Alumni & Friends

Mark R. Bierley is Chief Executive Officer of Learning Care Group, the second-largest for-profit early education and care provider in North America. Learning Care Group operates more than 900 schools in 36 states, the District of Columbia and internationally. As CEO, Bierley is responsible for all aspects of the company’s strategy, leadership and operations. Mark’s career encompasses more than 30 years of executive financial and operations leadership experience. Before joining Learning Care Group, Mark served as CFO and Senior Vice President of The Pantry Inc., one of the largest independently operated convenience store chains in the U.S.  Previously, he held a variety of leadership positions at Borders Inc., including Executive Vice President, CFO and COO.  His experience also encompasses roles in the financial departments at Dunham’s Sporting Goods and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Mark has a B.A. in Accounting from Michigan State University and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan. He is a Certified Public Accountant.

Mark Blaufuss is currently the managing director of Green & White Advisory, a consulting firm specializing in complex business challenges including mergers & acquisitions, corporate strategy and operational execution.

Blaufuss was formerly the chief financial officer of Metaldyne Performance Group (NYSE: MPG), a $3B light vehicle supplier. During his tenure, he was instrumental in forming MPG through the merger of three $1B metal-forming businesses (HHI, Metaldyne and Grede), refinancing the combined entity, executing its initial public offering in December 2014 and ultimately selling the company to American Axle & Manufacturing (NYSE: AXL), returning nearly $1B to MPG’s investors over his tenure.

Prior to MPG, Blaufuss worked extensively with private equity owned manufacturing and distribution businesses, including chief financial officer positions at Metaldyne, United Components, Inc. (an aftermarket automotive parts supplier) and Axletech International (a planetary axle supplier), helping to guide all three businesses through growth and successful ownership transition. He also worked as director of AlixPartners, a consulting firm; corporate controller of JPE; and manager at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He holds a B.S. degree in accounting from Michigan State University.

Julie Bogas is an advisory partner with more than 18 years of experience serving consumer and industrial products, automotive and retail clients. She is focused on helping her clients undertake ambitious programs to successfully transform their finance, IT, sustainability, risk and compliance functions. Her experience includes process and controls improvement, program design and implementation, and the program management office. Bogas also serves as a Diversity Partner Champion within advisory and leads the Women’s Inclusion Network for PwC’s Detroit office. She is a CPA and received her B.A. in accounting and M.S. in accounting information systems from Michigan State University.

Lisa Carroll is an audit partner in KPMG’s Detroit office with more than 16 years of experience in auditing and advisory services. She has involvement serving a wide range of international clients in the industrial markets and automotive industries. Her experience includes the coordination of multi-national audits. She has assisted numerous clients with acquisition transactions and the related accounting, as well as assisting clients with equity offerings and financing transactions.

Carroll provides professional audit services to public and non-public companies in accordance with PCAOB and AICPA requirements, U.S. GAAP and IFRS. Her audit experience includes SEC filings and private company financial statements.

She has taken on several leadership roles within KPMG’s Detroit office, including being a performance management leader, mentoring, and participating in Leadership in Action training.

Carroll has served as an instructor for KPMG national and local office trainings and has presented at annual MICPA conferences and at KPMG’s Executive Insights conference. She also serves on the finance committee of the United Way for Southeastern Michigan.

Mike is a tax partner in the Chicago practice office of BDO USA.  He began his career with BDO in 2004 and has spent his career representing closely-held businesses and wealthy families in a variety of tax matters.  Today he splits his time between BDO’s Private Client Services group, where he assists family offices in understanding the tax implications of choices related to investment, philanthropy, and succession, and BDO’s Core Tax Services group, where he assists closely-held businesses in making tax-informed business decisions.  He is versed in tax issues germane to partnerships, S corporations, individuals, and trusts, and serves clients in industries such as technology, manufacturing & distribution, and healthcare.  Internally, he is a leader in firm recruiting and people development efforts.

Mike earned a BA in Accounting from Michigan State University (’04) and an MS in Taxation from Grand Valley State University (’07). He holds membership with the Illinois CPA Society and the Michigan Association of CPAs. He is active in the Chicago non-profit community and currently serves as vice-chair of the Chicago Literacy Alliance, an organization focused on improving the functional literacy of Chicagoland residents. Mike lives with his wife Alexandra, and their dog, Penny Lane, in Logan Square.

