2025 Employee Benefit Plan Audit Conference (Int/Adv)

Carl Mayes, CPA, CAE Managing Director - Professional Practice Group, Aprio

Summary 

Servant leader and change agent with a passion for audit quality. CPA Practice Advisor 40 under 40. Recognized thought leader and sought after speaker – 100+ conference presentations to date for AICPA, State Societies, and various other bodies – and contributor to AICPA and trade media on topics relative to audit quality.

Experience

Aprio 

Managing Director - Professional Practice Group

July 2024 - Present (7 months) 

• Build and lead a center of excellence for the Assurance Practice

 • Create a harmonized assurance environment across global operations, standardizing the Aprio methodology and workpaper documentation 

• Standardize EQR and Quality Control reviews in line with the above

 • Create and/or oversee creation of training and working paper templates 

• Project plan for implementation of new standards 

• Support integration of merged-in assurance practices 

AICPA 14 years Vice President 

- Audit & Accounting Quality May 2023 - July 2024 (1 year 3 months) Durham, North Carolina, United States 

• Assumed accountability for the $100M+ AICPA membership proposition, developing proposition strategy and increasing customer satisfaction 9% YoY 

• Oversaw AICPA’s Governmental Audit Quality Center, Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center and Not-for-Profit Section, with combined membership exceeding 11,000 • Led a team of 12, building a collaborative, results-driven culture while generating employee satisfaction scores 18% higher than the organizational average

• Fostered a culture of innovation, launching successful new member benefits (e.g. created and hosted A&A Focus, AICPA web series with 10,000+ monthly registrants), discontinuing underperforming products, reprioritizing content creation and driving product revenue growth (e.g. collaborated with firms to create one of AICPA’s top performing new courses) • Maintained strong relationships with key stakeholders including regulators (NASBA, Department of Labor), AICPA members and other stakeholders (State Societies) • Led AICPA response to 2023 Department of Labor Audit Quality Study and oversaw joint AICPA-NASACT research into pipeline challenges. • Represented the 200-person Public Accounting team in AICPA org design efforts – identified target audiences, defined value props and KPIs, developed problem statements and design principles, recommended design changes to CEO - Public Accounting, and led change management efforts

Senior Director - Audit & Accounting Quality February 2022 - April 2023 (1 year 3 months) 

Assumed responsibility for the AICPA Not-for-Profit Section, rebuilt and redesigned the team 

• Developed and executed strategy to drive NFP Section value, resulting in 6X increase in engagement •  

From February 2022 to July 2024, led the A&A Business area with $7M in revenue accountability. 

Developed our vision, environmental scan, performance assessment, strategic priorities, forecasts, budgets, secured executive approval and oversaw cross-functional execution. Revenue accountability principally related to AICPA A&A learning and publications portfolios – final decision-maker re: product development, continuation and retirement. Associate Director - CPA Quality and Evolution January 2019 - January 2022 (3 years 1 month) Durham, North Carolina, United States • From inception in 2017 through 2021, directed the CPA Evolution initiative, transforming the CPA licensure model to meet the needs of an evolving profession • Worked closely with AICPA and NASBA leadership to develop and implement strategy for the initiative, directing weekly collaboration sessions with the CEOs of AICPA and NASBA • Advocated for core + disciplines licensure model, secured leadership support and spearheaded a change management campaign, conducting 30+ discussion groups, surveying thousands of stakeholders and making dozens of conference presentations, resulting in overwhelming support • New CPA Exam launched on-time in January 2024 and all states where law or rule changes were required to effectuate Evolution completed those changes before launch

Phil Mills, CPA, is a senior manager

in Aprio’s L&D and Employee Benefit

Plan Services Group. Along with 13 years

of public accounting experience, Phil’s has

five years of professional teaching with

multiple organizations such as Thomson

Reuters’ Audit Watch University, 20-20

Services, Maryland Association of Certified

Public Accountants’ (MACPA), and more.

Phil’s industry expertise includes employee

benefit plans, not for profit, and government

contracting. Phil serves as a member of Aprio’s

internal inspection team. Phil conducts research

and implements upcoming accounting and

auditing standards.

Licenses & Certifications

Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

Associations

MACPA

American Institute of Certified Professional Accountants

Education

University of Baltimore: Bachelor of Science in Accounting

Brandon Long is an experienced, AV Preeminent-rated employee benefits attorney. He represents regional and national clients, including large publicly-traded corporations and governmental entities. Clients seek his advice for practical solutions to complex problems, as well as his ability to make technical concepts understandable to executives, employees, and other lawyers.

Brandon currently serves as an elected member of McAfee & Taft’s seven-member board of directors. Prior to being elected to the firm’s board, he served for many years as the leader of the firm’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group.

Brandon is a Fellow in the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, the highest level of recognition for an employee benefits attorney. His achievements have also earned him inclusion in the Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Oklahoma Super Lawyers, and The Best Lawyers in America (employee benefits/ERISA law). Brandon was selected by Best Lawyers as “Oklahoma City Employee Benefits/ERISA Lawyer of the Year” for 2021 and 2025, honors given to a single lawyer in each legal specialty in each market.

Brandon is a frequent author and speaker on employee benefits topics nationwide and has played key roles in a number of leading industry organizations, including the SouthWest Benefits Association (past president), the Employee Benefits Institute of Kansas City (member, steering committee), the American Bar Association (co-chair, Employee Benefits Subcommittee on Self Correction and Administrative Practices), and the Oklahoma Board on Legislative Compensation (prior member appointed by the Speaker of the House). His passion for advocating for employer health plans also led him to co-found the Oklahoma Employers Healthcare Alliance, a coalition committed to educating and empowering employers and their employees to make informed healthcare-related decisions, as well as promoting healthcare quality, cost-effectiveness, transparency, and accountability.

Brandon’s practice is focused on matters involving qualified retirement plans, health and welfare plans, and executive compensation. He routinely advises board committees regarding fiduciary and investment issues and the compliance aspects of new or evolving laws. A portion of his practice is also devoted to ERISA litigation, including the defense of employers in benefits litigation and advocating for employer plans in appellate litigation. Brandon also provides comments to legislators and regulators on what the law should be, and has submitted amicus briefs to courts encouraging decisions that help employer plans and their covered participants.

Almost 30 years ago, Brandon started in the mail room of another large law firm, worked as a legal assistant while going to law school at night, and graduated ranked first in his law school class. He practiced with large national and international law firms in Dallas and Washington, D.C. before returning to his hometown and joining McAfee & Taft. He holds a master of laws in taxation from the Villanova University School of Law.