John Gill is the President of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). He also serves as an advisory member to the ACFE Board of Regents.
Gill began his career at the ACFE in 1995 as its first general counsel. He then created, and was the first director of, the ACFE’s research and publications department. He most recently served as Chief Training Officer where he oversaw all of the ACFE’s training activities.
In 2006, he developed the CFE Exam Review Course, which he has taught on six continents. He has also conducted training for Fortune 50 companies; federal, state, and local government agencies; and professional organizations across the globe.
Prior to joining the ACFE, Gill was an attorney in the Austin, Texas, office of the Bragg, Smithers and Curry law firm, where he was involved with civil fraud, insurance and deceptive trade practices cases.
Gill is a co-author of the Fraud Examiners Manual. He is the former publisher of Fraud Magazine and remains a regular contributor to the magazine.
Gill graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in English. He earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence with honors from the University of Texas School of Law.
Gill is a member of the Austin Chapter of ACFE, Phi Beta Kappa and the State Bar of Texas.
Featured Speaker
Michael “Bret” Hood
Michael “Bret” Hood has over 25 years of experience working financial crimes as a Special Agent and Supervisory Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is a financial crime, ethics, money laundering, and leadership expert. Bret retired from the FBI in July of 2016. During his career, Bret has worked on some of the most infamous cases in American history, including 9/11, the Oklahoma City Bombing, and the multi-billion dollar HealthSouth fraud case. Because of his experience, Bret was chosen to be an adviser when the FBI created their executive leadership development programs and was selected to be a leadership instructor at the FBI’s National Academy, a ten-week college program for law enforcement executives from all over the world.
Bret has led over 50 United States government delegations to foreign countries and has been accepted as an adjunct professor of leadership for the University of Virginia. From 2000 to the present, Bret has traveled the world representing the United States government, teaching various courses on financial crime and money laundering to various law enforcement and governmental entities worldwide. In 2015 and 2016, Bret was a featured speaker at the Association of Certified Fraud Examiner’s Global Fraud conferences.
Conference Speakers
Vanessa Bopp
Vanessa joined FINRA in 2023 as a Senior Principal Investigator in FINRA’s Cyber-Enabled Fraud Unit. In this role, she leads a team investigating cyber incidents that impact investors and FINRA member firms, with a focus on threat actor activities.
Prior to FINRA, Vanessa served over 15 years as a senior intelligence analyst at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where her expertise in investigations and intelligence analysis centered on emerging technology. Her work was instrumental in investigating and preventing cyber and terrorism threats. More recently, as a threat researcher in the cybersecurity industry, she monitored threats across the underground cybercrime ecosystem, leveraging data science and threat intelligence to develop protective strategies for companies facing adversarial threats.
Vanessa holds a Master’s in Public Policy from American University, a Bachelor’s degree from Occidental College, and is certified through the United States Intelligence Community Advanced Analyst Program (ICAAP).
Colleen Diles
Colleen Diles is the President and Founding Principal of Diles Consulting, a firm that specializes in expert witness and independent regulatory consulting services. Colleen helps broker-dealer and registered investment advisor clients navigate the complex and dynamic regulatory environment of the financial industry. With over 25 years of experience in this industry, including 22 years as a regulator, Colleen provides effective and efficient solutions that address clients’ needs. She handles FINRA membership applications (NMA/CMA/MatCon), regulatory examination prep, enforcement undertaking responses, AML independent testing, SEC Rule 206(4)-7 annual reporting, gap assessments, and compliance support. Colleen also serves as an expert witness and arbitrator, leveraging her extensive knowledge and experience to resolve disputes and provide impartial and credible opinions.
Traci Dowd
Traci Dowd is the Special Agent in Charge of the Economic Crimes Unit with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. She joined Law Enforcement over 14 years ago, transitioning from a career in the mortgage and real estate industries. With a degree in accounting and an accreditation as a Certified Fraud Examiner, she specializes in cases involving money laundering, organized crime, embezzlement, and business identity theft. Traci is passionate about combating wire fraud and economic crime through persistent outreach and education. She is also a motorsports enthusiast, a champion amateur race car driver, and a motorcycle RiderCoach.
