CENTER FOR AUDIT QUALITY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Public Affairs at the Center
Amy O'Connor is the Vice President, Public Affairs at the Center for Audit Quality. In this role, she oversees and implements the CAQ's strategy regarding external and internal communications, design, marketing, and outreach to capital markets stakeholders including investors, public company audit committees, issuers, and others.
O'Connor's experience includes founding Move the Shakers, a communications and public affairs consultancy. Previously, she served as Vice President at the Business Roundtable, where she implemented a digital public affairs and communications transformation that included rebranding the organization, establishing new digital initiatives and capabilities, and launching advocacy campaigns tied to sustainability and other key policy priorities. During her tenure at the Business Roundtable, the organization won a Public Affairs Council Innovation Award for communications innovation.
Prior to the Business Roundtable, O'Connor was Eli Lilly's Senior Director for Communications, Digital & Social Media. In that role, she specialized in engaging audiences, creating digital platforms designed to strengthen stakeholder experience and public trust, building third-party partnerships, and developing the company's global capabilities in public affairs and crisis management. In 2014, O'Connor was named "40 Under 40" by PR Week magazine.
Amy is a graduate of University of Notre Dame and Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy.
Job Titles:
- Certified Public Accountant
- Senior Director, Professional Practice
Annette Schumacher, CPA, CGMA, is a Senior Director, Professional Practice at the Center for Audit Quality. With the CAQ since its inception in 2007, Annette is the primary liaison between the SEC and numerous standing groups within the CAQ such as the SEC Regulations Committee and the International Practices Task Force. In this role, Annette identifies, communicates and seeks consensus on emerging technical accounting and reporting issues relating to SEC rules and regulations. This includes facilitating the CAQ's responses to rule proposals issued by the SEC and monitoring regulatory developments impacting the public company auditing profession.
Annette worked to establish the CAQ Smaller Firm Task Force which provides a forum for smaller CAQ member firms to express their views, deliberate issues, and identify technical and regulatory matters involving smaller firm audit practice before the SEC and the PCAOB. She also serves on the Steering Committee for the AICPA Annual National Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments.
Before joining the CAQ, Annette worked at the AICPA as a Technical Manager with the SEC Regulations Committee, Health Care Committee and Public Utilities Committee. Prior to that, she worked at Coopers & Lybrand where she led audits in the telecommunications and banking industries.
Annette is a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). She holds a BS in accounting from the University of Nebraska and a MA in Theology from the University of Notre Dame.
Job Titles:
- Director of Research at the Center
- Director, Research
Bimal Patel is the Director of Research at the Center for Audit Quality. He leads the CAQ's research function driving increased engagement with investors, academics, and other stakeholders in support of CAQ's strategic initiatives. He also oversees the activities of CAQ's two research grant programs: the Access to Audit Personnel program, offered in partnership with the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association, and the Research Advisory Board grant program.
Before joining the CAQ, Bimal worked at Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) as Associate Director in US Research and was head of engagement and policy development. He led ISS' global benchmark policy development process and led US engagement efforts with corporate issuers. At ISS, Bimal worked on outreach and research projects and served as a US policy authority on board/audit/shareholder rights issues. Bimal has over 22 years of experience in corporate governance and proxy research. He has written several papers on various corporate governance topics and has served as a featured speaker at various events. Prior to ISS, Bimal served as a trading officer for Corus Bankshares, Inc., Asset Management Division in Chicago.
Bimal holds a Master's degree in Applied Economics with a concentration in Finance and a BS in Biology and Economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director, Communications at the Center
Brad Jacklin is the Senior Director, Communications at the Center for Audit Quality. Brad develops and executes communications, messaging, and earned media strategy for the CAQ.
Before working with the CAQ, Brad worked for Eli Lilly and Company where he managed public affairs campaigns in support of corporate state and federal policy initiatives.
Brad previously served as Press Secretary and Speechwriter for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard. As the Mayor's spokesperson, Brad was responsible for media relations, promoting City achievements to local and national audiences, and crisis communications management. Earlier in his career, Brad worked as an LGBTQ civil rights advocate. He served as the first Executive Director of Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he led branding and public policy for the organization, and held positions with several non-profit organizations where he worked on federal regulatory and legislative matters.
Brad holds a B.S. in Business Law from Indiana University and a J.D. from Santa Clara Law.
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager, Marketing at the Center
Cindy Zhang is a Senior Manager, Marketing at the Center for Audit Quality. She helps oversee and implement the CAQ's marketing efforts across a variety of initiatives.
Previously, Cindy spent 7 years at Bully Pulpit Interactive, a marketing and communications agency. There, she led paid digital and marketing strategy for some of BPI's political, advocacy and corporate clients - including building digital communities for non-profits, acquiring and engaging active voters for political campaigns and committees, and promoting public affairs initiatives for a number of Fortune 500 corporations.
