SPEAKERS

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Sage Policy Group, Inc.

Anirban Basu is the Chairman and CEO of Sage Policy Group, Inc., an economic and policy consulting firm headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland with an office in Orlando, Florida.  The firm provides strategic analytical services to energy suppliers, law firms, medical systems, government agencies, and real estate developers among others.   

In 2014, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan appointed him Chair of the Maryland Economic Development Commission (2014-2021).  He serves as Chairman of the Baltimore County Economic Advisory Committee.  He also serves the chief economist function for Associated Builders and Contractors, the Construction Financial Management Association, the Modular Building Institute, the Maryland Bankers Association, the International Food Distributors Association, and several others.

He has taught at several universities, most frequently at Johns Hopkins University.  He currently teaches History of Economic Thought at Goucher College as their Distinguished Economist in Residence.  

In 2007, 2016, and 2022, the Daily Record newspaper selected Dr. Basu as one of Maryland’s 50 most influential people. The Baltimore Business Journal named him one of the region’s 20 most powerful business leaders in 2010. 

Dr. Basu is currently on the boards of the University of Maryland School of Law, St. Mary’s College, the University of Maryland Medical Center, the University System of Maryland Foundation, the Lyric Opera House, and the Center Club. He is also on Truist Bank’s advisory board.

Dr. Basu earned his B.S. in Foreign Service at Georgetown University.  He earned his Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his Master’s in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park.  He acquired his Juris Doctor at the University of Maryland School of Law.  He completed his doctoral work at UMBC with a concentration in health economics.

Fun Coach Facilitators

Todd and Marsha Davis are the Fun Coach facilitators based in the heart of the recreation and tourism popular City of Scottsdale. They are entrepreneurs who have provided team-building experiences to company and volunteer teams for nearly 30 years. Their business brands include Park and Recreate, Team Play, Urban Fun AZ & VolunTEAMism as they design and deliver diverse activities and workshops to meet a variety of client needs. They live what they teach, and love to ride bikes, hike, camp, listen to music, and enjoy life to the fullest.  Besides being founders and influencers in the corporate team industry they also have been trained to be excellent facilitators for business teams. Their experiences have led them to promote their goal of training others to become facilitator managers and create fun at work through communication and teamwork. They have facilitated Spring Creek for CFMA for 16 years and spoke at national conferences.

Partner at Mullen Coughlin

Kevin E. Dolan is a Partner at Mullen Coughlin and Co-Chair of the Firm’s Advisory Compliance practice group. As Co-Chair, he leads a team of attorneys in counseling organizations of all sizes and across all industry groups in proactive data privacy and information security risk management planning. He is also an experienced data privacy and security incident response attorney.

Kevin’s Advisory Compliance practice involves assisting organizations with the avoidance or mitigation of data privacy and security incidents’ impact, as well as providing guidance to them to improve their overall compliance posture with respect to pertinent legal and regulatory frameworks. This includes development of organization-specific Incident Response Plans (IRPs); review, modification and/or creation of data privacy policies relating to data collection and management; facilitation of tabletop exercises and other employee/Board trainings; and development of compliance and privacy programs related to various data privacy and information security laws and regulations.

In addition to his Advisory Compliance practice, Kevin also counsels victim organizations in responding to, and investigating, data privacy and security incidents. He uses his Advisory Compliance knowledge to effectively and efficiently identify applicable state, federal and international legal and regulatory obligations as it relates to law enforcement reporting, individual and business partner notification and regulatory follow up or inquiries. Kevin’s expertise in data privacy and information security is supplemented by his prior experience serving in a variety of legal and executive roles in the education industry, most recently as Vice President of Strategy and General Counsel at a Philadelphia-based university. This experience informs the practical compliance strategies and recommendations Kevin provides to organizations prior to, during and after experiencing a data privacy and security incident.

Managing Director, Elliott Davis Advisory, LLC

Andrew specializes in delivering comprehensive tax consulting and compliance solutions across a broad range of industries. His primary focus revolves around serving, middle market, closely held businesses and their owners to provide holistic tax optimization strategies, guidance on effective structuring, and navigating other complex issues with mergers and acquisitions. He assists customers with corporate and partnership returns, multi-state taxation, foreign tax filings, & income tax provisions and other ASC 740 reporting matters. In addition, he has experience in representing customers before the Internal Revenue Service and state taxing authorities.

Principal, Elliott Davis Advisory, LLC

Bergin is a licensed attorney with extensive experience in tax law, planning, consulting, and transaction services. As the firm’s National Tax Practice Leader, he steers the firm’s strategic tax thought-leadership and serves as a firm-wide resource and subject matter expert. Bergin’s experience includes consulting and advisory services for customers of various industry sectors, utilizing his legal and consulting background to advise customers of all types and sizes on issues of domestic and cross-border restructuring, acquisitions, credits and incentives, spin-offs and other divestitures, and other tax advisory needs.

