Accounting: CPE Day

Steve Hanebutt is a Certified Public Accountant and frequent continuing professional education speaker.

He holds both a BBA – Accounting and a Master of Science in Taxation from the University of Texas at Arlington. Steve spent 10 years in public accounting, followed by 15 years running his own sales tax consulting firm. He is now a partner with Clarus Partners – a national sales tax compliance and advisory firm.

Learning Objective(s):
Subsequent to the presentation, the participant should have a fundamental understanding of the following sales tax exemptions.

• Resale
• Personally transferred with a taxable service
• Manufacturing
• Residential
• Home builder’s
• New construction

Dr. Sargent serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Accounting Department of the UTA College of Business. He teaches graduate and undergraduate level classes in the areas of Accounting for Managers, Accounting Information Systems, Auditing, and Fraud Examination. He is also the faculty advisor for the Accounting Society, National Association of Black Accountants, and the Cybersecurity Club.

Dr. Sargent has published research articles on critical thinking and organizational agility in peer-reviewed journals. At national and regional conferences, he has presented multiple papers on critical thinking, data analytics, organizational development, and fraud. He also has over 25 years of business leadership and technical experience and has an extensive background and certifications in auditing, information security, risk management, and fraud prevention/detection techniques.

Learning Objective(s):

• Define occupational fraud and the factors that influence an organization’s vulnerability to fraud.
• Identify the components of the Fraud Triangle and its relationship with the creation and maintenance of anti-fraud measures.
• Understand the objective of a fraud risk assessment.
• Understand how fraud risk assessments can influence the audit process.

Sriram Villupuram is an associate professor in the Department of Finance and Real Estate and the director of the Ryan-Reilly Center for Urban Land Utilization at the University of Texas at Arlington College of Business. He earned his Ph.D. in Finance and Real Estate, MSE in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University, and BE in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras, India.

Dr. Villupuram’s research interests include valuation, macroeconomics, real estate price indices, and mutual funds. His research has been presented at the American Economic Association, Western Finance Association, Financial Management Association, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, and the American Real Estate Society. He has been a visiting scholar at the Federal Bank of Chicago’s Banking Supervision and Regulation division. The Wall Street Journal has written about his research on artificial intelligence and valuation. DFW media outlets such as CBS 11 News, NBC News, Dallas Business Journal, and Fort Worth Star-Telegram regularly interview him on various finance and real estate issues.

He has received the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award from the University of Texas at Arlington College of Business.

Learning Objective(s):

• Understand the impact of interest rate increases on bank lending.
• Understand the health of the banking sector.
• Predictions for the Texas economy.

Dynamic professional with over 15 years experience in consulting, sales and field marketing; creative and innovative team player with strong interpersonal skills.

Kim Holland graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2006 and immediately joined the team of Becker Professional Education as Account Manager. She trained under renowned CPA instructors, Liliana Hickman Riggs and William Riggs. Since her start with Becker, Kim has become an expert in the field of CPA Exam and training solutions. In 2013, she earned her MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management, and in 2017, she promoted to Senior Account Manager at Becker. Prior to her time with Becker, Kim trained competitive dance teams and dancers for nearly 15 years. Ms. Holland has always been passionate about education and consulting. Now she shares that passion with DFW accounting students and professionals as she advises them on the pathway to CPA, CMA and professional development!

Department Chair and Associate Professor

Dr. Ramgopal (Ram) Venkataraman joined UT Arlington as Associate Professor of Accounting in 2013 and was selected to be the Chair of the Accounting Department effective September 2018. He was formerly an Assistant Professor of Accounting at the Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX and at the Carlson School of Management in University of Minnesota. Dr. Venkataraman obtained his PhD from Penn State University.

Prior to joining academia, Dr. Venkataraman had extensive accounting, consulting and corporate experience for a total period of 12 years as a Chartered Accountant rising to partner in a mid-size Indian accounting firm and later as Finance Manager for a company in the United Arab Emirates and Project Manager in India for an industrial venture.

Dr. Venkataraman’s research interests are varied. He is broadly interested in the role of accounting information on capital markets and various players in the capital markets such as investors, financial analysts and auditors. Recently, he has also been involved with several medical research projects with faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as well as the Biomedical engineering department at UTA. He has published his articles in both leading accounting journals and medical journals.

He enjoys bringing real world practice and examples to his students in the classroom to prepare them to apply the knowledge gained in the class immediately to their jobs.

