Our 2024 Speakers
Ronald L. Moser, CPP
Director of Payroll Training
PayrollOrg
As Human Resources Administrator, for the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda Schools, Ronald Moser was responsible for handling payroll, personnel, and employee benefits matters. He has over 38 years of experience in these areas, having worked as Tax Preparer, Supervisor of Payroll/Benefits, and Accounts Payable and Employee Benefits Supervisor.
Mr. Moser currently serves on the PayrollOrg Board of Contributing Writers and Ambassador. Mr. Moser has also served as Co-Chair of the Government/Public Sector Task Force and K-12 Education Task force. He has served on the PayrollOrg Hotline, Education Committee, Nominations and Elections Committee, Board of Advisors and has served as a Vice President of the PayrollOrg’s Board of Directors. He is a co-founder of the Buffalo Niagara APA Chapter and has served as President and Education Coordinator of the Buffalo Niagara Chapter. Additionally, he has served as New York Statewide Conference Chair, and has taught the PayrollOrg’s Payroll Professional Learning Series. He received the APA's Meritorious Service Award in 2003, a Special Recognition Award in 2005, Payroll Man of the Year in 2007.
Mr. Moser, who has served on the Board of Advisors of the IRS Small Business Assistance Center in Western New York, has held the designation of Certified Payroll Professional since 1993. He also holds a Degree in Accounting.
Michael Sciotti
Partner, Barclay Damon
Michael is a trusted advisor, trainer, and litigator to hundreds of employers on labor and employment matters. His practice includes defending employers, owners, and members of management in all types of discrimination, harassment, whistleblower, and retaliation claims brought under Title VII, ADEA, ADA, FMLA, GINA, NYS Human Rights Law, and Labor Law. Michael also defends wage-and-hour actions and claims, including class-action lawsuits, brought under federal and state law. He has tried nearly two dozen cases to verdict in federal and state court and before the NYS Division of Human Rights.
Michael also provides day-to-day counseling for employers on all aspects of labor and employment law and conducts internal investigations; audits; and supervisory and employee training, including sexual harassment-prevention training, on a regular basis. He has given over 1,100 labor and employment presentations to organizations that include the Society for Human Resource Management, the American Payroll Association, the American Corporate Counsel Association, the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Northern District of New York Federal Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and Lorman Education Services.
Joseph Cianciotta
Employment Tax Manager – Wealth & Human Capital Solutions: Grant Thornton
Prior to joining Grant Thornton’s Human Capital practice, Joseph worked for CBS Corporation as a Payroll Tax Specialist. He primarily focused on preparing, analyzing and filing multiple Federal, State and Local Employment tax returns for all 50 states. Joseph maintains a strong understanding of federal, state and local employment tax regulations so that effective approaches can be applied to tasks and initiatives.
Joseph has a vast experience with many aspects of employment tax and payroll operations including employment tax refund review projects, payroll platform implementations, employment tax transaction and merger issues, including registration forms and employee travel and expense policies and procedures reviews. He specializes in employment tax, advising clients on various compliance and consulting issues including payroll tax compliance, information return (1099/W-2) technical consulting and filing issues and complex multi-state employment tax issues and reporting. Joseph has assisted clients with operational reviews that focus on the inputs and outputs of an organizations payroll/HRIS system.
Jason Trahan, CPA, FCPA, CFF
Principal - Commercial Insurance Claims Practice Leader
Jason is the Commercial Insurance Claims Practice Leader for Disaster Recovery Services, LLC (DRS) where he specializes in supervising and guiding professionals to provide a turnkey recovery solution for Claims Consulting, Disaster Restoration and Rebuild, and Debris Removal after a loss event.
Ryan Stykel, CPA, CFF
Managing Consultant with DRS
As a Managing Consultant with DRS, Ryan coordinates the FEMA Public Assistance grant implementation and compliance monitoring process, as well as provides technical assistance in policy, grant oversight, reporting, and payment reimbursement. Ryan combines his expertise in commercial property losses, knowledge of FEMA’s Public Assistance Program, and forensic accounting skills to support clients in maximizing their physical and financial recovery from catastrophic events.
