Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Steve Blundell is Senior Manager Vendor Partner Relations and Customer Advocate for APD. He is responsible for the relationships APD has with vendors and partners. He also fills the role of customer advocate.Blundell has held a variety of roles during his 20 year career at Intuit; from a role as the leader of non-tax development to Vice President of the ProSeries Tax Group. Although he retired in January of 2005, he has maintained a primary role as customer advocate.Prior to joining Intuit, Blundell was a partner in the firm of Pignato Underwood Blundell CPAs in Delray Beach, Florida. He was also CEO of Direct Link Software, a business tax software company. Blundell also co-authored the Accountant’s Trial Balance software for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. His varied roles in the profession as a CPA, software developer and corporate vice president make him the perfect choice to fill APD’s Customer Advocate role.Blundell earned his BS in Accounting from Florida Atlantic University. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants.

As co-founder and CEO of AccountantsWorld, Dr. Chandra Bhansali has been serving the accounting profession for the past 35 years. He is recognized throughout the accounting industry as a pioneer in developing cloud technology for accountants. A thought leader on best practices for accounting firms, Dr. Bhansali has authored numerous articles and whitepapers, and he is frequently featured in professional accounting publications as an expert on the implementation of leading-edge technology into accounting practices. He has been consistently named one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting by Accounting Today magazine for the past decade.

Steven R. Berger is a shareholder in Vedder Price P.C. (New York) who is experienced in regulatory and transactional issues of accounting firms, corporate and finance transactions, and general commercial advice. Mr. Berger regularly represents accounting firms in transactions involving the acquisition of accounting practices; Federal and state regulatory issues; drafting partnership agreements, shareholder agreements, and limited liability company agreements; independence investigations, succession planning, and PCAOB and SEC compliance.Mr. Berger is an author and frequent speaker on laws and regulations affecting accountants and accounting firms. He is a contributing author to PPC�s Guide to Managing an Accounting Practice (2012). He is the author of �A Practical Guide to the New PCAOB Reporting Requirements�, published in The CPA Journal (February 2010); �PCAOB Survives Constitutional Challenge�, published in The Trusted Professional (November 1, 2008), as well as selected chapters in treatises on limited liability companies and drafting corporate agreements. He can be reached at Vedder Price P.C., sberger@vedderprice.com.

Bill Parrish is an accountant and tax professional practicing as Bill Parrish Private Practice Group, LLC, a virtual practice where he serves clients in several states and around the world. Additionally, he works for his wife, Cheryl, at her practice in Overland Park, Ks. He began his career as a bank clearing house messenger, a temporary job to fund his education. As advancement opportunities became available, he advanced through all departments and positions of banking including Auditor, Trust and Investment Officer, Operations Officer, Senior Lending Officer, and finally President and CEO. After thirteen years of corporate life, he gained a desire to be more in charge of his own life and at the same time continue to provide financial advice and assistance. He resigned and formed his own accounting and tax practice. The emphasis of that practice has always been to provide meaningful financial reporting and planning assistance to individual and small business clients at affordable fees. The practice continues to grow in excess of 40% per year.Bill has received a District Director's Award from the Internal Revenue Service, has served the Public Accountants Association of Kansas in numerous positions including President, and is the past Chairman of the Accounting Standards Committee of the National Society of Accountants; the Task Force on Regulation of the Profession, the Right to Practice Committee, the Professional Development Committee, the Long Range Planning Committee, and the Scholarship Development Committee. He served NSA for four years as a member of the Board of Governors. He is also a past member of the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council for Accountancy and Taxation where he served as their President. He has spoken at seminars for the Internal Revenue Service, accounting societies, and banking groups. He received the Golden Quill Award from the National Society of Accountants, their annual award for the best member written article for their national publications and their highest annual award, the Distinguished Service Award and most recently was named the NSA Speaker of the Year.He is an Accredited Business Accountant, an Accredited Tax Preparer, an Accredited Tax Advisor, an Accredited Small Business Advisor, and an Accredited Retirement Advisor, all as designated by the Accreditation Council for Accountancy and Taxation. Bill currently serves ACAT as their National Ambassador."Dedication to the needs of clients" and "an enthusiasm for the profession" are the words that best describe the reasons for his success in developing a dynamic practice serving the diverse needs of his clients.

“It’s not your father’s firm” takes on a whole new meaning where Jason Blumer is concerned. With an understanding of the big demographic shift taking place (from Baby Boomers to Millennials), Jason set his mind to re-inventing his firm’s traditional service model to one that “speaks to the up and coming entrepreneurial niche. Smart application of technology and best practices (and a somewhat bohemian dress code) has put Jason’s firm and management style on the map. He’s a mover and a shaker- mixing things up to break down the traditional mind set and emerge as a progressive, transformational leader within the profession.Jason is not only dedicated to moving his firm forward, but also to educating the profession at large. Standardized workflow and paperless processes have helped his firm increase efficiencies and better serve clients, and it is his goal to make other firms understand the immense value of change in these areas. As such, he has partnered with State CPA Societies and trade media to host educational webcasts on managing a next generation CPA firm. He talks about his own successes and details the methodologies behind his transformation to help CPA’s envision how to implement the right technologies and best practices in their own firms.Jason is a new-age thought leader, creating a fresh new mold for today’s CPA. In fact, his approach has been so successful that he has received his fair share of media coverage. Dedicated to educating the profession, he has also contributed several articles and operates a personal blog that focuses on how firms can harness technology and adopt a new mind set to better serve clients and take their firms to new and exciting levels.