Learning Objective(s):

• Causes of pipeline issues in accounting.
• Actions being taken to address these issues.
• Where are we today.

Ram is a Manager at EY currently working in the Strategy and Transactions (SaT) group focusing on the financial services industry.

His role primarily involves helping businesses solve complex problems in unstructured situations, helping them navigate through and execute M&A transactions, assisting them with due diligence support, and providing the appropriate tools for deal negotiations. 

He is an undergraduate in economics from the American University of Sharjah (AUS), a certified ACCA Affiliate, and a CFA charter holder. 

He previously worked in the MENA region within EY’s SaT service line for two years. 

He worked across multiple transaction support engagements, including growth strategy, market assessments, portfolio optimization, due diligence, and IPO readiness focusing on the financial services sector. 

Ram is an avid fitness enthusiast, loves trying different kinds of food, and enjoys traveling.

Learning Objective(s):

• Analyze the various stakeholders in the M&A process and the typical motivation behind M&A transactions.
• Understand the importance of the due diligence process and the typical questions asked.
• Discuss live examples of due diligence risks in the financial services industry in the context of the recent banking crises.

Shelby Altadonna is the System Director of Accounting for CHRISTUS Heath. CHRISTUS Health is a Catholic, not-for-profit health system with domestic operations in Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico and international operations in Mexico, Chile, and Colombia.

Shelby is a CPA with 16 years of accounting and auditing experience. Prior to joining CHRISTUS Health, Shelby was a Senior Manager in Ernst & Young’s audit practice. During her years at Ernst & Young, Shelby served public and private clients in various industries including healthcare, transportation, and oil and gas.

Learning Objective(s):

• Discuss and understand business combinations and related accounting considerations.
• Understand how to evaluate an acquired entity to determine if it should be consolidated.
• Identify financial reporting challenges for healthcare systems.

Department Chair and Associate Professor

Dr. Ramgopal (Ram) Venkataraman joined UT Arlington as Associate Professor of Accounting in 2013 and was selected to be the Chair of the Accounting Department effective September 2018. He was formerly an Assistant Professor of Accounting at the Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX and at the Carlson School of Management in University of Minnesota. Dr. Venkataraman obtained his PhD from Penn State University.

Prior to joining academia, Dr. Venkataraman had extensive accounting, consulting and corporate experience for a total period of 12 years as a Chartered Accountant rising to partner in a mid-size Indian accounting firm and later as Finance Manager for a company in the United Arab Emirates and Project Manager in India for an industrial venture.

Dr. Venkataraman’s research interests are varied. He is broadly interested in the role of accounting information on capital markets and various players in the capital markets such as investors, financial analysts and auditors. Recently, he has also been involved with several medical research projects with faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as well as the Biomedical engineering department at UTA. He has published his articles in both leading accounting journals and medical journals.

He enjoys bringing real world practice and examples to his students in the classroom to prepare them to apply the knowledge gained in the class immediately to their jobs.

Learning Objective(s):

• What does academic research show about returns to ESG investing.
• Does ESG investing result in better ESG outcomes.

Mr. Miller is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a baccalaureate degree. He holds a J.D. from Emory University School of Law and is a member of the State Bar of Texas. He teaches a variety of law-related classes in the College of Business as well as various special programs e.g. management training for China Petroleum Corporation (CNPC.) He is a frequent speaker in local organizations and was a guest speaker in 2018 at Texas Tech University School of Law as well as at UTA's Accounting department CPE events in 2015-2019.

Learning Objective(s):

• Inform audience members of all new statutes adopted at Regular 88th Session of Texas Legislature and related Special Sessions
• Devote special effort to inform audience of new legislative laws affecting CPA testing eligibility requirements and education requirements for actual certification.

We encourage you to register as soon as possible. However, please register by July 24th to ensure we have an accurate count for catering purposes. Registration will close on July 26th at 5:00 PM.

We will only be giving an in-person option this year for credit. We are exploring options to have a purely online event at a later date.

The parking link will be sent 1 week prior to the event. You can also submit your parking in-person at our registration table. Ensure you register your vehicle, or you will be subject to ticketing.

1. First, check your junk mail.
2. If you don’t find it in the junk folder, check your registration confirmation email and be sure the email address is typed correctly.
3. If it is not in the junk folder and your email was typed correctly, then email accounting@uta.edu with “CPE Day 2023” in the subject line for questions.

1. You will be required to sign-in and sign-out for each session you attend.
2. Also, please complete the feedback survey for all the sessions you attend.

You will be sent your CPE certificate by September 1.