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June/July
2006 |
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Executive
Director's Column
Grant W. Newton,
CIRA, CMA, CPA, Ph.D.,
Professor of Accounting, Pepperdine University |
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It is our pleasure to welcome
so many members and other participants to the AIRA’s 22nd
Annual Conference, for the first time in the beautiful Northwestern
city of Seattle, Washington. We appreciate that the hotel has
been able to accommodate all of us, and to do it so graciously.
The interesting setting and pleasant climate (we hope), a great
program, and a very enthusiastic and dedicated local planning
committee should make this an outstanding conference.
Congratulations to four individuals—Richard
Brooks (CIT Business Capital), Nina Gerbic (Dawson & Gerbic,
LLP), Mary Jo Heston (Lane Powell PC), and Dillon Jackson (Foster
Pepper PLLC)—for a job well done as this year’s conference
co-chairs. They have been working for months with AIRA staff members
Justin McCord, Conference Director, and Beverly Huard, Director
of Public Relations, to plan the technical program, special events
and social activities.
We gratefully acknowledge the following planning
committee members who have worked with the co-chairs to plan this
year’s technical program and social activities: Paul Abramowitz
(Special Investments, Inc.), Marc Barreca (Preston Gates &
Ellis LLP), Richard Brooks (CIT Business Capital), Gayle Bush
(Bush Strout & Kornfeld), Mark Calvert (Cascade Capital Group
LLC), Diana Carey (Karr Tuttle Campbell), Shelly Crocker (Crocker
Kuno Ostovsky), Joe Dawson (Dawson & Gerbic, LLP), Shirley
Dunn (Hamstreet & Associates), Eric Fruits (ECONorthwest),
James Gee (US Trustees Office), Nina Gerbic (Dawson & Gerbic,
LLP), Ronald Greenspan (FTI Consulting Inc.), Geoffrey Groshong
(Miller Nash, LLP), Mary Jo Heston (Lane Powell PC), Joon Huh
(Mesirow Financial Consulting, Inc.), Dillon Jackson (Foster Pepper
PLLC), Linda Johannsen (Preston Gates & Ellis LLP), David
Levant (Stoel Rives), Kent Mordy (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP),
Jane Pearson (Foster Pepper PLLC), Katriana Samiljan (Bush Strout
& Kornfeld), Anthony Sasso (Deloitte Financial Advisory Services),
Alan Smith (Perkins Coie LLP), Miles Stover (Turnaround Inc.)
and Teri Stratton (Giuliani Capital Advisors). Many of these members
will be chairing various sessions of the conference, serving as
speakers, helping with registration and other activities—a
truly dedicated and professional group.
It has been a real privilege to work with Soneet
Kapila (Kapila & Company) as President and Jim Lukenda (Huron
Consulting Group LLC) as Chairman for the last two years; they
have directed the association in a very expert manner. This year,
I look forward to working with Soneet as Chairman, Alan Holtz
(AlixPartners, LLC) as President, and Grant Stein (Alston &
Bird LLP) as President-Elect.
For those of you unable to attend, course materials,
including a CD of all conference materials may be ordered after
the conference on AIRA’s website or by calling the office.
Next year’s conference will be in Chicago
at the Westin River North, June 6-9, 2007. I hope you will be
able to attend.
Grant W. Newton, CIRA
Executive Director
Grant W. Newton, CIRA,
CMA, CPA, Ph.D., is a Professor of Accounting at Pepperdine
University in Malibu, California. He teaches accounting
and finance courses in the Graziadiao School of Business
and Management. Grant is the author of Bankruptcy and
Insolvency Accounting: Practice and Procedure, 6th edition
(2000 and updated annually) and co-author with Gilbert
D. Bloom of Bankruptcy and Insolvency Taxation, 2nd edition
(updated annually) published by John Wiley & Sons.
His articles have appeared in Journal of Accountancy,
Management Accounting, Practical Accountant, CPA Journal,
Commercial Law Journal and others.
Grant is the Executive Director of the
Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors.
He developed the three courses that lead to the Certified
Insolvency and Reorganization Accountant (CIRA) designation.
Grant teaches the three two-day CIRA courses and develops
and administers the CIRA examination.
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