This year, we have a great line up of speakers at REST: Reno Education Seminar & Training. These REST speakers have proven their worth in their professional lives and want to share their knowledge with you. These biographies show that these REST speakers have worked hard for their success and gained extensive knowledge through their experiences.
REST Speaker: Candy Bellau, CFE –
Course info
Candy Bellau, CFE, is a dedicated fraud prevention expert with a passion for helping firm owners safeguard their clients. As the founder of Kramerica Business Solutions, she offers expertise in fraud investigations, controller services, and preparing businesses for audits and valuations. Candy has coached firm owners nationwide, drawing on her extensive experience. Holding a BBA in Accounting, an MBA in Corporate Finance, and a CFE certification, her career spans roles as an outsourced CFO/Controller, consultant, and General Manager. Candy excels in empowering business owners while balancing the demands of leading a team, nurturing her family, and prioritizing self-care.
REST Speaker: Donielle Borgo, CPA –
Course info
Donielle Borgo is a CPA with 20 years of experience in San Francisco and Washington DC. She specializes in corporate taxation, compliance services, income tax accounting and tax policy matters for private and public companies. Donielle, who spent two years working at PwC’s National Tax office in Washington DC in the Tax Policy group, is currently working for Crowe LLP in their San Francisco office. She has been able to leverage her experience at PwC’s National office following legislative and regulatory developments to keep tax departments on the front end of developments to allow for strategic proactive planning.
REST Speaker: Mary Carlson, CPA –
Course info
Mary Carlson is a Managing Director in Crowe’s San Francisco State and Local Tax Group. She has over 20 years of client service and industry experience in multistate tax consulting and compliance. Mary specializes in state and local income tax, including all aspects of planning, audit/controversy resolution and mergers and acquisition for a wide variety of clients, including manufacturers, distributors, technology and service providers. She also has significant experience in sales/use and payroll tax matters.
REST Speaker: Claudia Castillo –
Course info
Claudia J. Castillo is the founder of ResolvEmployment Law, P.C. She represents employers with respect to their employment law-related matters. Claudia’s practice includes counseling and defending employers facing claims of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, disability and wage and hour. She provides services to employers of all sizes and across numerous industries including restaurant, technology, health and medical services, green energy, financial services, logistics and manufacturing including all aspects of workplace/human resource needs. In her advice and counsel practice, Claudia provides compliance support and provides management and employee training in both English and Spanish. She also prepares responses on behalf of employers with regards to charges/complaints filed by employees with government agencies, including the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Department of Labor Standards Enforcement.
REST Speaker: Lawrence A. Dodd, CPA (inactive) –
Course info
Larry Dodd is the founder of OpenPlaybook™, an organization created to provide leaders and those who aspire to lead with a better methodology to build more effective teams, develop people and drive positive change initiatives to success. The results are motivated teams of people who know what to do, how to do it and who drive organizations to the next level. Over 36 years Larry has served in the roles of Chief Financial Officer, Vice President-People Development, management consultant, and CliftonStrengths leadership coach/trainer and speaker. He has served organizations such as the San Francisco Giants, Meritage Homes, Signature Homes, Robert Half International and Arthur Andersen. His clients range from startups to mature established companies with revenues in excess of $1 billion and spans Major League Baseball, real estate development, health care, agriculture, auto racing, high technology, manufacturing and professional services. What links his diverse array of clients is that each has had a critical need to make a change in its business. OpenPlaybook™ methodology believes that successful leadership is driven by the successful understanding and implementation of three interrelated playbooks: The playbook you are given – how to find talent that others miss, the playbook that you develop – how to turn talent into strength that drives breakthrough results, and the playbook that you give away – why the right people will run through walls for you. In 2006, Larry was honored as one of the Institute of Management Accountants Regional Financial Executives of the Year and he is a Gallup-Certified CliftonStrengths Coach.
