Keynote Speakers

James C. Bourke, CPA.CITP.CFF.CGMA
Wednesday, November 14

James C. Bourke is a Partner, Member of the Board of Directors and Management Committee at WithumSmith+Brown, is Director of Firm Technology and Managing Director of Advisory Services. Jim has been a frequent speaker around the globe to many Accounting Societies and International Accounting Associations, the AICPA, Industry Technology Organizations, Incubators, Co-Working Locations and others on topics specifically related to various accounting, tax and advisory services topics.

In Jim’s role as Managing Director of Advisory Services, Jim heads-up the Firm’s cloud solutions, business advisory, cyber, data analytics, info-security and transactional services initiatives for the firm.

He is Past President for the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants and past Board and Council Member for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

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.

John Lee Cronin
Wednesday, November 14

John Lee Cronin is a 22-year-old man full of life and aspirations who happens to have Down syndrome. He is the co-founder of John’s Crazy Socks which has a mission to spread happiness through socks. Part of our goal at John’s Crazy Socks is to empower people and demonstrate the possibilities that each of us possesses. John serves as the face of the company and embodies those qualities in all he does.

To prepare for his current role, John underwent years of schooling. He began his education in the pre-school program at ACDS and still remembers those days fondly. John moved onto the Huntington School system which he completed in June 2017. John’s school work included life skills classes as well as electives such as fashion and photography and he was a proud member of the school chorus. During his last three years, John split his days between Huntington High School and Wilson Tech where he studied office skills and retailing. After school, John participated in the Grand-Friends Club and the Relay for Life events. Wilson Tech named John their Outstanding Student of the Year.

For a young man, John has strong work experience. In the summer of 2016, he worked in the kitchen of a local day camp, Camp Alvernia. For several years, he worked as the mail clerk at the Schlitt Law Firm. Arriving at the office every day after school, John maintained the mail supplies and stamps and made the daily run to post office, sorting envelopes and packages for the fastest delivery. He also assisted in general maintenance of the office, handling the shredding, running errands and lending a hand whenever he could

Since an early age, John devoted himself to Special Olympics activities. He engages in snowshoe, basketball, track, soccer, floor hockey and bowling. His efforts have won John numerous medals and invitations to the New York State Games for soccer, track and snowshoe. In fact, John was named an alternate to the U.S. National Snowshoe Team for the Special Olympics World Games in March 2017.

John is both the co-founder and inspiration for John’s Crazy Socks. It was John’s deep and abiding love for his “crazy socks” that gave rise to this venture. John has long maintained his personal style that does not confirm to whims of the fashion industry or dictates of others: it is a style he makes manifest with his spirit and personality. His colorful, fun and often whimsical socks (Bacon!) are just part of who he is.

Here at John’s Crazy Socks, John does a little bit of everything. He writes thank you notes to customers, does thank you videos, helps fill orders and helps pick out the socks that we will carry in the store. And he’s our ambassador, extoling the virtues, beauty and wonders of socks. John has appeared on numerous television shows and videos for interviews. He’s got his name above the door, so you know he’s checking to make sure we fulfill our promises.

Mark X. Cronin
Wednesday, November 14

The father in our father-son founding team, Mark, works behind the scenes with John upfront as the face of the business. Mark has extensive experience developing innovative organizations with a focus on customers. And he’s a Dad who is excited about working with his son.

Mark X. Cronin’s career combines public service, technology and innovation. He is the President of Paumonok Innovations Inc., the parent company of John’s Crazy Socks. Paumonok develops online information sites and niche stores. Mark has a history developing digital offerings. In the 1990’s, he founded New Gutenberg software which produced one of the first baseball informational titles.

Mark spent most of his career in the health care field building innovative organizations focused on improving the delivery of health care particularly to the poor and Medicaid recipients. Mark served as Chief Operating and Technology Officer for two health care management firms that empowered doctors and hospitals to better serve patients. As the head of a leading health care consulting firm, Mark advised hospitals, health centers and physician organizations to improve care and he worked with hospitals and health centers as they created some of the best known managed care organizations in New York State.

Earlier in his career, Mark served as the Director of Medicaid Health Services in New York City where he led a major Medicaid reform initiative that included groundbreaking legislation in Albany and improvements in care while restraining costs. While with the City, Mark worked under two mayors and won an award as Manager of the Year. Mark went on to work with hospitals and health centers that created some of the best known managed care organizations in New York State.

He has a background in education having taught graduate studies at NYU and lectured on management at Columbia’s School of Public Health. Early in his career, Mark taught school in Queens and worked for Congressman Joseph P. Addabbo.

Mark received his undergraduate degree from Holy Cross and a Masters of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has also studied literature at the Graduate Center for the City of New York and spent a year studying at Trinity College in Dublin.

Mark was the co-leader for the Barack Obama Grassroots Campaign on Long Island and served as one of President Obama’s appointees on the Rules Committee at the Democratic Convention in 2008.