Robert Glasser, CPA, CFF, CFE, CIRA, CGMA
Robert Glasser is a Managing Director in BRG’s Consulting’s Business Insurance Claims practice and is based in New York and Denver. He is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified in Financial Forensics, a Certified Insolvency and Reorganization Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant, with more than 40 years of diverse economic management, insurance claims and accounting and forensic fraud investigation experience at public and private companies.
Mr. Glasser’s background includes turnaround financial management assignments and extensive experience in corporate planning and analysis, controller responsibilities, and strategic planning. His experience also includes cyber and ransomware insurance claims; employee theft insurance claims; fraud investigation engagements; loss of profit/damages litigation support; and pre-loss business interruption values calculations.
Brett A. Johnson, CPA/CFF, CFE, CFI
Brett has provided fraud detection, investigation, and prevention consulting services for more than 20 years and has assisted clients in a variety of industries during that time. He has extensive experience tracing, documenting, and identifying employee fraud schemes in all industries, and has provided expert testimony in federal, state and tribal court systems. Brett also serves as an internal control consultant to help strengthen controls over assets. Additionally, he leads Eide Bailly’s forensic services team in cryptocurrency tracing investigations and blockchain forensics.
Brett is a CPA, CFE, Certified in Financial Forensics, and a Certified Forensic Interviewer. He has provided training on fraud investigative methods to dozens of organizations and associations across the Country throughout his career.
Lauren Lollini
Lauren is a mother, a psychotherapist and a patient safety advocate focused on drug diversion education. But to truly understand Lauren’s involvement with the patient safety cause, you have to take a step back
and get her story.
After a routine surgery at Rose Medical Center in 2009, Lauren discovered she had Hepatitis C. She soon found she was a victim of Kristen Parker, a surgical tech, who diverted drugs from operating rooms for her own use and spread the disease to 19 innocent hospital patients.
Shortly after her diagnosis, Lauren felt the strong desire to speak out to help others realize the tragic consequences of drug diversion.
Lauren has helped to pass legislation in the state of Colorado to insure better reporting procedures among healthcare workers who abuse their position as well as make it mandatory for surgical techs to be registered with the state regulatory agency. She has lobbied for healthcare reform on Capitol Hill and she has partnered with national organizations raising awareness on drug diversion and its disastrous effects.
Lauren has authored blog posts, participated in podcasts, presented at conferences around the United States as well as participated and contributed to various news and media stories. Lauren’s story has also been the basis for several educational and drug diversion training videos including the One and Only Campaign for the Colorado state health department and others around the country.
She has been a board member for the International Health Facility Diversion Association and serves on the advisory board for
HealthcareDiversion.org partnering with representatives from public health, healthcare professionals, legislators, law enforcement, and other patient safety advocates to address and prevent drug diversion in health care facilities across the world.
LeAnn Lopez
LeAnn Lopez, who has been a Criminal Investigator for the Colorado Attorney General’s Office within the Consumer Protection Section, specifically in Consumer Fraud, for the past thirteen years, and currently assigned to the hemp/cannabis unit. She is dedicated to a robust and fair marketplace for businesses and consumers alike. She has 31 years of experience as an investigator, police detective, and officer investigating various crimes for local law enforcement agencies in Colorado. Along with receiving numerous accolades while a sworn Officer, she was recognized with a Distinguished Service Award for Investigative Skill, Investigator of the Year, Attorney General Award for Exceptional Performance, and Silent Hero. LeAnn acquired her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with an emphasis in Accounting and Criminal Justice, from Regis University. LeAnn enjoys Colorado outdoors, spending time with her family, and watching football.
Kathleen Queally
Kathleen joined the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) National Cause and Financial Crimes Detection Program (NCFC) as a Senior Principal Investigator on the Vulnerable Adults and Seniors Team in 2025. The mission of the team is to detect, deter, and investigate financial exploitation and abuse of vulnerable adult and senior investors.