REST Speaker: Shailesh Ghimire –
Course info
Shailesh Ghimire is an accomplished speaker, blogger, podcast host and entrepreneur who has helped small businesses across the country build profitable digital assets. Shailesh is passionate about educating and helping business owners, entrepreneurs and marketing managers use the power of digital marketing and AI to grow their bottom line. As a speaker, Shailesh communicates complex digital marketing and AI concepts in a clear, succinct manner. He also brings insights from years of experience working with brands across a range of industries. His approach to AI utilization has always centered on making it practical and useful, hence he shares AI use cases in marketing and business processes. Participants always leave knowing they can leverage their new knowledge to build a stronger business. Shailesh earned an MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and has recently earned a certification in AI from Microsoft/LinkedIn. Shailesh is originally from Kathmandu, Nepal. He lives in South Jordan, Utah with his wife and four daughters. He hopes to one day write a book on understanding women from infancy to adulthood or do some standup comedy. He loves to hike, camp, travel, play pickup soccer with his kids and spend time with friends and family.
REST Speaker: Drummond Kahn, MS, CIA, CGFM, CGAP –
Course info
Drummond Kahn trains auditors and accountability professionals from more than 30 years of experience. He joined the auditing profession in 1990. His auditing roles included Chief of Audit Services for the Oregon Department of Transportation, Director of Audit Services for the City of Portland and State Audit Administrator for the Oregon Secretary of State Audits Division. Drummond began his career in the U.S. Government Accountability Office. He served as National President of the Association of Local Government Auditors (2012-13), received AGA’s Frank Greathouse Distinguished Leadership Award (2013) and chaired the Comptroller General’s Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards (2015-2022). In 2014, the IIA’s American Center for Government Auditing recognized Drummond as one of the 15 Most Influential Professionals in Government Auditing. Drummond holds a master’s degree from the University of Oregon and a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College.
REST Speaker: Kenny Kang, CPA, CGMA, CFE –
Course info
Kenny Kang is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). He has over 19 years of public and industry experience. He specializes in forensic accounting, fraud examination, and fraud prevention & detection. With over 80 civil, criminal and investigative cases, Kenny has acquired a wealth of forensic techniques and experience in fighting fraud. He specializes in complex business disputes involving accounting matters. Kenny has previously testified as an expert witness at the Los Angeles Superior Court and at arbitrations. He received high recommendation from the Law Offices Los Angeles County Public Defender in 2009. Kenny also has a passion for cybersecurity and has been presenting on cybersecurity-related topics since 2016. He received the Cybersecurity Fundamentals for Finance and Accounting Professionals Certificate and the 2019–20 Digital Mindset from the AICPA in 2018 and 2019. Most recently, Kenny completed the AI Challenge from Microsoft. Kenny provides consultation services in fraud risk assessment, internal controls assessment, accounting processes review, and cybersecurity training to a wide range of organizations.
REST Speaker: Joanna Kardys-Stone, DBA, MAcc, CPA, CFE –
Course info
Joanna Kardys-Stone is an accounting professional and educator. Her professional experience includes public accounting (audit, tax, consulting) and internal audit, and she has taught accounting at the University of Nevada, Reno. She holds the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) designations, and Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) in Accounting and Master of Accountancy (MAcc) degrees. Her other professional involvement includes IMA, AICPA, NVCPA, American Accounting Association (AAA), and Accounting & Financial Women’s Alliance (AFWA), among others. A fierce supporter of the accounting profession and always driving students and others (and herself) to do more than seems achievable. Born in Poland, she loves pierogies, opts for walking instead of driving where possible, and loves traveling and road trips. When travel is not possible, she sticks to adventure in the kitchen (she never returns from travels without a new spice or herbs to try).
REST Speaker: Jeanne Yamamura, Ph.D., MIM, CPA –
Course info
Jeanne Yamamura, licensed as a CPA in Nevada and California, provides training for diverse audiences throughout the United States and internationally. She is a professor of accounting emerita at the University of Nevada, Reno. Jeanne specializes in enabling employees and leaders of small governments and organizations to better understand the accounting numbers and internal controls needed to successfully manage their operations. She also provides training in professional ethics for CPAs and CMAs. Her background includes public and private accounting, academia – online and offline, CPA exam review, and consulting. She holds a doctoral degree in business administration from Washington State University-Pullman, a master’s degree in international management from Thunderbird School of Global Management, and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.