Allison Dellapelle is a cost accountant with automotive supplier L&W Engineering Company, headquartered in New Boston, MI. Currently, she is responsible for managing the accounting operations at one of L&W’s largest metal stamping and assembly plants, as well as the logistics arm of the company. She works directly with operations management to provide cost analysis of new launch programs and mass production parts and prepares monthly forecast and annual budget data. In addition, Dellapelle develops and implements cost-saving initiatives throughout the plant locations on workplace safety and environmental platforms.

Dellapelle graduated from the M.S. in Accounting program at Michigan State University in 2014, where she served as the graduate assistant and honors coordinator for the Principles of Financial Accounting course. From MSU, she joined the audit practice at Deloitte and worked primarily with automotive and manufacturing clients. She is a CPA and holds memberships in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants.

Sara Dolan serves as the chief financial officer at Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU). She joined MSUFCU in 2005. She is extremely active in the Greater Lansing and Michigan State University communities. She currently serves on the MSU Alumni Association Board of Directors, the McLaren Greater Lansing Healthcare Foundation Board of Trustees, and the Delta Dental of Michigan Board of Directors, as well as the External Advisory Board for the Eli Broad College of Business Department of Accounting and Information Systems. Additionally, Dolan serves as a member of the Michigan Credit Union League (MCUL) State and Federal Issues Working Group. Her professional memberships include the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Sara received a B.A. in accounting from Michigan State University and an MBA from Western Michigan University.

Elaine Erving has been in public accounting since 1986. She provides accounting and advisory services to closely held businesses and focuses on developing long-term relationships. Her tenure and industry specialization allow her to contribute on a wide range of business matters beyond compliance. Erving participates in all phases of audits and reviews and has an extensive background in bonding and banking issues as they relate to financial performance.

At Moss Adams, Erving currently leads the firm’s Construction, Real Estate, Hospitality and Professional Services Industry Group. She sits on the firm’s Operations Management Committee, has been a member of the firm’s executive committee and has headed the Seattle Office Assurance Department.

Erving has been published in many construction trade magazines and is a frequent presenter to industry associations. She is currently treasurer of the AGC Education Foundation, chair of the CFMA National Education Steering Committee External Education Task Force and a member of ULI. She has a B.A. in business administration from Michigan State University.

Brad Hehl is the U.S. Central Region Automotive Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) leader and has more than 19 years of experience at EY, with approximately 15 years of experience in the TAS practice. Brad is viewed as one of EY’s automotive industry transaction leaders and works closely with the Global Automotive Center. He has significant transaction experience with automotive suppliers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), off/on-highway heavy truck components, aftermarket products and other manufacturing or assembly components. He has led numerous buy-side due diligence engagements, including complex international/cross-border acquisitions, carve-out transactions and automotive technology/software businesses.

Hehl has presented at industry events regarding automotive merger and acquisition trends, cross-border transactions and preparing business for divestitures. He has a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University. He is a CPA and a member of the AICPA, as well as a board member and treasurer for VIP Mentoring.

Alicia Janisch is a Deloitte Tax partner with more than 13 years of experience serving clients in the health care industry. Her main focus is providing advice and expertise to tax-exempt health care provider organizations on many issues including executive compensation, corporate structuring and joint ventures, intermediate sanctions, unrelated business income tax, tax planning, ASC740, and hospital community benefit and charity care. She also has extensive experience with mergers and acquisitions, tax due diligence and large-scale tax compliance engagements for health systems. She leads Deloitte Tax’s talent efforts for the health care provider tax practice nationwide.

Janisch graduated in 2003 from Michigan State University with a B.A. and an M.S. in accounting. She is a CPA and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and of the Health Care Task Force of the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants. She is a board member and director at large for the Grosse Pointe

Joe Lenglet is an audit partner with 16 years of experience in the assurance services practice at EY. Over his career, he has served a variety of public and non-public clients, as well as private equity and family-owned businesses, across a variety of industry sectors including real estate, health care, manufacturing, retail and consumer products, professional services, sports media and entertainment. Lenglet has assisted many management teams in evaluating technical accounting matters, the impact of new accounting pronouncements, material transactions, and significant contractual arrangements in a proactive manner. He has extensive experience in leading global audits and coordinating reporting deliverables from international engagement teams throughout South America, Europe and Asia as well as leading inter-office reporting audit engagements to primary teams abroad.

Within the Detroit practice, Lenglet leads the audit recruiting efforts as the campus coordinating partner. He is a CPA and a graduate of Michigan State University and the University of Notre Dame.

Pat Mahoney is a tax partner with PwC’s national specialty tax services group in Detroit, Michigan, where he leads the Midwest specialty tax services practice. Pat primarily focuses on serving clients across the Midwest related to research tax benefits and fixed asset planning and automation. In this capacity, he represents clients across a broad range of industries, including automotive, aerospace and defense, technology, financial services, retail and industrial products.

