| Leadership Team and Structure of ALPFA Chicago |
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| Executive Officers // 5 Members |
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| President |
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| Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association |
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Solskin Gómez-Krogh is a Graphics and Marketing Specialist at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. She brings a creative eye to the sales and strategic materials presented to the governance committees of the Association, BCBS member Plans and clients. Prior to her current role as ALPFA Chicago President, Solskin served as: Chair to the Second Annual ALPFA Chicago Leadership Summit, Marketing Lead for the First Leadership Summit, Director of Membership, 2004 ALPFA Conference (Chicago) Planning Committee member, and Public Relations Committee member.
Outside of ALPFA, Solskin currently serves as Chair of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association Diversity Council and is an active member of the Blue Diversity Alliance. In her condo association, she has previously served as Secretary and Treasurer and currently serves as President. Solskin is also an active member of the Danish Sisterhood of America and the Saturday Sunrise Toastmasters in Oak Park, Illinois. |
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| Solskin earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Anthropology and International Studies with a focus in Latin America from Iowa State University. Additionally, she completed her Masters in Business Administration from DePaul University in June 2003 with a concentration in International Business and an emphasis in Management. |
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| Immediate Past-President |
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| Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) |
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| César A. Lostaunau is a Manager in the Operations Metrics & Support group at the Chicago Transit Authority. At the CTA, Cesar links strategy and operational metrics with the agency’s mission utilizing performance management to make best use of CTA resources. Prior to his current ALPFA role, Cesar served one-term as Director of Student Affairs to the ALPFA Chicago Chapter and served on the Professional Development Committee. Cesar is also actively involved with the Chicago Chapter of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs and the University of Illinois Alumni Association. |
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| César graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance and a MBA from DeVry University. |
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| Executive Vice President |
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| Crowe Chizek |
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| Rick Cerda has eight years experience in public accounting, having worked
out of Crowe's Oak Brook and Fort Lauderdale offices. He has significant
experience in working with large multi-point dealerships and public
dealership companies with leading audits, reviews, compilations, tax
services and various consulting projects that include performing internal
audits, evaluating internal controls, business valuations, profitability
enhancement, risk management and implementing large scale accounting office
consolidations. Mr. Cerda has also been involved in the documentation and
evaluation of internal control systems of a Fortune 100 company. Rick has
conducted several training programs regarding various accounting topics.
In addition, Mr. Cerda was one of a select group to be nominated to, and
successfully complete, Crowe Chizek's nationally recognized Leadership
Program. |
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| University of Illinois – B.S. of Accounting |
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| Secretary |
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| Illinois Tool Works (ITW) |
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| Ed is a Senior Auditor in the Internal Audit area for Illinois Tool Works (ITW). Ed performs both operational and financial audits for a number of the various ITW business units. Prior to ITW, Ed worked at Deloitte in the Audit and Enterprise Risk Services practice for three years. While at Deloitte, Ed served both public and private clients from a variety of industries including manufacturing, investment, and not-for-profit clients. |
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| Ed holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accountancy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign obtained in May 2000 and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). |
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| Treasurer |
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| PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP |
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| Beatriz Rangel is an Associate in the Audit and Assurance practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and works with clients in the Consumers and Industrial Products and Services industry group. Beatriz assists in the examination and verification of the financial performance, records, and operations of public and private businesses, and in the United States, she assists in the examination for their compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Beatriz currently serves as the Treasurer to ALPFA Chicago. Prior to her current role, she served as the first Vice President of the ALPFA RMC Student Chapter and as an active member of the Student Affairs Committee. |
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| Beatriz has earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Robert Morris College. |
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| Directors at Large // 8 Members |
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| Director of Events |
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| Fortaleza Asset Management, Inc. |
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| Christina Perez is a Research Associate and member of the Investment Team at Fortaleza Asset Management, Inc. She joined Fortaleza in 1999 as a college intern while pursuing an undergraduate degree at DePaul University and transitioned to a full-time Research Associate in 2004. Christina is directly responsible for the preparation of client reports, portfolio attribution analysis and equity research reports with a primary emphasis on the retail and restaurant industries. She has been an active member of the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting, Chicago Chapter since March 2005 and served on the Committee of Events in 2006. |
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| Christina received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Commerce with a concentration in Finance and a minor in Management from DePaul University in June 2004. |
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| Director of Membership |
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| PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP |
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Marisol is a Manager in the Chicago Internal Audit Services practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP with over eight years of public accounting experience. She specializes in quality assurance reviews, internal control design and implementation, business process improvement, internal audit outsourcing / co-sourcing, and Sarbanes-Oxley. Marisol has led teams in the US and international locations in both outsourcing and co-sourcing environments. Prior to joining Internal Audit Services in 2001, Marisol worked on external audit clients where she performed agreed upon procedures, interim testing and substantive testing of full-scope financial audits. Most recently, Marisol was the project leader for the Internal Audit Transformational team responsible for identifying transformation opportunities to enhance the existing internal audit model and meet client needs. In addition, Marisol has given presentations to internal and external parties related to internal audit, Sarbanes procedures and the State of the Audit Profession (2006 and 2007). She has been involved in the Internal Audit Planning Committee responsible for developing the detail planning and execution courses for new hires and experienced associates.
