strong ethics and heightened fraud awareness. Having performed a multitude of financial and school performance audits, Williams and Hopkins have identified weaknesses in internal control systems and recommended improvements to enhance administrative and operational efficiency. Accordingly, they bring a unique perspective to the conference and plan to help administrators identify where fraud can occur within a school district, conditions that encourage fraud, who commits fraud, and why. Williams and Hopkins track is scheduled for June 17th at the Irving Convention Center.
ERISA Assurance Compliance Partner, Eric Ernest, will join the Texas Society of CPAs for the first annual Audits of Employee Benefit Plans Conference on June 27th in San Antonio. Ernest will lead two sessions; “Investments for Auditors: A Practical Walk-Through” and “Employee Benefit Plan Auditing and Accounting Update”. Ernest has more than 20 years total experience in auditing and accounting for a variety of industries and benefit plan sponsors with extensive knowledge in the accounting, auditing, and reporting requirements of employee benefit plans. He is a specialist in benefit plan accounting, auditing, legislative, and regulatory issues to include SEC and DOL rules and regulations. As a leader in this specialty practice, he has been responsible for the design and implementation of employee benefit plan audit methodology, as well as the development and delivery of training to colleagues on his team.