Francesca is the CEO of Baker Tilly International. She was appointed to the role on 1 June 2022 and is responsible for the network operations for Baker Tilly International, a top ten global accounting network, with member firms in over 140 territories.

Francesca has 30 years of experience in professional services, including working in global networks, specialising in cross-border and international business support, with a focus on growth. She has senior leadership experience in mid-market firms and began her career in a Big 4 firm. Her roles have also included Global head of tax, legal, risk, mergers and acquisitions and people & culture.  She has led teams based around the world. She has also worked in industry and won awards in the fields of international accounting, private client work and professional lecturing.

She has frequently commented on TV, radio and in the press on global developments and the need for diversity of thinking, especially to encourage a broader range of people to take on senior roles and create an environment that helps support this aim. She has sat on several UK Government committees and played an active role in the work of the ICAEW and the CIOT.

Francesca is a qualified lawyer, chartered accountant and tax adviser. She lives in the south of England with her husband, three children and two dogs.

Samantha Louis is Chief Executive Officer of Praxity Global Alliance, joining in June 2021 from the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants where she was Vice President in charge of International Advocacy. She’s an experienced leader and prior to her moving to London she was Regional Vice President for Africa at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) where she directed the growth of the member and student population in Africa from 2,000 to over 25,000 and led the expansion of CIMA into Southern and Western Africa. Samantha has served on various local and international boards and senior leadership groups, including the Professional Accountancy Organisation Development Committee of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and has extensive experience in several non-executive directorships. She currently serves on the Council and Finance Committee of Roedean School, UK. Samantha is a Fellow of CIMA and a Chartered Global Management Accountant. She holds a Batchelors degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and holds post-graduate courses in public relations and management, as well as a Master’s degree in business administration, with distinction, from the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria.

Puja is a senior manager within the Analytics and Modelling team in Deloitte LLP’s Audit and Assurance service line. She has over 10 years post qualification experience as a chartered accountant. She worked at as a statutory auditor for several years before focussing on helping audit teams with their analytics and the excel models they receive from the entities they audit and supports in the provision of assurance services. She is passionate about inclusion and diversity and co-chairs the firm’s Multicultural Network which has almost 2000 members.

Mark Koziel became President and CEO of Allinial Global in August 2020 after 14 years with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). In addition to leading a team of twenty-seven staff members, he is responsible for strategic planning, financial performance, and the association’s overall growth and success. From the beginning of his career at a large local accounting firm in Buffalo, New York, to his tenure as Executive Vice President of Firm Services at the AICPA, Mark has been a leader and consistent advocate for CPA firms. Well known and highly regarded within the profession, he has appeared among the top 10 of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting and been named to the International Accounting Bulletin’s Global Accounting Power 50 List.

Clive Webb is the Head of Business Management in ACCA's Policy and Insights team. Clive publishes research on the future of the finance function across a wide range of topics from the purpose of the function to the skills that it needs and the technologies that it needs to apply. Clive is also the author of two research pieces, one which considered Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the profession and the most recent the profession's responsibility in the social agenda. Clive qualified as an accountant in one of the big 4.

Elena Meskhi is the owner of an accounting and tax advisory practice that has been operating for over a decade. She’s also a book author, business coach, NLP masters practitioner, and public speaker who is passionate about allowing business owners to experience financial freedom.

Mark has spent his career developing technology that empowers accounting firms with cutting-edge computing power. Mark started his career in a small-town accounting practice before earning his stripes at a Big Four firm leading audit and consulting engagements. He founded Inflo to revolutionize the broader audit and accounting profession with next-generation software. Mark is now influencing the advancement of audit at a global level. He is a member of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board’s (IAASB) Technology Working Group and Less Complex Entities Reference Group, as well as chairing the AICPAs Data Standards Working Group. Mark also supports professional accounting bodies around the world.

I am an experienced senior executive and strategy consultant, with deep experience of how sustainability catalyzes systems change. I have a wide variety of leadership, relationship development, business development, commercial management, team building and project management skills. I have successfully led and delivered projects in complex multi-stakeholder environments. I have been project director of numerous C-suite projects in which I have supported clients and stakeholders across a range of industries with connecting their sustainability strategies with their core business objectives, and then measuring, valuing and communicating the value which this creates.

I am the Global Head of Sustainability with AICPA-CIMA, having previously served as a senior leader with the Value Reporting Foundation which consolidated into the IFRS Foundation on 1 August 2022 to support the work of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). I was honoured to be named by Accounting Today as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting in November 2022.

Mark leads the commercial partnership function at AccountsIQ, including working with financial outsourcing partners.
He has 20 years of experience in the accounting technology sector. During that time, he has consulted on accountancy software solutions and digital transformation across a broad range of practices; from top 4 firms to sole practitioners.

Jeff is a CPA and holds a CITP certification. He is a 40 year veteran of the accounting industry where he gained his initial experience at Arthur Young & Co. He has broad experience in the US accounting industry, with career highlights including serving as President & CEO of the Small Firm Services business unit at CCH and President of AccountantsWorld. Jeff has a strong passion for improving the industry from an everyday workflow perspective to driving higher quality in all we do. At Validis Jeff helps the world’s largest firms realise the power of technology in the audit process, as well as helping forge strategic partnerships in the space to help bring best of bread ideas and solutions to the market.