Bri Zakala
Client Solutions Director, Robert Half
Bri Zakala is a Client Solutions Director with Robert Half, the world’s first and largest talent solutions firm. She sits within the Upstate NY Management Resources practice group which covers Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. Bri specializes in assisting companies with project needs or interim support in areas such as Accounting, Finance/FP&A, Audit, ERP, Supply Chain, Business Systems, PMP, and Tax, from senior levels up to Director/CFO.
A native of Central New York, Bri earned a B.S. in Business Administration from SUNY Geneseo in 2017. She began her professional journey at Paychex in the insurance sector before joining Robert Half's Rochester branch in 2019. When she began with the firm as a Practice Director, she spearheaded the development of the permanent placement accounting operations division. Her leadership led to a 200% revenue increase, making it one of the leading Permanent Placement Divisions in the Northeast.
Stephanie Broussard
Regional Director, Robert Half
Stephanie Broussard is a Regional Director for Robert Half, the world’s first and largest specialized talent solutions firm. In her current role, she oversees offices located in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, NY, and Providence, RI. Stephanie joined the company in 2015, bringing more than six years of staffing industry experience.
She began her journey at Robert Half as a Division Director over the Rochester Branch and quickly rose through the ranks, earning titles such as Branch Manager and Metro Market Manager. Stephanie has played a crucial role in leading the company’s Professional Talent Solutions, including contract and permanent placement in accounting and finance, administrative and customer support, and management resources. Under her leadership, these groups have achieved several all-time highs.
Stephanie is recognized as one of the company’s key pillars in Upstate New York, having built a strong and dedicated leadership team. She graduated from West Virginia University in 2008.
Kirstin (KEER-stin) Guanciale (Gwan-CHA-lee)
For the past 15 years Kirstin has been the nonresident alien tax specialist at Syracuse University. She has been with the University for 18 years and began as a payroll analyst. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting, and was employed at a CPA’s office prior to working at the University. She ensures compliance with special IRS withholding and reporting rules for income received by nonresident aliens and foreign entities.
Sarah Decker
Sarah Decker is a Community Outreach and Resource Planning Specialist for the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Sarah began her career with Wage and Hour in 2012. As an Investigator, Sarah enforced several federal labor laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act. In 2020, Sarah became the Albany District’s Community Outreach and Resource Planning Specialist. As an Outreach Specialist, Sarah educates employees and employers about the federal labor laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division. She is originally from Richmond, Virginia and came to federal employment by way of the Peace Corps, serving two years as an English teacher in Kazakhstan.
Rosemary Enright
Partner, Barclay Damon
With over 15 years in management and leadership roles at multinational software company Oracle Corporation, Rosemary serves as the firm's Labor & Employment Practice Group leader, primarily concentrating on helping companies comply with state and federal labor laws. She has extensive experience handling matters involving discrimination in hiring, firing, and promotion; wages; benefits; civil-rights claims; and workplace investigations of discrimination and harassment claims. Rosemary also routinely drafts employee manuals, employment agreements, severance agreements, noncompetition agreements, and employment policies and procedures.
Rosemary uses her hands-on experience with professional services, product development; training; and resource, facility, and operations management to gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and needs of her business clients.
Rosemary's business background is complemented by the four years she spent clerking at a small boutique law firm specializing in plaintiff-side employment matters. This experience gives her unique insight into how to counteract typical plaintiff strategies to maximize results for her clients.
The independent research company Chambers & Partners said Rosemary is recognized “for her skilled handling of both labor and employment matters.”
Chris Harrigan
Partner, Barclay Damon
Chris counsels and represents employers in labor and employment-related matters, including in employment litigation in federal and state courts and before the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the NYS Division of Human Rights. From Fortune 500 companies to small family-owned businesses, Chris has extensive experience counseling clients and litigating claims regarding workplace discrimination and the enforcement of noncompetition agreements.
Chris additionally advises clients on business issues that include collective-bargaining negotiations, labor arbitrations, unionorganizing campaigns, executive-employment agreements, wageand- hour-law investigations, employee theft, severance agreements, the development of employment policies, and the preparation of restrictive covenants and noncompetition agreements. In addition, Chris represents higher education institutions, charter schools, and public school districts in employment-law issues and education-law matters, including student disciplinary issues.
