ERISA Section 103(a)(3)(C) audits: Part 2

Debbie is a partner in Grant Thornton LLP’s national professional standards group, specializing in employee benefit plan assurance. She has over 20 years of experience in auditing benefit plans and has practiced exclusively in this area for the past 13 years. Her knowledge base and years of experience allow her to effectively and efficiently oversee the execution of an audit while providing meaningful recommendations upon completion of the work. She is one of Grant Thornton LLP’s most knowledgeable specialists in employee benefit plans, and is actively involved with national office initiatives in the area of employee benefit plans, including development and teaching of in-house training programs. She serves as a technical resource for her firm on employee benefit plan auditing, accounting and reporting issues, and is the Firm’s designated audit partner who has firm-wide responsibility for the quality of the Firm’s employee benefit plan audit practice. Debbie recently became a member of the executive committee of the AICPA’s Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center. Prior to that, she served three years on the AICPA’s Employee Benefit Plans Expert Panel. As part of her leadership in the employee benefit plan area, Debbie also represents Grant Thornton LLP through her active involvement in various AICPA committees and task forces, including the AICPA’s Audit Guide Revision Task Force, Audit Guide Overhaul Task Force (an extensive multi-year project to re-write the AICPA’s Employee Benefit Plans Audit and Accounting Guide), Audit Risk Alert Task Force and Technical Standards Subcommittee of the Professional Ethics Committee. She continues to be actively involved in numerous sub-committees of the Audit Quality Center and Expert Panel, including those responsible for addressing employee benefit plan issues related to Alternative Investments, SOP 94-4-1, FAS 157, Limited-Scope Audits, Non-Disclosure Agreements, and Insurance Contracts. Debbie is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences on employee benefit plans. She is a member of the steering committee for the December 2007 AICPA Employee Benefit Plans Accounting, Auditing and Regulatory Update Conference, and is the co-chairman of the AICPA’s National Conference on Employee Benefit Plans in May 2008. Debbie is a native of the western suburbs of Chicago. When not working, Debbie enjoys spending time with her husband and four young sons, and participating in the numerous activities her sons are involved in.