Accounting Panel

Speakers

DeCicco

Maureen DeCicco '87, CPA, Partner, WithumSmith+Brown

Maureen DeCicco has more than 28 years of pro¬fessional accounting and audit experience, encom-passing 23 years of public accounting experience with WithumSmith+Brown, PC, a top regional public accounting firm, and five years in private industry accounting and internal audit. She is the team leader of Withum’s Media Broadcasting and Entertainment Group and a team member of the Risk Advisory Group. In addition to providing audit and accounting services to the broadcasting, construction, manufactur¬ing, distribution, publishing, healthcare and not-for-profit industries, DeCicco specializes in consulting engagements, including Sarbanes-Oxley assistance, out¬sourced internal audit services, and Risk Advisory consulting services for both financial and operational management. DeCicco received her BA degree in accounting from William Paterson University. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJSCPA). She is an active member of the New Jersey Broadcasters Association and Media Financial Management Association. In 2011, she was in the NJBiz list of “Top 50 Women in Business.” She is a member of the William Paterson University Cotsakos College of Business Advisory and Advancement Advisory Board.

Sungela1

Melissa E. Sungela, Vice President Corporate Finance & Tax, Wakefern Food Corporation

Melissa E. Sungela recently joined Wakefern Food Corporation, the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States at $15B and the merchandising and distribution arm of ShopRite, PriceRite, and Fresh Gro­cer as vice president corporate finance and tax. Prior to joining Wakefern, Sungela served as the vice president corporate controller for Coty Inc., a $4B global beauty company, where she assisted them in going public in 2013. Sungela was with The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. (A&P) an $11B grocery retailer for eight years and held the position of senior vice president, corporate controller and chief accounting officer. She steered A&P through the disposition of their Canadian opera­tions in 2005 for $1.2B, the acquisition of the Pathmark stores in 2007 for $1.3B and its first bankruptcy in 2011.

Sungela began her career at KPMG, spending time in their national offices on key assignments. She left public accounting for industry after ten years and acquired and honed her six sigma process improvement skills at Honeywell and General Electric before joining A&P. Sungela graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington cum laude from the Honors Program with a BBA in accounting and a minor in English.

SusuanRoos

Susan Roos, Partner, Private Company Services, PwC

Susan Roos is an Assurance Partner and leads PwC’s Private Company Services (“PCS”) team in New Jersey. With over 25 years of experience in audit and assurance, Roos has worked with Fortune 50, middle market and early stage companies across several industries, includ­ing retail and consumer products, technology, services, manufacturing and distribution. 

Roos assists many companies in improving their operational, financial, and compliance processes and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of their business. She is currently the lead audit partner on several PCS accounts with revenues ranging from $30 million to several billion. Her accounting specialties include complex revenue recognition, transaction and ac­quisition accounting, and initial public offerings. She has developed a broad base of business knowledge, including external and internal audit, business processes and controls, transaction assistance and general consulting. 

Prior to joining the PCS practice, Roos spent a significant portion of her time with PwC’s Emerging Business Services (the predecessor to PCS) and Tech Sector practices, serving both start-up technology companies, as well as large multi-national conglomerates such as AT&T and Dow Jones.

Scucci

Mary Kay Scucci ’86, PhD, CPA, Managing Director, SIFMA

At SIFMA, Mary Kay Scucci is the accounting and finance expert and staffs several regulatory policy committees, including the regulatory capital and margin committee, the global financial institutions accounting committee, the IFRS committee, the asset management accounting policy committee, the treasurer’s committee and the product controllers committee. She is the liaison to the boards of SIFMA’s Financial Management Society (FMS) and the Internal Auditor Society (IAS). She is currently on the dean’s advisory board for William Paterson University’s Cotsakos College of Business.

Over her career, Scucci has held many senior financial executive roles including chief financial officer, corporate controller, director of finance, and director of strategy development. Scucci is a certified public accountant (CPA). She holds a BA from Duquesne University, a BA from William Paterson University, an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD from Rutgers University. She is currently teaching at Columbia University.