He has been active in the Huntington community as a coach, volunteer and community advocate. For several years, he served on the board of a local youth organization. He is also an avid reader and published author of short fiction, movie reviews and political analysis.

Along with John, Mark advocates for the rights of differing abled people. He works with the National Down Syndrome Society to support their #DSWORKS and End Law Syndrome campaigns. He has met with members of Congress on multiple occasions representing both the National Down Syndrome Society and the Special Olympics and testified before the House Committee on Small Business.

Mark has been fortunate enough to receive many awards and honors for his work. HeartShare Social Services recognized Mark with their Msgr. Thomas G. Hagerty Humanitarian Award. Mark’s community activity earned him an award as Man of the Year for civic activity from the Times of Huntington. Mark is a sought after speaker having spoken at events across the U.S. and in Canada.

Patti Newcomer, Vice President, Marketing, Intuit ProConnect Group
Thursday, November 15

Patti Newcomer is Vice President of Marketing within ProConnect, Intuit’s business that serves professional tax preparers. She is responsible for all aspects of Marketing for ProConnect Tax Online, Lacerte, and ProSeries. Her leadership and extensive experience in product development, marketing strategy, brand strategy, and analytics guides Intuit’s efforts with tax professionals.

Prior to that, Ms. Newcomer held senior executive roles at Worldpay, now part of Vantiv, Wachovia Corporation and Capital One. She also spent the 1st 10 years of her career in New Product Development at Procter & Gamble.

Timothy D. Sini, Suffolk County District Attorney
Friday, November 16

Timothy D. Sini was sworn in as the Suffolk County District Attorney in January 2018. Upon taking office, Sini immediately launched a comprehensive review of the District Attorney’s Office with the objectives of creating a culture of excellence, professionalism and ethical conduct. He has also instituted cutting edge strategies to address the public safety issues of our time, including launching a dedicated Gang Unit, an Environmental Crime Unit, and the Office’s first Conviction Integrity Bureau.

Prior to his election as District Attorney, Sini served as the 13th Commissioner of the Suffolk County Police Department. As Police Commissioner, Sini restored integrity to the leadership of the Police Department, reduced crime to the lowest level in recorded history, improved community relations, and enhanced the efficiency and effectiveness of the Department through improving processes and investing in technology. During Sini’s tenure as Police Commissioner, violent crime decreased more than 15% and overall crime decreased more than 12%. Sini made the fight against the violent street gang MS-13 a top priority of the Department and launched a multi-pronged strategy that resulted in more than 300 arrests of MS-13 gang members in just over one year. Sini also launched several innovative initiatives to combat the opioid epidemic, increase homeland security, foster proactive police work and community policing, and reform the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau.

Prior to his appointment as Police Commissioner, Sini served as the Assistant Deputy County Executive for Public Safety in the administration of Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone. In this role, he spearheaded numerous award-winning public safety initiatives, including an innovative drug treatment program targeting Suffolk County inmates and releasees, as well as an evidence-based gang prevention program targeting children as early as the third grade. He also led a successful effort in collaboration with the Suffolk County Sheriff to lift the unfunded state mandate to build a third jail in Suffolk County by developing a plan to further invest in alternative to arrest programs.

Sini started his career in law enforcement as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York where he specialized in investigating and prosecuting violent crimes, including homicides, gang related activity and large scale narcotics cases.

Sini serves as a representative on the White House’s Office of Drug Control Policy New York/New Jersey Regional HIDTA Team, where he assists in creating strategies between public health and public safety agencies to reduce opioid overdoses in the region. He is also the Executive Director of the Suffolk County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, which consists of all the stakeholders in Suffolk County’s criminal justice system.

Sini is a graduate of the FBI’s National Executive Institute, an elite training program for law enforcement’s national leaders, and a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Education program. He is also an adjunct professor at Touro Law Center where he teaches a course on contemporary issues in policing.

Sini is a magna cum laude graduate of both Brooklyn Law School where he earned his Juris Doctor and American University in Washington, D.C. where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science.

He resides in Babylon Village with his wife, Amanda, and their three children.

SA Andrea Risko, CPA
Friday, November 16

Andrea Risko has a Bachelors/Masters degree in Accounting from St. John’s University. She began her career in public accounting in 2001 at Ernst & Young LLP located in New York City performing audits for Retail and Consumer Products industry clients. In 2005, she joined Deloitte & Touche LLP as an Audit Senior where she worked in the Audit & Assurance Group - Financial Services industry and specialized in Employee Benefit Plan audits. In 2008, she was promoted to Audit Manager and began working for Deloitte’s National Office as part of the Professional Practice Group. In 2012, Andrea accepted an offer to work as an Audit Senior Manager at American Express in their Internal Audit Group. She has performed work on a consulting basis for Arrow Electronics and Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP. In 2015, she started her career in the United States Secret Service as a Special Agent, currently in the Melville, NY office.