K2's Artificial Intelligence Conference - A Virtual Event

Lawrence McClelland

Mac McClelland, an attorney and accounting professional, is an associate of K2 Enterprises of Hammond, Louisiana, and Network Management Group of Hutchinson, Kansas.

Mac was formerly the director of the Centre for Financial Studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, where he lived and worked for seven years from 1990 to 1997. He was also a member of the faculty of the Advanced Business Programme, ranked in the top 100 MBA programs in the world by The Economist, specializing in business strategy and strategic management accounting.

He gained his practical experience in information systems with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and has an established practice in business and technology consulting. Mac has taught hundreds of continuing professional education seminars to accountants and business managers in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Southeast Asia. His presentations are highly rated, and he has won several awards for teaching excellence.

Mac has been published in leading business and practitioner journals, including Tax Ideas, Computers in Accounting, Journal of Accounting Education, Chartered Accountants Journal of New Zealand, and the top-rated Journal of Accounting Research.

Brian Tankersley

Brian Tankersley is a consultant who advises US firms and companies on accounting technology issues. Mr. Tankersley is a frequent speaker at continuing education courses for K2 Enterprises, and publishes a nationally recognized blog on accounting and technology (www.cpatechblog.com). He has also served as the technology editor for a major accounting industry publication. Mr. Tankersley has over 25 years of professional experience, including accounting, auditing, technology, and education, and has been with K2 Enterprises since 2005, and he is also one of the national instructors for Yaeger CPA Review.

Tankersley has been recognized eight times as one of the “Top 25 Thought Leaders in Public Accounting Technology” by Cygnus Business Media. Brian has made presentations in 48 of the 50 US states and has served as a guest speaker for many professional accounting organizations across Canada.  He has received numerous awards for his writing and speaking from state CPA societies. Brian has presented sessions at most major national accounting technology conferences, including AICPA TECH+/Practitioners Conference, The Sleeter Group’s Solutions Conference, Sage Summit, CCH Connections, and Thomson Reuters Synergy User Conference. 

Brian is a Certified Public Accountant (Tennessee), a Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP), and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). He holds bachelor’s degrees in both Accounting and Finance, cum laude, from the University of Tennessee. Tankersley also maintains numerous vendor software certifications, and is a member of the Tennessee Society of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs.

Stephen Yoss

Stephen M. Yoss, Jr., CPA, is a senior technology strategist and principal of MantisPRO, a company that focuses on helping organizations develop a technology strategy to streamline their business operations. Stephen has consulted with several companies on how to lower overhead, personnel, and compliance costs by investing in technology and reengineering their business practices. He teaches his clients to embrace technology at every opportunity in order to increase efficiency and productivity. MantisPRO’s specialty is designing and building cloud based workspaces for companies to conduct all their operations virtually.

Prior to starting MantisPRO, Stephen worked as an accountant in his family’s accounting practice, Yoss & Allen. While working there he became a Certified Public Accountant and completely redesigned the firm’s technology practices. Many of the technologies he consults on today were first designed, perfected and implemented in his family’s practice and with their clients. Stephen has also spent time working abroad as a management accountant in New Zealand.

Stephen began working with technology at age ten, and started his first IT company at age 13, designing web applications for local businesses. He started writing original computer code at age 15 and has been working with technology ever since. Stephen is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University and holds degrees in Accountancy and International Business. He is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Information Systems and Technology at Claremont Graduate University. His research is focused in the areas of corporate technology and education technology strategy. He has been teaching professional continuing professional education since 2009 in self-study, webcast, in-house, and live formats. He has presented to thousands of practitioners nationwide on topics such as cloud computing, mobile technology, spreadsheet design and best practices, information security, identity theft prevention and many more. Apart from working in technology and accounting he is a professional licensed pyrotechnician and works on major firework displays around the country. He lives in Claremont, California.

Thomas Stephens

Tommy Stephens Jr., CPA, CGMA, CITP, is a shareholder at K2 Enterprises where he lectures internationally on subjects, such as internal controls for small businesses, technology strategies, computer hardware and software applications, tax strategies and compliance and financial accounting standards and applications. Stephens background also includes his work as an auditor and technology consultant for an Atlanta-based public accounting firm, leading an internal audit staff and managing a cost accounting team for a Fortune 500 company and serving as CFO for an international engineering organization. In the last 25 years, he has also presented over 2,700 educational sessions to over 70,000 participants throughout the U.S. and Canada.