Leita Hart-Fanta, CPA, CGFM
Principal

Leita Hart-Fanta makes finance and auditing fun and easy. She converts the complex topics of accounting, finance, auditing, and budgeting into information that professionals can absorb and use.

Leita is the author of:

• Accounting Demystified—a McGraw-Hill book explaining basic accounting concepts
• The Four Principles of Happy Cash Flow—which explains how all businesses can implement the cash flow maximizing techniques of Dell and Wal-Mart
• Continuing professional education self-study manuals on:
• The Risk Assessment Suite of SASs
• The Yellow Book—Government Auditing Standards
• Cash Flow
• Governmental Accounting
• Lean/Six Sigma for Accountants
• The Public Funds Investment Act online course for Texas State University
• Auditing guides, including:
• Basic Audit Skills
• Yellow Book Government Auditing Standards
• Interviewing Skills for Auditors

Leita has owned and operated AuditSkills, a training and professional development company, since 1995. She has conducted and developed courses on balanced scorecard management, audit supervision, financial analysis, budgeting, business writing, finance for non-financial managers, cash flow, presentation skills, government auditing standards, and performance measurement.

Leita’s clients include CED Corporation, USAA, Temple-Inland, The Los Angeles Unified School District, The LBJ School of Public Affairs, EDS, Dell Computer, First Data Corporation, Joseph Eves CPAs, The Texas Society of CPAs, The National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers, and Treasurers, The Texas Municipal League, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, The Texas State Auditor’s Office, Broadwing, Inc., The Association of Government Accountants, The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, The Alaska State Auditor, Western CPE, The Montana Society of CPAs, The Reznick Group, The North Dakota Office of the State Auditor, The Texas Department of Human Services, Great West Insurance, Valero Energy, Western CPE, The University of Texas, Texas Children’s Hospital, Southwest Texas State University, The Minnesota Society of CPAs, The Arizona Society of CPAs, and The Albuquerque, Phoenix, San Antonio, and El Paso Chapters of the IIA.

Leita is an experienced facilitator, having led over 800 full or multi-day seminars. She has also keynoted numerous conferences and developed over twenty-five distinct courses and speeches.

During her five years with the Texas State Auditor’s Office, she acted as both an auditor and a communications specialist. Leita led the team that produced a national-award-winning report summarizing the financial condition of the State.

Leita is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor’s in business administration. She is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Government Financial Manager. She serves on the conference planning committees of the local chapters of the Texas Society of CPAs. She is an executive board member of the Austin chapter of the Association of Government Accountants. She is a technical reviewer for the AGA’s Certificate of Achievement in Service Efforts and Accomplishments Reporting.

To learn more about Leita, see her websites at:
www.leitahart.com
www.happycashflow.com
www.auditskills.com

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Eric S. Berman, CPA

Eric Berman has been Deputy Comptroller for the Massachusetts Office of the Comptroller since 1999. He is responsible for three Bureaus, including the Financial Reporting and Analysis Bureau responsible for preparing the Commonwealth's two independently audited financial statements, fixed asset and the Commonwealth's debt accounting, the Accounting Bureau responsible for the management of the Commonwealth's capital project funds, establishing and maintaining spending and revenue authorizations for over 150 state departments, maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the Commonwealth's ledgers for its funds the receivables, e-Commerce, PCI compliance, revenue maximization and cost avoidance, and the Federal Cost Accounting Bureau which is in charge of preparing, negotiating and implementing a number of cost plans with the federal government and federal aid billing for the Commonwealth. He is also in charge of the financial relationships between the Commonwealth and its authorities, schools of higher education and their foundations. He is also in charge of the Commonwealth's annual Single Audit.

He has also worked on a number of Commonwealth-wide issues, including the Commonwealth's participation in the master settlement agreement with the tobacco companies, the forward-funding of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the Central Artery/Tunnel project and the Performance Enhancement Commission. He is also in charge of implementing all Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) standards in the Commonwealth. He also participates in the standards' implementation to all of the Commonwealth's municipalities along with the Department of Revenue's Division of Local Services. As such, he is a nationally recognized authority on GASB Standards 34, 35, 37, 38 and 45 and has authored guides for their implementation. He has also edited a guide along with the GASB for financial analysts in implementing those standards. He also serves on various committees to comment on new standards on post employment benefits other than pensions, derivatives and credit and investment risk. He also has been quoted in Accounting Today and Governing Magazine. He has authored a chapter in a book, Derivatives Accounting and Risk Management: Key Concepts and the Impact of IAS 39, recently published by the London School of Economics—Risk Waters publishing UK. Also, was the editor of a standard accounting reference guide—2007 GAAP Guide Levels B, C, and D published in 2006 by CCH (Commerce Clearing House—Wolters Kluwer). He is in the process of co-authoring a folio for the Bureau of National Affairs due late in 2008 or early 2009, Fundamental Principles of Governmental Accounting (working title). A second folio on pensions and other post-employment benefits will be authored for 2009. 

Prior to coming to the Office of the Comptroller, Mr. Berman was the Treasurer of the Massachusetts Water Pollution Abatement Trust, where he was in charge of reporting, investments, budgeting, personnel, and the daily operations of the $2 billion government banking instrumentality. He coordinated investment bidding process for guaranteed investment contracts, repurchase agreements and escrows and was responsible for issuing over $1 billion in tax-exempt bonds and $1.2 billion in loans. As part of the bond issues of the trust, he structured the first 30-year bond issue for a state revolving fund, involving two years of negotiations with EPA and Congress. At the trust he was also a member of the Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities workgroups on EPA relations, financial reporting and auditing, leadership and membership.

Mr. Berman is a member of the AICPA, Massachusetts Society of CPAs, and is the past-chairman of the Government Accounting and Auditing Committee of the Society. He has been nominated twice for the AICPA Outstanding CPA in Government Award. He has served on GASB's Derivatives project and GASB's Environmental remediation project. He also chairs the National Association of State Comptroller's (NASC's) task force on other post employment benefits (OPEB). As chairman of this committee, he has won a President's Award from NASC. As part of the member of Massachusetts' GASB Statement 34 Implementation Team, he recently was awarded the Manuel Carballo Award for Excellence in Public Service. He has served on an audit committee of a major not-for-profit organization in Boston and is a vice president of another not-for-profit.  He participates on the AICPA's State and Local Government Expert Panel and has been named to the Government Performance and Accountability Committee.  He also serves in the Boston Chapter of the Association for Government Accountants and is on the AGA's National Financial Management Standards Board. He is also representing AGA on the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council (GASAC) to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). He is also a President's award winner from AGA.