Marisol is an active member of PwC’s Women Networking Circles (WNC) and Network of Latino(a) Professionals (NLP) within PwC. She is actively involved in PwC’s campus recruiting efforts and mentoring program for the PwC-Inroads interns. Her professional associations include active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Illinois CPA Society and ALPFA. Marisol became Director of Membership for the Chicago ALPFA Chapter in October 2007. Her community involvement includes serving as the team captain for the Junior Achievement Bowl-a-thon and United Way. |
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Marisol has earned her Bachelor of Science degree from University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant. |
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| Director of Corporate Development |
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| Fortune Brands, Inc. |
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Rafael I. Romero is a Senior Financial Auditor in the Internal Audit Department of Fortune Brands, Inc. a $8 billion leading consumer brands company. Rafael performs operational and financial audits for several Fortune Brands' subsidiaries that engage in the manufacture, production, and sale of spirits, home and hardware products, and golf products. Prior to Fortune Brands, Rafael worked at Deloitte & Touche USA LLP in Chicago, Illinois in the Internal Audit Practice for five years. Rafael has experience in servicing telecom, manufacturing and service industry clients. Rafael also has international experience working with American based and Latin American clients whose operations are aiming to be expanded in Latin America and in the US. |
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| Rafael holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Accountancy from Universidad del Zulia in Maracaibo, Venezuela. His memberships include ALPFA Chicago Events Committee, the Institute of Internal Auditors, Colegio de Contadores Públicos del Estado Zulia in Venezuela, and Deloitte’s Hispanic Network (HNET). |
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| Director of Professional Development |
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| Blue Cross Blue Shield |
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| Jacqueline Quinonez is an Internal Auditor at Health Care Service
Corporation (HCSC). Jacqueline performs financial audits by examination
and verification of the financial performance and supports HCSC external
audits. Prior to HCSC, Jacqueline worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in
the Audit and Assurance practice. Jacqueline has been an active ALPFA
member for 5 years. She began her involvement with ALPFA as founder and
first President of the ALPFA RMC Student Chapter. |
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| Jacqueline obtained a
dual Bachelors Degree in Accounting and Finance from Robert Morris College. |
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| Director of Student Affairs |
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| Ernst and Young LLP |
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| Steven Sanabria currently works for Ernst and Young's Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services. Prior to that, Steven worked for the Technology and Security Risk Services group at E&Y and at IBM as a Customer Relationship Management Business Consultant. Steven has been a member of ALPFA for over 5 years and has been involved since the beginning of the University of Illinois chapter in 2003. Prior to serving as Director of Student Affairs, Steven served as ALPFA Chicago's Director of Information Technology for a two-year term, and was also the founding webmaster at the University of Illinois chapter. Steven is eager to help out students in the various student chapters and looks forward to establishing new student chapters at Universities and Colleges throughout the Chicagoland area. |
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| Steven received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree with a concentration in Management Information Systems and a minor in Spanish, from the University of Illinois in May 2004. |
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| Director of Philanthropy and Community Affairs |
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| Allstate Insurance Company |
| Rolando Alarcon is a Senior Accountant in the Operational Accounting, Financial Shared Services area at the Home Office. Rolando is responsible for the financial reporting and accounting of retirement and protection products such as fixed annuities, life and health insurance. He was a key contributor in the transition of an out-of-state subsidiary’s accounting and reporting functions to the Home Office for the sake of gaining process efficiencies and increasing SOX controls. He currently leads certain streamlining projects related to these transitioned processes.
In previous positions he has acted as liaison between Allstate Insurance and Morgan Stanley related to a profit sharing agreement which included creating profit and loss statements as well as communicating financial results to upper management. He has actively served in the U.S. Navy. . |
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| While at Allstate, Rolando earned an MBA from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management |
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| Director of Public Relations |
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| US Cellular |
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Susan J. Diaz de Leon currently works for U.S. Cellular as a Public Affairs Specialist. She manages the company's Associate Matching Gifts program and participates in the review process for charitable contributions and corporate image events held acrosss the company nationwide. Prior to that, Susan worked for The Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE) as an Account Coordinator. Susan has been an active ALPFA member for 5 years. She began as her involvment with ALPFA with her Student Chapter at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Education |
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| Susan received her Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Science in Speech Communications with an emphasis in Business from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |
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| Director of Information Technology |
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| Halverson Group |
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| Gilberto specializes in the practical application of video surveillance systems to help retailers improve the customer experience. As an engineering specialist, his primary role is to work closely with clients and technology partners to help create and implement Video Enabled Behavioral Analytics strategies. |
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| Gilberto received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois in May 2005. |
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| Program Managers // 4 Members |
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| ALPFA Mentoring Program (AMP) |
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| Ernst and Young LLP |
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| Ana Maria Romero is a Transfer Pricing Senior Consultant at Ernst & Young LLP in the International Tax Services group. Ana Maria currently serves as the Program Manager for the ALPFA Mentoring Program (“AMP”). She is also the Public Relations Chair for Ernst & Young’s Generating Opportunities for Latinos and Diversity (“EY/GOLD”) group. |
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| Ana Maria earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Illinois Wesleyan University with a double major in Economics and Accounting, and her Master of Science degree from the University of Notre Dame in Financial Accounting. |
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