As PwC leader, Mahoney is passionate about organizational behavior and engendering employee engagement. He worked for an extended period in a PwC think tank, identifying obstacles to and developing solutions for improving employee engagement at PwC. He is a CPA licensed in Michigan and received his B.A. and M.S. in professional accounting from Michigan State University in 2002.

Steven Micallef was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit. As a diehard Spartan, he received both his B.A. and M.S. in accounting from Michigan State University. He even spent some time as an adjunct professor, teaching Managerial Accounting and helping shape young minds at MSU.

He began his professional career slaving away in public accounting as an international tax planner at Arthur Andersen and then Ernst & Young, where he served a variety of clients in a number of industries, though he generally focused on automotive clients. When the time was right, he made the jump to corporate life, serving as the in-house international tax planner at Dura Automotive before moving to Lear Corporation, where he honed his operational tax planning and repatriation skills.

After living through the economic downturn in the auto industry, today Micallef is the head of global tax planning and transfer pricing at Stryker Corporation, where he strives to make healthcare better through tax efficiently operationalizing their supply chain and reducing waste wherever possible. But he has always been and will always be an accountant first.

Ryan Muneio is an assurance manager with Plante Moran; he provides audit, tax and business advisory services within the firm’s commercial practice, specializing in the auto, plastics and food industries. Ryan works on several internal committees and continually looks for new ways to leverage his MSU and Plante Moran network.

Ryan holds a B.A. and M.S. in accounting from Michigan State University. He joined Plante Moran shortly after completing his degrees in 2011. Ryan is actively involved with the firm’s recruiting program and is an active supporter of MSU events. Ryan is a CPA and a member of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA).

Jason Parsons currently serves as director, investor relations at American Axle & Manufacturing, Inc. (AAM). Since he joined the company in 2006, he has served in various financial positions at AAM with increasing responsibility, including assistant treasurer; senior manager, finance – Guanajuato Manufacturing Complex; and senior manager, corporate finance.

Prior to joining AAM, Parsons served as a manager in the Detroit office of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). During his six years at PwC, he specialized in providing auditing and accounting services for automotive clients and other publicly held companies.

Parsons is a CPA and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is also a member of the National Investor Relations Institute.

He received both his B.A. and M.S. in accounting from Michigan State University in 2000. As a student at Michigan State, Jason worked in various roles within the accounting department, including serving as a teaching assistant for ACC 201 and ACC 411 courses.

Teresa (Terri) Pollock is an assurance partner with Plante Moran. She specializes in providing public schools and insurance organizations with audit, tax and business advisory services. She currently serves as the office managing partner of the Auburn Hills office and serves on the firm’s policy committee. She is a past industry group leader for the firm’s public education practice.

Pollock is a 1985 accounting graduate from Michigan State University, who joined Plante Moran directly from MSU. She is actively involved with Plante Moran’s MSU recruiting team and enjoys providing support and guidance to MSU business students as they launch their professional careers.

Ramesh is accounting area coordinator and Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Accounting at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. Ramesh obtained his Ph.D. from Michigan State University and has previously served on the faculties of the business schools at Northwestern University, the University of Rochester, The Pennsylvania State University, and Michigan State University.

During his tenure at two leading economic consulting firms, he worked with prominent law firms, Big Four audit firms, major corporations and governmental agencies. Ramesh is past president of the Financial Accounting and Reporting Section of the American Accounting Association and a past academic fellow at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. His recent academic research examines the information content of financial reports mandated by securities regulators, the role of newswires and data aggregators in disseminating corporate accounting information to different investors, and the information content of analyst recommendations. Ramesh has won many accolades for his teaching excellence, including being mentioned in the BusinessWeek Guide to Best Business Schools as an outstanding faculty member at the University of Rochester and receiving the Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award at MSU.

Kristen Rzeszutek-Rohloff is a manager in the global technical accounting group at General Motors focused on technical accounting research for complex contracts, implementation of new accounting standards and drafting of FASB comment letters on occasion. Recently, she has spent most of her time on the new revenue recognition and leasing standard global implementation projects, and is actively involved in the Financial Executives International Committee on Corporate Reporting, representing GM at the Lease Working Group sessions. In addition, Rzeszutek-Rohloff also supports GM’s campus and experienced hire recruiting efforts.