Rob Brown is co-founder of the Accounting Influencers Roundtable, a think tank and door-opening club for specialists/vendors who serve the accounting/fintech profession. He runs a training company called Business Development Academy which trains busy technically smart accountants to be confident, effective work winners. He is the bestselling author of Build Your Reputation (Wiley) and his TEDx talk ‘The Personal Brand of You' has been viewed 280K times on Youtube. He co-hosts the international podcast Accounting Influencers with Martin Bissett and is a professional host, moderator and chair for accounting/fintech events, conferences and panel discussions. He is a committed Christian, a black belt in kickboxing, enjoys backgammon, loves chocolate orange and is allergic to grapefruit.

Shimona comes from a legal background and works with Moxo's EMEA clients to modernize their client interaction workflows. She specialises in helping clients control the chaos of client management by orchestrating end-to-end client collaboration with the power of their one-stop client portal.

Will Farnell is the founder and a director of Farnell Clarke Ltd, an innovative and pioneering accounting firm based in East Anglia and London, UK offering a fresh approach to SME accountancy and business advisory services. Farnell Clarke was one of the first firms globally to fully adopt cloud accounting technology back in 2009 and remains one of the most innovation firms in the UK. The firm has been named Best Independent Firm (East of England) three times at the British Accountancy Awards, including in 2019 and was awarded Medium Firm of the Year award at the Accounting Excellence awards in 2019. The firm also won the 100% Xero award in 2017. Will is author of ‘The Digital Firm’ a blueprint for digital transformation. He is a regular speaker on how accounting firms can leverage technology, people and process to achieve practice growth, as well as providing consulting services to support firms in becoming a digital practice.

Lindsay is experienced in driving growth at international, enterprise software companies through a customer-centric approach to marketing. She has spent most of her career in the technology space, with a particular focus on the accounting and legal professions, helping firms see and realize the potential of software to transform operations. Outside of work, Lindsay enjoys musical theatre, both watching performances and taking to the stage herself.

Jim is HLB’s Global Technology Advisory Services Leader and has over 30 years of experience in the sector. He frequently meets with our regional technology leaders around the globe to share best practices and to help insure consistency in technology advisory offerings by our member firms.

Jim is also a Partner, Member of the Board of Directors and Management Committee at Withum, is Director of Firm Technology and Managing Director of Advisory Services. He leads the cloud solutions, business advisory, cyber, data analytics, info-security and transactional services initiatives for the firm.

Jim is a frequent speaker around the globe for HLB and many Accounting Societies and International Accounting and Trade Associations, the AICPA, Industry Technology Organizations, Incubators, Accelerators and others on topics specifically related to various accounting, technology, practice management and advisory services topics.

Jim has been continually named by Accounting Today as one of the Top 100 Most Influential people in the Accounting profession and has been named by The CPA Technology Advisor as a Top Thought Leader in Public Accounting Technology year after year.

Education

• Bachelor degree in Industrial Engineering by the Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya and the École Centrale Paris (double degree)
• MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

Key Areas of Expertise

• Management Consulting & Strategy
• Process Optimization and Automation
• Project Management
• Digital Transformation
• Data Analytics

Professional Experience

• IT and business consultant at BearingPoint.
• IT systems manager in supply chain and operations at TI Automotive.
• Brand manager at Nestlé USA.
• Global brand director at Tiffany & Co.
• Partner / Digital Transformation at Bové Montero y Asociados.

Languages

English, Spanish, Catalan, French

Exemplifying high standards of work ethic and a deep understanding of firm initiatives, Marlies leads Joanknecht’s ‘Strategy & Support’ team, one of four pillars in the Dutch firm. This department manages matters in the fields of Marketing & Communication, Hospitality, Finance & Control, IT, Innovation, Strategy & Business Development, Compliance and Legal.  This extensive responsibility affords Marlies the opportunity to interact with the entire firm and presents a comprehensive view into the client and employee satisfaction and firm culture. Marlies trademark ‘can-do’ attitude is also recognized and appreciated by PrimeGlobal members. Marlies graduated from Maastricht University in 2013 achieving a master’s degree in international business, with a focus on accountancy. Marlies tenure with Joanknecht, in Eindhoven, Netherlands, dates to 2013, starting in the audit department, and quickly rising firm from assistant to senior associate. Marlies’ role developed over the last 5 years to marketing manager and now, since May 2022, is head of the firm’s Strategy  & Support department which is one of the four departments in which the firm is internally organized.  Marlies is closely involved in PrimeGlobal’s DEI, Women’s Leadership and Marketing Practice Communities.

Courtney is a member of the industry solutions team with a focus on the accounting vertical. She has years of experience identifying inefficiencies and improving processes in the accounting field and has worked with industries ranging from SaaS to midstream oil and gas, real estate, and consumer products.

Courtney holds a CPA license and a master's degree in Accountancy.