Mario Abela on "Addressing the challenges of non-financial reporting in the EU”
Mario Abela is Director, Redefining Value at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development where he leads a number of initiatives aimed at helping companies to focus on longer term and sustainable value creation. He is a CPA and Chartered Management Accountant. His expertise is in corporate reporting and he has held senior management positions in both the private and public sectors in Australia, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Mr. Abela has extensive regulatory and standard setting experience. He is a visiting professor at IESEG School of Management in Paris. He is also an expert advisor to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on corporate reporting and has been involved in developing indicators for reporting against the SDGs.
Panellists:
Professor Jan Bebbington focuses on research that emerges at the intersection of sustainable development concerns and organisational operations. As an accounting scholar she focuses on the use of accounting technologies to create organisational control as well as reporting activities that might discharge accountability relationships. Her work includes a focus on the Sustainable Development Goals; how reporting norms emerge and carbon accounting/accountability. Professor Bebbington is the Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business - see www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland
Dr. Charles Cho is Professor of Accounting and the Erivan K. Haub Chair in Business & Sustainability at the Schulich School of Business, York University. His research interests include Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Social and Environmental Accounting and Accounting for the Public Interest, and has published papers in prestigious academic journals such as Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, the European Accounting Review, and the Journal of Business Ethics, and was an invited author of chapters in several books. He currently serves as Co-Editor of Accounting Forum, the Accounting and Business Ethics Section Co-Editor of the Journal of Business Ethics as well as an Associate Editor of Accounting and the Public Interest. In addition, he is an Editorial Board member of 14 other academic journals. He is regularly invited as plenary keynote speaker at international conferences and is actively involved in the academic community as council member of the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (University of St. Andrews) and Chair of the International Associates Committee.
Dr. Joanna Krasodomska is an Associate Professor in the Department of Financial Accounting at Cracow University of Economics (CUE) in Poland. She received her habilitation in 2015 (CUE, Faculty of Finance and Law) and Ph.D. in 2006 (Jagiellonian University). Her publications address both corporate financial and non-financial reporting, and her primary research interests center on non-financial disclosures, integrated reporting, stakeholder engagement, and extended external reporting assurance. Dr. Krasodomska is a member of the European Accounting Association (EAA) Stakeholder Reporting Committee. She was also appointed as Poland Representative to the EAA Board (2021-2024). She is a member of the International Association for Accounting Education & Research (IAAER), Accountants Association in Poland (AAP), (Polish) Association for Sustainability in Finance & Accounting (ASFA). In 2016-2018 she was a member of the Academic Research Support Group appointed by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).
Moderator: Andreia Stanciu
Andreia Stanciu is heading the South Eastern European office of the largest and fastest growing international business and accountancy association. She established the office in March 2006, in Bucharest and is now responsible for ACCA’s activities in Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Moldova. Her previous position was with the Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania, as Manager of the International Relations Department. She has eight years of academic accounting training and more than 20 years work experience with professional accountancy bodies at national, regional and international level. She is a Project Management Professional and holds an MSC in Marketing
Panellists:
Mihai Anita is Assurance Partner and Leader of integrated services for clients in Retail & Consumer sector within PwC Romania. He joined PwC in 1995 and has developed significant experience through changes in the economy and the audit profession, including in the implementation of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). He specializes in Retail & FMCG and Entrepreneurial and Private Businesses (EPB). Mihai is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA UK) and the Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania (CAFR). He has a degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University Politehnica of Bucharest.
Cristina Gutu is the head of the KPMG Training Academy in Romania and has been a professional ACCA trainer for more than 10 years and in multiple countries. Prior to this, Cristina gained valuable practical international experience in auditing and consultancy, both in a large firm and in a smaller accountancy practice. Cristina was a member of ACCA’s International Assembly between 2010 and 2016, serving three consecutive terms, and is also an active supporter of ACCA in Romania. She is the Chair of the ACCA Global Forum for Ethics and a member of the ACCA Global Forum for Corporate Reporting. Cristina was elected to ACCA Council in 2018 and she is currently a member of the Qualifications Board.
Dr. Ciprian Teodor Mihailescu is the Advisor on International Relations to the President of the Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania (CAFR). He was formerly President of the Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania (2017 – 2020) and First Vice-President of the CAFR Council (2014 – 2017). Ciprian is the director and senior auditor of a Romanian SMP - SC Eval Expert S.R.L, operating in auditing (also providing PIEs audit services), European and non-refundable funds, accountancy, tax advice and internal audit. Previously he worked in the banking sector, as a branch manager for Garantibank International N.V. and as a Corporate Clients Relations Manager for RBS Romania (ABN AMRO Bank Romania). Ciprian is a financial auditor, CAFR member, since 2009. He graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest and got his PhD diploma in accountancy from the 1 December 1918 University of Alba-Iulia.
Adela Şova is Head of Globaltraining Romania, ACCA ALP (Approved Learning Partner for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), heavily involved in supporting ACCA students and companies employing ACCA trainees and members, in achieving their goals. As trainer, Adela is specialized in Financial Reporting and Audit and Assurance and is constantly in touch with Generation Z. Adela’s work experience (before joining Globaltraining 10 years ago), includes over 7 years in audit and financial services, and also covers domains like performance and variance analysis, and planning and budgeting, within an important telecommunication company. In terms of her education, Adela has a degree in Economic Studies in Foreign Languages from Bucharest University of Economic Studies, and she is Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA), having joined the ACCA as member in 2009.