Chris also provides counseling and training to executives, supervisors, managers, and employees on topics such as positive employer-employee relations, anti-harassment compliance, wage-and-hour issues, workplace-misconduct investigations, documentation and performance reviews, and avoiding workplace violence.
In addition to his labor and employment practice, Chris serves as the firm's co-marketing partner.
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Art Marrapese
Partner, Barclay Damon
A former ERISA compliance and record-keeping firm owner with in-house financial services industry experience and over 30 years of legal experience, Art serves as the firm's Employee Benefits Practice Area chair. He primarily concentrates on helping plan sponsors and fiduciaries identify, prioritize, and minimize the litigation and liability risks associated with the management and administration of employee benefit programs through plan drafting, employee-communications strategies, plan-governance ideas, and “best practice” policies and procedures.
Art has extensive experience drafting employee benefit plan documents and summary plan descriptions, assisting senior executives and board members in understanding their fiduciary responsibilities and counseling on steps to minimize those responsibilities and the attendant litigation and liability risks.
He regularly advises plan sponsors, insurers, and health-plan service providers on issues relating to ERISA, COBRA, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and HIPAA privacy and security. He routinely negotiates administrative-service agreements, businessassociate agreements, and nondisclosure and data-transmission agreements related to the operation and administration of selffunded medical plans. Art also advises health insurance companies and brokers on designing, documenting, and administering insurance products and services in a manner that comports with applicable law, most notably the ACA.
In ERISA claims and dispute resolution, Art helps claims administrators and administrative committees maintain compliantclaims procedures, communicate the procedures to participants, and adhere to the timeline, notice, and substantive requirements of the procedure and federal law to help preserve administrative discretion. When litigation is unavoidable, Art aggressively represents plan sponsors, service providers, employee benefit plans, and plan fiduciaries in the defense of ERISA benefits and fiduciary-breach claims. He has argued ERISA cases in federal courts across New York State, including the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and also represents plan sponsors and fiduciaries in connection with US Department of Labor investigations and enforcement matters.
Frank A. Cania, MSEmpL, AWI-CH, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
I’m the founder and president of HR Compliance Experts LLC. For more than 25 years, my professional focus has been on employment law, regulatory compliance, and workplace investigations. My mother would want you to know that I earned a master’s degree in employment law from the Shepard Broad Law School and hold the AWI-CH, SHRM-SCP, and SPHR certifications. I’m proud to have provided expert witness testimony to the House of Representatives Small Business Committee, taught college-level employment law classes, and presented nationally on compliance-related topics. My wife Becky and I have two amazing grandchildren, Connor and Mackenzie. Oh, and two adult children….um…their names are…I know this…Blake and Ellie!
Rori Carney
Senior Tax Manager
Equifax Workforce Solutions
Rori Carney joined the Equifax Workforce Solutions Employment Tax Practice in September, 2012. With over twenty five (25) years of experience, Rori is a subject matter expert who specializes in all employment tax issues associated with mergers, acquisitions and internal reorganizations.
Working with the Equifax client base of over 3,600 accounts, Rori leads a wide variety of employment tax engagements within the practice focusing on compliance, advisory and controversy services. She has a strong technical knowledge of a wide variety of employment tax issues including state unemployment and withholding tax sourcing, federal and state payroll tax implications of mergers and acquisitions, federal and state taxpayer advocacy procedures and federal and state refund recovery analysis.
Prior to joining Equifax, Rori spent 11 years in with EY where she was a Senior Manager and a leader for the firm’s Employment Tax practice in the Midwest region. She has also worked with the KPMG state and local tax practice as an Employment Tax Manager and at Barnett Associates as an Account Executive. Rori has a Bachelor of Business Administration, Accountancy from Hofstra University and has been a Certified Payroll Professional since 2008. Rori resides on Long Island with her husband Ray, daughter Caleigh (a junior at Hofstra University) and their wheaten terrier, Lily.