Cindy holds a B.A. in International Studies and a B.S. in Business Administration from American University.
Corey Glocker is Manager, Anti-Fraud Initiatives at the Center for Audit Quality. Joining the CAQ in 2022, Glocker manages and supports projects focused on fraud deterrence and detection. Glocker is responsible for leveraging subject-matter knowledge and collaborating with members from the Anti-fraud Collaboration, CAQ task forces, and the broader profession. Glocker also contributes to the development of thought leadership and educational resources focused on financial fraud.
Glocker is a Certified Fraud Examiner, and he holds a BA in history and philosophy from McDaniel College.
Job Titles:
- Certified Public Accountant
- Vice President
- Board Member of Annapolis Pride
- Vice President, Professional Practice and Anti - Fraud Initiatives
Dennis J. McGowan, CPA is the Vice President, Professional Practice and Anti-Fraud Initiatives at the Center for Audit Quality. In this role he leads regulatory and policy strategies that foster high-quality performance by public company auditors.
His duties include leading a team of audit executives to advance technical and policy-oriented projects to identify, develop, and seek consensus on issues affecting the public company auditing profession. McGowan is also responsible for overseeing the CAQ's anti-fraud initiatives. This includes engaging with senior leaders across the financial reporting ecosystem, drafting comment letter responses to regulators, developing thought leadership publications, and responding to technical inquiries.
Dennis serves as a Board Member of Annapolis Pride, an organization dedicated to celebrating the LGBTQ+ community in Annapolis. Before joining the CAQ, he spent a decade at PwC, where he specialized in auditing clients in the financial services industry.
Dennis is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Pennsylvania, and he holds a BS in Business Administration from La Salle University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Staff Governing Board
- CA ( SA ) Senior Director, Professional Practice
Desiré Carroll, CPA, CA(SA) is a Senior Director, Professional Practice at the Center for Audit Quality. Her role involves advancing technical and policy-oriented projects to identify, develop, and seek consensus on issues affecting the public company auditing profession. This includes engaging with senior leaders across the financial reporting ecosystem, drafting comment letter responses to regulators, and developing thought leadership publications.
Before joining the CAQ, Desiré served as Associate Director - Sustainability Assurance at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Prior to that, she spent over 11 years at Deloitte primarily in their New York M&A Transaction Services group and initially in their Audit practice. Desiré is a CPA and a South African Chartered Accountant.
Donnie Heinerichs, CPA, is Manager, ESG Initiatives at the Center for Audit Quality. Prior to joining the CAQ, Donnie worked in the assurance practice at EY, providing audit services for public and private companies in the real estate, construction, and healthcare industries.
Elicia Cowins, Ph.D., CPA (Illinois, Inactive) is the Senior Manager, Research at the Center for Audit Quality. In this role, Elicia manages and supports research projects related to the organization's strategic objectives and initiatives. This includes helping to chart the strategic direction for the CAQ's research agenda, reviewing extant research on key policy priorities, identifying emerging issues facing audit firms and investors, and assisting in the development of technical content.
Before joining the CAQ, Elicia was an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Washington and Lee University. While there, she taught introductory and advanced accounting courses; conducted capital markets research in the areas of accounting for derivatives, financial and regulatory reporting for financial institutions, and standard setting; and, contributed to university-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Prior to her transition to academia, Elicia accumulated ten years of financial reporting experience for private and public companies in print media/publishing and software development industries.
Elicia holds a PhD in Accounting from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a Master's in Accounting from Florida State University, and a BS in Accounting from Florida A&M University.
Job Titles:
- Fellow, Professional Practice
Emily Lucas, CPA, is a Professional Practice Fellow at the Center for Audit Quality and a Managing Director within the National Quality Organization (NQO) of the Trust Solutions segment at PwC. Emily helps guide the CAQ's professional practice and public policy activities as part of her 18-month fellowship.
Emily brings the CAQ nearly 20 years of experience consulting with audit teams and supervising/delivering audits of both publicly traded and private companies across many industry sectors, with a focus on the energy and technology industries. In her most recent role within PwC's NQO, Emily helped lead the firm's Chief Auditor Network, which supports audit teams in enhancing audit quality and efficiency and provides firm leadership with insights on the practice environment and overall audit quality trends. Emily has been an innovator in the use of data analysis to support engagement teams in enhancing audit quality and she frequently appeared on practice- and sector-wide webcasts as a subject matter expert on a range of audit quality related topics.
A holder of a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish from the University of Virginia and a Masters of Accountancy degree from the University of Georgia, Emily is licensed as a CPA in Louisiana and Georgia.