Prior to her role in global technical accounting, she was a senior analyst in treasury accounting responsible for GM’s global debt portfolio, review of significant transactions and treasury management system implementation. Before joining General Motors, Rzeszutek-Rohloff was a PwC senior assurance associate in the Detroit office servicing primarily public clients in the utilities, professional services and automotive industries. Kristen holds both a B.A. and M.S. in accounting from MSU and is a licensed CPA.

Ryan Setter is currently the Houston Operations Cost Leader, supporting Dow’s Houston Hub sites for any accounting or finance related matters. In addition Ryan also leads a team of 8 manufacturing cost accountants who support our assets in the Gulf Coast.

Ryan has held several different positions at Dow since he joined in June 2011.  He hired into the CPTC, after interning in the Cost Accounting organization in the summer of 2010. After 1 ½ years in the CPTC Ryan joined the Cost Accounting NEA Implementation team. During this time Ryan worked with a global team to implement our current SAP ECC system. In winter of 2015, Ryan moved to Texas to support the Hydrocarbons business at the Texas Operations site. While in Texas, he also was involved in the Gulfstream projects and the implementation of the new PDH plant. He was then selected to the CEO Exchange program and relocated to Mumbai, India for 6 months to assume the role of Credit Analyst for multiple Dow Businesses. Upon completion of the program Ryan moved back to Midland to and joined the finance reporting, planning & analysis team supporting Finance reporting and estimates.

Ryan and his wife enjoy many outdoor activities including camping, fishing, hiking, and skiing. In addition he likes to spend his free time playing basketball, football, and softball. Ryan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from Michigan State University.

Rick Strohmaier is a partner and Midwest region state and local tax (SALT) leader based in Chicago. He has more than 15 years of experience working with public and private companies in retail, professional services, technology, pharmacy benefit management, manufacturing and distribution. Strohmaier specializes in state income and franchise taxes. He is a frequent speaker at tax conferences. Rick earned his bachelor’s degree at Michigan State University and a master’s degree at Northern Illinois University. He is a CPA in Illinois and a member of the AICPA; he serves on the Illinois CPA Society SALT Content Advisory Group and SALT Committee, the Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois Income/Franchise Tax and Fall Conference Committees and the Chicago Tax Club SALT Committee.

Scott is an assurance and advisory partner with Deloitte based out of Chicago, Illinois. His specializations include being the Canadian manufacturing industry leader, and National Service Offering Leader – Technology Enabled Solutions, focusing on digital transformation utilizing robotics process automations

and advanced analytics. He previously led the Chicago accounting and reporting advisory services involving complex accounting, new accounting standards implementation and life event transactions. Scott participates in the Office of Chief Executive Officer Partner Development Program, served on the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Global Service Innovation Board, and has extensive experience assisting Foreign Private Issuers with identifying differences between local accounting requirements and U.S. GAAP and drafting disclosure as part of annual SEC reporting requirements. Before his time in Chicago, Scott served as a partner out of Toronto, Canada and Midland, Michigan.  As a manager, he was located in Detroit and spent two years in Paris, France.

Scott has a B.A. in Accounting from Michigan State University, he is a CPA and holds membership in the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He has been active in the Midland, Michigan United Way serving as president, member of the executive committee, and audit committee.

Korey Thomas serves as Herman Miller’s Vice President and Corporate Controller. Herman Miller is an industry leader for interior furnishings. Prior to joining Herman Miller, Korey held various accounting and finance roles of increasing responsibility at Whirlpool. He also worked at Steelcase and Plante Moran.

Korey graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting. He also has an MBA from University of Michigan and holds CPA and CIA designations. He is active in the community as a board member of Make-A-Wish Michigan, and the Zeeland Educational Foundation.

Christopher is a partner in KPMG’s Midwest Mergers & Acquisitions Tax practice and is based in the Firm’s Chicago, Illinois office. Christopher joined the practice in March 2001. He currently advises clients on the federal income tax consequences of proposed acquisition, disposition, joint venture and financing transactions. In addition, Christopher advises various clients on the tax issues associated with distressed and bankrupt debt restructurings including net operating loss limitations, consolidated return attribution reduction requirements, and discharge of indebtedness income.  Before joining the Mergers and Acquisitions Tax practice in March 2001, Christopher was a Manager in KPMG’s State and Local Tax Group where he focused on various state tax issues such as business/nonbusiness income, unitary group membership, nexus, tax base and apportionment. Christopher’s educational background includes an LL.M. in Taxation from Chicago-Kent College of Law, a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law, and a B.A. in Accounting from Michigan State University.  He is a licensed CPA in Illinois.