Bergin is also the firm’s pioneering Sustainability & ESG Practice Leader. He and his team offer comprehensive services to enhance companies’ environmental needs, such as conducting readiness assessments, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting, reporting, and preparing effective responses to customer or vendor data requests. The practice also develops and implements sustainability improvement strategies tailored to the organization's needs.

Prior to Elliott Davis, he served as in-house counsel to a global non-profit in the higher education industry and with 2 global Big-Four firms.

Managing Director, FMI Capital Advisors

services practice. Matt is primarily focused on assessing the feasibility of ownership transition alternatives and structuring short-and long-term internal ownership transition plans. As part of FMI's approach to business continuity engagements, Matt frequently partners with FMI's leadership and organizational development team to provide holistic advice relative to management succession, governance and ownership transition.

In addition, Matt works as a buy-side merger and acquisition advisor and frequently speaks to industry groups on ownership transition, mergers and acquisitions and valuation topics. He brings more than 20 years of experience in the financial services and capital markets industry, with a breadth of transition and valuation experience.

After beginning his career in public accounting at Arthur Andersen, Matt has largely worked in the financial services sector. Prior to joining FMI, Matt focused on the commercial and corporate banking industry at Wells Fargo, providing capital to growth stage companies through large corporate entities.

NC State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Employment Law, Ward and Smith, P.A.

Ken leads the firm's Labor and Employment Practice Group and is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Employment Law. His practice experience encompasses various areas of employment-related litigation.  He advises clients and litigates cases involving all forms of employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, and breach of employment contracts from small start-up companies to Fortune 500 corporations. 

Senior Manager, Elliott Davis Advisory, LLC

Eric has more than 20 years of experience in supply chain, procurement and logistics and serves as the project lead and advisor guiding our customers in strategic decision-making to address supply chain disruptions and risks. He specializes in global trade advisory, offering solutions such as cost containment, end-to-end optimization, and risk assessment for trade compliance. Eric's extensive international experience, cultivated through partnerships across North America, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region, underscores his leadership in enhancing supply-side functions to deliver value to both consumers and executive stakeholders.

Samples of Eric’s work include:

- Led C-suite executives through innovative global strategies such as Tariff Engineering, First Sale, Network Optimization, and Demand Aggregation to create resilience for the brand, team members, and operators throughout the global value chain.

- Created a cross-functional team to develop mobile technology strategies for revenue growth through process automation, streamlining supply chain cycle times to enhance the customer experience.

- Reduced international freight spend by nearly 50% per unit by onboarding best-in-class brokers and forwarders with AI-driven, digital visibility tools, outperforming the Ocean Timeliness Index by nearly 3-days across Transpacific Eastbound & Far East Westbound trade lanes.

- Reduced cost & exposure to Section 301 Tariffs & UFLPA Forced Labor Risks by X-shoring several product categories, mitigating the reliance on China from 48% to 22%.

- Additional highlights include reducing SLOB & bloated inventory exposure by 18%, reducing annual COGS & improving margin by more than 22%, and managing production WIPs to meet all onboard dates at a rate of ~99%.

Labor and Employment Attorney, Ward and Smith, P.A.

Justin focuses his practice on labor and employment matters. He works with businesses, employers, and human resources professionals across the state. Additionally, he is a member of the firm's Professional Licensing group and defends licensed professionals before North Carolina's many professional and occupational licensing boards. Justin is also a member of the firm's Name, Image, and Likeness Practice Group.  He is mindful of the changing laws and regulations regarding NIL agreements with college athletes, including issues related to the income provided by businesses to collegiate athletes and the employment status of collegiate athletes. 

Partner – Innovation, Cherry Bekaert

A Partner in the Raleigh office, Jonathan also serves as the head of the Firm’s Innovation team, where he taps into the firm's collective creativity to best solve problems and take advantage of new opportunities. Much of that work has focused on continuous improvement, building out automations, and incorporating AI into the firm’s core services. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, he began as an auditor for many years before moving into course development and delivery.

Since 2011, Jonathan has delivered ethics presentations to hundreds of accounting and finance organizations nationwide. Outside of his work at Cherry Bekaert, Jonathan served as an adjunct professor at Elon University in their accounting department and serves on the board of the North Carolina Association of CPA’s.

Forvis Mazars

Alex is a member of Forvis Mazars’ Forensics and Valuation Services practice and serves clients throughout the firm’s footprint. He provides forensic and valuation advisory services, including expert witness services, financial investigations, litigation support, and construction cost consulting services.

He has presented on construction topics at national and regional conferences and has been published in Construction Executive Magazine.