Job Titles:
- Manager
- Certified Public Accountant in Virginia
- Manager, Professional Practice
Erin Cromwell, CPA is a Manager, Professional Practice at the Center for Audit Quality. Joining the CAQ in 2022, Cromwell manages and supports technical and policy-oriented projects through working groups and task forces with senior audit leaders.
Prior to joining the CAQ, Cromwell worked in KPMG's audit practice, focusing on both integrated and non-integrated audit engagements for companies in the telecommunications and aerospace and defense industries. She also spent time with KPMG's environmental, social, and governance (ESG) team, KPMG IMPACT, focusing on ESG attestation and other non-audit services for audit clients.
Cromwell is a Certified Public Accountant in Virginia and holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Richmond.
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager, Office Operations
Giselle Soriano is the Senior Manager, Office Operations and Human Resources at the Center for Audit Quality. With over 15 years of expertise in administration, facilities management, customer/vendor relations, and event logistics and planning, she is responsible for day-to-day office operations at the CAQ, including vendor management, new hire on-boarding, bookkeeping functions, budget management, and daily office administrative tasks.
Before joining the CAQ, Soriano worked in the fashion industry as a retail fashion buyer, stylist, and department manager at a national major retailer.
A member of the Society of Human Resources and the American Society of Association Executives, Soriano has a BS degree in animal science from University of Maryland, College Park and holds a Society of Human Resources Certification (SHRM - CP). She serves as the Chair of the CAQ Community Committee, where she leads CAQ efforts to remain connected with the community through volunteer service.
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager, Events at the Center
Jessica Pinkston is the Senior Manager, Events at the Center for Audit Quality. In this role since 2016, her duties include managing the logistics and execution CAQ's full event portfolio and supporting the organization in achieving its event and operational goals around sustainability.
Before joining the CAQ, Pinkston served as the Manager of the Conference & Events team at the U.S. Green Building Council, working directly on the Greenbuild Conference & Expo for 10 years.
Pinkston holds a bachelor's in business administration with a specialty in business law from Marymount University and is a Certified Meeting Professional, as designated by the Events Industry Council.
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager, Communications at the Center
Julia Germain is a Senior Manager, Communications at the Center for Audit Quality. Julia oversees and executes the CAQ's communications and earned media strategy.
Prior to joining the CAQ, Julia spent six years working for a variety of global communications and marketing firms specialized in healthcare. Most recently, Julia was a Senior Account Manager at W2O Group, where she spent two years spearheading a multifaceted communications campaign for Astellas Oncology's signature grant program, the C 3 (Changing Cancer Care) Prize. While at W2O Group, Julia also led media relations and issues management activities for Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies related to regulatory milestones and clinical trial updates.
Before W2O Group, Julia worked at Porter Novelli, where she led communications and media relations for public health initiatives driven by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Key public awareness campaigns Julia oversaw focused on fraud prevention, open enrollment, and vaccine promotion.
Julia holds a B.A. in Public Relations and Technical Communications from James Madison University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Chief Executive Officer of the Center
Julie Bell Lindsay is the Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ), a position she has held since May 2019.
As CEO, Lindsay is responsible for carrying out the mission and vision of the CAQ's Governing Board, which is comprised of CEOs from eight leading public company auditing firms and the American Institute of CPAs, as well as three independent members from outside the public company auditing profession.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Staff Governing Board
- Vice President, Operations and Talent Initiatives at the Center
Liz Barentzen is the Vice President, Operations and Talent Initiatives at the Center for Audit Quality, where she oversees day-to-day and long-term strategic operations, as well as leads and advances strategic profession-wide initiatives to attract and retain talent.
Previously, Barentzen was the Chief Culture Officer at Sol Systems LLC, a national solar finance, investment and development firm. In that role she worked to drive organizational effectiveness and helped manage change through a rapid period of growth, while overseeing all recruitment, learning, and retention initiatives. Prior to Sol Systems, Barentzen was the Director of Workforce Relations at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, where she served as strategic and legal counsel to management and oversaw training and development, HRIS, benefits, total rewards, HR administration, performance management, and internal investigations.
Barentzen has 20 years of experience in Human Capital and is an Associate Certified Coach through the Georgetown Leadership Coaching program. A member of the New York Bar, she holds a JD from Brooklyn Law School and a BA in psychology from New York University.
Job Titles:
- Director, Anti - Fraud Initiatives
- Is Director
Lucy Wang is Director, Anti-Fraud Initiatives at the Center for Audit Quality. In this role since 2019, Wang serves as a subject matter expert on issues related to fraud deterrence and detection. Wang is responsible for leading technical and policy-oriented projects while working closely with representatives from the Anti-Fraud Collaboration, task forces, and the broader profession. Wang manages the development of thought leadership, reports, and other resources that address current financial reporting fraud issues.
