Speakers
See the Schedule
 Sam E. Antar is a former CPA and former
Chief Financial Officer of Crazy Eddie, Inc. During the 1980’s he helped
mastermind with his cousin Eddie Antar and uncle Sam M. Antar (co-founders of
the company) one of the largest securities frauds of its time. Crazy Eddie Antar
was coined by the US Attorney Michael Chertoff as, “the Darth Vader of
Capitalism.” This securities fraud cost investors hundreds of millions of
dollars, cost many people their life savings, cost many people their jobs and
careers, cost creditors hundreds of millions of dollars, and many people’s
suffering that cannot be measured. Sam was the government’s key witness in both
the criminal and civil prosecutions and fully cooperated with all civil
plaintiffs in the prosecution of their claims. As a former fraudster, Sam
believes it is his obligation and responsibility to educate society, so that
society can avoid future perils caused by new generations of criminals.
[SMART/Bio_fleek.htm]
 Dr. Dale Henry grew up in the foothills of
the Smoky Mountains, an area that is bountiful in two things—hospitality and
story-telling. Dr. Dale has been a teacher, principal, Dean of the oldest
college in Tennessee, a businessman, author, and a speaker and trainer. Dale has
been in customer service over half his life. His story-telling ability propelled
him as a teacher. This, combined with his customer service and unique ability to
captivate audiences, has sky-rocketed Dale in his speaking career.
Since he began speaking just a few short years ago, corporate, government,
and educational agencies call on Dr. Henry regularly to have him train their
professionals. His client list is a virtual who’s who of the top business and
agencies in the nation. Dr. Henry is a master teacher in every aspect of the
term, and he is what motivational speakers aspire to become.
In keeping with Dr. Dale Henry’s book title, The Proverbial Cracker Jack:
How to Get Out of The Box And Become The Prize, Dale is definitely the
prize!
Garth Landers is the Director, Strategic Solutions at Mobius
Management Systems, Inc.
Garth joined Mobius in 2003 after five years as a research analyst in the
Content Research Group at Gartner, Inc. While at Gartner, Garth worked with over
one thousand enterprises -- spanning the Fortune 1000 and numerous public sector
entities -- in helping to select and implement systems for managing vast amounts
of digital information as strategic assets. His responsibilities at Mobius
include driving market strategy for enterprise archiving, records management and
compliance solutions. Garth has authored over 60 research documents and has been
widely quoted in the trade and business press.
Scott Langlinais is a Dallas based consultant specializing in fraud and audit
advisory services. Scott uses data mining techniques to detect fraud and waste
and to enhance investigative results. He has led investigations in the following
areas: revenues, billing, payroll, expense reports, cash, accounts receivable,
accounts payable, and corporate credit cards. His investigations of fraud and
gross negligence have resulted in removal of wrongdoers, successful litigation,
and recovery of millions of dollars.
Scott also uses data analysis software to detect control weaknesses and fraud
and to create customized fraud watch programs for Internal Audit and operational
departments. He has trained departments outside of Internal Audit to use these
programs to perform self-audits and optimize controls. Additionally, he uses the
software to create continuous monitoring processes that rate departments based
on risk criteria customized to the business. In 2002, he received the first
annual IDEA™ Software Excellence award for his creative and effective use of
IDEA™ data analysis software in his work.
Scott has presented at fraud conferences and seminars and is a former
Director of Internal Audit. In 1991, Scott received his BBA degree from the
University of Notre Dame.
In addition to providing fraud and audit advisory services, Scott is the
founder and President of the Dallas Tax Assistance Program, a not-for-profit
entity that has been providing free tax assistance to low-income families in
Dallas for six years. The program comprises over 40 volunteers who serve the
community at three different sites each spring. He is also a past President and
current Director of the Notre Dame Alumni Association of Dallas.
Jeffrey G. Matthews is the Director of Economic Advisory Services for
Grant Thornton LLP, Dallas. Jeff has helped formalize Grant Thornton’s local
forensic practice after spending many years practicing for state, local and
Federal governmental bodies. Jeff has extensive forensic and litigation
experience, including more than five years with Big Four accounting firms. His
experience includes working as a criminal investigator, an auditor in charge,
and a forensic project director. Jeff has significant experience in complex
bankruptcy cases, financial investigations, forensic accounting, and litigation
support. He has investigated and provided oversight for investigations of
Federal and state criminal violations, including bid rigging, kickbacks, money
laundering, conspiracy, and many types of fraud. He has calculated damages
resulting from breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, diminution of value
and misappropriation of trade secrets. Jeff is a Certified Public Account and
Certified Fraud Examiner.
Michael Porier, CISA, CBCP, CISSP, CFSA, CISM is a Director in
Protiviti’s technology risk consulting practice in Houston, Texas. As a part of
this team, Michael specializes in risk identification and control assessments
for technology related environments for the energy and financial services
industries. Michael serves on Protiviti’s national leadership team for Business
Continuity Management (BCM) and IT Security service lines. Within BCM, Michael
has consulted with numerous organizations and executed projects to perform
recovery plan assessments, conduct Business Impact Analyses, assist in the
determination of system-based recovery options, develop and document business
continuity plans, and evaluate data storage controls. Michael has consulted with
numerous organization around the world, having traveled to the UK, Middle East,
Singapore, Indonesia, and Venezuela.
Michael has written various BCM-related articles for national periodicals as
well as for the Disaster Recovery Guide. Prior to joining Protiviti, he worked
for eight years in the banking industry including positions in accounting,
systems programming, and operations.
[SMART/Bio_sheffield.htm]
Ronald C. Skillens is a Senior Manager in Grant Thornton’s Dallas
office and is responsible for providing project management leadership for
internal audit and Sarbanes-Oxley engagements. Ron has over 15 years of audit,
corporate finance and business consulting experience. Ron has been directly
responsible for leading and performing auditing and professional services for
clients in a variety of industries including Sarbanes-Oxley, financial audits,
performance measure development, and financial process improvement. His
financial auditing and consulting background included experience with public and
private companies in the manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and consumer
products industries. He also has experience leading large process improvement,
system upgrade, and revenue cycle optimization projects. Prior to joining Grant
Thornton, Ron was a manager in the Business Consulting and Audit practices at
Arthur Andersen. He has also served in various corporate finance and executive
roles for a Fortune 500 consumer products company and a national environmental
services company.
Ron earned a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the
University of North Texas.
 Mark Towers is a high-content motivational
speaker who uses powerful stories, squeaky-clean humor, and magic tricks
(illusions) in all of his presentations. His ability to help people manage
change with unchanging values, cope with setbacks, and give people a renewed
sense of hope have kept him in high demand. Besides numerous associations and
many government agencies, a partial list of his clients include John Deere,
Sprint, NASA, Hallmark Cards, and ABC-TV. He consistently applies his
intelligence, experience, humor, and wisdom to move all attendees in an exciting
and positive direction.
Along with his extensive research, his diverse background as an educator,
broadcast personality, therapist, author, consultant, and salesperson have
enabled him to draw from many reservoirs of expertise. He has written seven
books, published a myriad of articles, produced audio materials, and most
importantly, continues to be excited about the never-ending cycle of teaching
and learning.
Mark has a master's degree in Counseling and Psychology. He has been working
throughout the world since 1987.
|