Prior to joining FINRA, Kathleen served as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for 23 years, where she worked at FBI Headquarters, the New York Office, and the Boston Office. Kathleen investigated and supervised financial crimes related matters to include securities fraud, insider trading, money laundering, bank fraud, cyber-enabled fraud, and fraud schemes impacting the elderly. Kathleen has been recognized and received multiple awards during her time in the FBI for her financial crimes related investigations. Kathleen is a certified public accountant and a certified anti-money laundering specialist.
Gary Schwartz, CFE
Gary is the managing partner at Betzer Call Lausten & Schwartz, LLP. He has over 20 years of practice in litigation support, banking, fraud investigations and forensic accounting, receiverships and bankruptcy consulting. He has been retained as an expert on numerous occasions regarding banking standards and practices. Gary has been engaged to investigate and write reports related to suspected fraudulent activity in a variety of businesses and, in certain circumstances, has provided his findings to law enforcement for possible prosecution. Gary has been engaged as an expert witness to perform economic damage calculations or to review the work of damage claims of opposing parties. Gary has also been appointed on numerous occasions by various Courts to act as a Court Appointed Receiver for various businesses and real estate ventures.
Prior to his consulting experience, he spent over 11 years as a Bank Examiner with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, United States Treasury Department. During this time, Gary was responsible for the examination of nationally chartered banks ranging in size from $20 million to approximately $200 billion. Gary is a Certified Fraud Examiner (“CFE”) and is currently the President of the Colorado Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
Robyn Shaw, CPA, CFE
Robyn is the owner of Facts & Figures Forensics, a forensic accounting firm based in Colorado. She formerly worked as a forensic accountant in Colorado’s 4th Judicial District Attorney’s office, where she worked on over 40 criminal investigations. Robyn holds the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) credentials. She received two Distinguished Achievement awards from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and is a recipient of the 2021 El Paso County, Colorado Sheriff’s Office Civilian Achievement Award. Robyn is the current Treasurer of the Colorado Chapter of the ACFE and former President of the Colorado Springs Chapter of the ACFE. She served on the ACFE Global Chapter Leader Committee from 2017 to 2018.
Michelle Slocum, CIA, CFE, CHIAP
Michelle is a Senior Manager in the Armanino Risk Assurance Advisory practice, where her primary area of expertise is within the hospital and healthcare industry, including assessing and testing internal controls, evaluating processes and working with management to develop recommendations for improvement. Michelle has more than 20 years of healthcare experience, including 13 years in auditing. Michelle’s work experience includes performance of financial, operational, and regulatory internal audits across the healthcare spectrum utilizing the guidelines of the Institute of Internal Auditors.
Michelle earned her B.S. in accounting from Binghamton University. She is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), and Certified Healthcare Internal Auditor (CHIAP). As a commitment to further these professions, Michelle has assisted the IIA and AHIA with developing questions for their certification exams.
Jeremiah Starsia
Jeremiah is a Principal Investigator at FINRA, where he currently works on the Anti-Fraud Investigations team to identify and investigate securities fraud and FINRA rule violations within the broker dealer industry. His areas of expertise include trading analysis and investigations of potential insider trading and securities trading schemes. Notably during his career, Jeremiah conducted one of FINRA’s first cryptocurrency-related fraud investigations and handled sensitive investigations related to insider trading by political figures. In addition to fines and sanctions stemming from his investigations, his investigative work has also informed the development of new trade analysis systems and investigative playbooks in current use.
Peter Ulrich
Peter Ulrich is an IT audit leader and risk strategist with extensive experience in internal auditing, cybersecurity, compliance, and fraud risk management. He brings deep expertise in IT general controls and regulatory frameworks, including NIST, SOX, SOC, ISO, PCI-DSS, ITIL, and ESG, helping organizations strengthen governance, reduce risk, and enhance operational resilience.
With a career spanning government, financial services, hospitality, construction, and data center operations, Peter is skilled at uncovering control weaknesses and aligning technology risk with business objectives. His direct, transparent approach enables him to bridge the gap between technical teams and executive leadership, fostering clear communication around complex issues. He has led audit and risk initiatives across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, giving him a global perspective on fraud prevention and compliance in diverse regulatory environments.