Before joining the CAQ, Wang served as Manager at PwC's Forensic Services practice based in Washington, DC and Shanghai, China, where she assisted Fortune 500 companies with their global compliance programs, cross-border M&A transactions, large scale risk assessments, regulatory investigations, and litigation support. Wang executed complex investigations involving cases such as financial statement fraud, misappropriation of assets, bribery, and corruption. Wang also led numerous anti-corruption and fraud risk assessments globally, including in Asia Pacific, Africa, and Europe.
Wang is a Certified Fraud Examiner, and she holds a BS in finance and accounting from New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Staff Governing Board
- Manager, Communications and Research
Madilyn Cancro is Manager, Communications and Research at the Center for Audit Quality.
Job Titles:
- Manager, Member Services at the Center
Marie Kallio is the Manager, Member Services at the Center for Audit Quality. She has been with the CAQ since 2007 and in her current role since 2014. Marie's duties include managing membership processes related to dues and the CAQ annual survey of its member firms, assisting with member inquiries, and supporting meetings and events.
Before joining the CAQ, Marie served as Supervisor, SEC Practice Section/CPCAF Peer Review Programs at the AICPA. She has also worked at Farberware.
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager
- Senior Manager, Art and Design Director
Michael Hyde is Senior Manager, Art and Design Director at the Center for Audit Quality. Since 2016, he has led the development of the organization's brand.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Staff Governing Board
- Assistant, Administration at the Center
Michelle Bailey is the Assistant, Administration at the Center for Audit Quality. In this role since 2021, she supports CAQ Vice Presidents and their team members. Her duties include calendar and meeting management, expense processing, travel arrangements, and scheduling.
Before joining the CAQ, Michelle served as an Administrative Assistant for over 10 years at some of the most prestigious law and consulting firms in the DC area.
Job Titles:
- Finance
- Senior Manager, Executive Administration and Finance
Reggie Hill is Senior Manager, Executive Administration and Finance at the Center for Audit Quality. In this role since 2015, his duties include providing high-level administrative, operational, and project-level support to the CEO. He is also responsible for managing the finance and budget functions; and is the primary liaison to the CAQ's governing board and corresponding committees.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director
- Certified Public Accountant in Maryland
- Senior Director, Professional Practice
Vanessa Teitelbaum, CPA, is Senior Director, Professional Practice at the Center for Audit Quality. She joined the CAQ in 2016 and advocates for stakeholders in the audits of public companies.
As an in-house expert and resource on auditing and accounting practice issues, Vanessa leads task forces comprised of audit partners and technical experts from the public company audit profession related to proposed standards and other current issues facing the profession. Projects have included development of the CAQ's Audit Quality Disclosure Framework, Preparing for the New Credit Losses Standard: A Tool for Audit Committees, and the External Auditor Assessment Tool, among other publications. Vanessa has facilitated responses to proposed standards and regulations related to quality management, supervision of other auditors, quarterly reporting, the accelerated filer definition, and independence.
Before joining the CAQ, Vanessa served as an audit senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Dixon Hughes Goodman, leading audit teams of both large and midsize companies in a variety of industries, including technology, manufacturing, and financial services. Vanessa has over 15 years of audit experience, specialized in SEC financial reporting, technical accounting, and internal control matters.
Vanessa is a Certified Public Accountant in Maryland and the District of Columbia. She holds a bachelor of arts in Asian studies from Williams College and a master of business administration in accounting and finance from New York University Stern School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Coordinator
- Senior Coordinator, Front Desk and Operations
Zadkiel Lind is the Coordinator, Front Desk and Operations at the Center for Audit Quality. In this role since 2019, his duties include acting as the first point of contact for CAQ guests and staff, supporting the Operations team, and serving as a liaison to various vendors.
Before joining the CAQ, Lind served as a Desk Attendant Supervisor at UNM Residence Life & Student Housing. He has also worked at the University of New Mexico as Student Safety & Security Supervisor and with the Albuquerque Comic Expo as a Front-End Manager.
Lind holds a BA in English with a minor in media arts from the University of New Mexico.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Staff Governing Board
- Senior Director
- Senior Director, Stakeholder Engagement and Marketing
Zlatana Alibegovic is the Senior Director, Stakeholder Engagement and Marketing at the Center for Audit Quality. In this role, she oversees the CAQ's digital portfolio, including social media, website, and email content strategy across a variety of initiatives.
Prior to joining the CAQ in 2020, Zlatana spent five years at Eli Lilly and Company, where she led digital capabilities enablement and enterprise marketing transformation strategy. She has also worked in public policy at Facebook and supported PR and social media efforts for several Fortune 500 companies as an Account Manager at a public relations firm in Chicago.
Zlatana earned her master of arts degree in public affairs from The George Washington University, and her bachelor of arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.