Sharon Sabba Fierstein, CPA, is President of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

As a partner in the Litigation and Corporate Financial Advisory Services Group at Marks Paneth & Shron LLP (MP&S), a leading, New York region professional services firm, Sharon Sabba Fierstein leads the firm’s efforts in consulting and litigation services relating to mortgage banking (including subprime), conventional lending institutions and regulatory agencies. Fierstein also manages the day-to-day operations of the MP&S Litigation and Corporate Financial Advisory Services Group.

As chair of the NYSSCPA’s Quality Enhancement Policy Committee (QEPC) in 2007-08, Fierstein emphasized elevating the public’s expectations of the CPA professional. Through QEPC, the Society advocates for enhanced standards for peer review (a process whereby one firm attests to the quality controls of another), ethics, and education processes before certification to meet challenges of the CPA profession in an increasingly complex financial world.

Under Fierstein’s guidance, the committee completed a whitepaper on pre-certification education in anticipation of New York State’s move in August 2009 from 120 hours to a 150-hour education requirement to sit for the CPA exam as part of the licensing requirement to enter the profession. The paper conceptually defines the additional 30 hours by calling for the development of critical thinking skills through completion of a graduate degree. The committee’s previous whitepapers have addressed peer review and ethics.

Other committees previously chaired by Fierstein include: Finance, Interactive Online Resource, Advancement of Women in the Accounting Profession and Committee Operations. A member since 1985, she has served as a member of its Board of Directors and Executive Committee as well as Vice President and Secretary.

Fierstein holds a Master of Business Administration degree from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

David A. Lifson, CPA
Past President of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

David A. Lifson, CPA, is Past President of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

A nationally recognized tax expert, Lifson in 2007 testified before the Select Revenue Measures of the House Ways and Means Committee on the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Lifson also chaired the NYSSCPA Committee on Tax Reform that issued a comprehensive proposal to revise the current complex tax system with a Simplified Exact Transparent (SET) Tax. The SET tax would tax all incomes over a threshold established by political leaders, reduced by government-approved exclusions, at an economically appropriate and socially acceptable single rate. The SET tax, which is not a flat tax, would eliminate conflicting tax systems and credits and deductions. The AMT would be abolished under SET creating the same income stream under an easy-to-plan-for, easy-to-use, tax system. For more information about the SET tax visit www.nysscpa.org.

Lifson has served on the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), is a member of its Council and is the past Chair of its Tax Executive Committee. He also currently serves as the Chair of two ongoing Tax Division Task Forces, one dealing with tax shelters, and the other addressing fiscal year flexibility for flow-through entities. He is also a member of the Tax Legislation and Policy Committee and the Planning Committee for the annual National Tax Conference.

A NYSSCPA member since 1975, Lifson has served as President-Elect and Vice President and as a member of its Board of Directors and its Executive Committee. He has chaired its Finance and Real Estate committees. He has also served as a member of its Tax Division Oversight, Taxation of Financial Instruments and Transactions, Taxation of Individuals, Real Estate and Firm Coordinators committees and as a member of its Professional Standards, Alternative Tax System and CPA2 Biz task forces.

He is a nationally known lecturer and panelist on tax subjects and has published articles in The CPA Journal, The Tax Advisor and the Journal of Accountancy.

Lifson holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Babson College. He has served on the Trinity School Board of Trustees and as Chair of its Alumni and Alumnae Association, served on the Governing Council and as Chair of the University Club Audit Committee.

Thomas E. Riley, CPA
Past President NY State Society of Certified Public Accountants

Thomas E. Riley, CPA is Past President of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. He is a Partner in the Tax Services Group of Beard Miller Company LLP.

Riley became a Certified Public Accountant and joined the NYSSCPA in 1982. He has served the Society as President-Elect, Vice President, and Secretary and as a member of its Executive and Finance committees and as a trustee for its Foundation for Accounting Education (FAE). He has chaired the Quality Enhancement Policy and Membership Committee and served as a member of the Estate Planning, Audit, Membership, Political Action, Government Relations, New York, Multistate and Local Taxation, Community Affairs, Career Opportunity in the Accounting Profession and Benevolent Fund committees.

He has also chaired the Society committee that recommends board members to serve in leadership positions within the profession including the Society’s Nominating committee, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) governing council and as FAE Trustees. Past President of the Society’s Syracuse Chapter, he is a member of the Chapter’s Executive Board and is a Government Relations Director.

Riley is a member of the AICPA and received his Personal Financial Specialist (PFS) certification from the AICPA in 1996. He is also a member of the Estate Planning Council of Central New York and is a former member of its board of directors. He has served as a board member and guest lecturer for the LeMoyne College Continuing Professional Education Institute.

Active in community service projects, Riley serves on the LeMoyne College Board of Regents, is Treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors of Francis House, a home for the terminally ill and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Onondaga Historical Association. He was a committee member for the American Heart Association and is an active blood donor for the American Red Cross.

Riley has a Bachelor of Science degree from LeMoyne College.

Louis Grumet, JD, MPA, CAE is Executive Director of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA), the oldest and largest state accounting association in the nation. The NYSSCPA operates 17 chapters throughout New York State and has a membership of more than 30,000 CPAs in public accounting, industry, government and education.

Grumet was Executive Director of the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA), a not-for-profit organization representing approximately 750 member school districts and more than 5,000 individual school board members, for 14 years. While at NYSSBA, he was a successful litigant in a case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court involving separation of church and state. During his tenure, he raised the visibility and influence of NYSSBA and trained elected officials throughout the state, including teaching ways to better connect the public to the education of children in New York.

He was also the Assistant Commissioner, Office for Education of Children with Handicapping Conditions, New York State Education Department, and served as Director of Operations and Special Assistant to Secretary of State Mario Cuomo.

Grumet holds a BA from George Washington University, a JD from New York University Law School, an MPA from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and is a Certified Association Executive.