New Regents join board during its semi-annual meeting


The 2015-2016 ACFE Board of Regents met in February at the Global Headquarters in Austin, Texas (from left): David C. Rule, CFE, CISM, CPP; Joseph J. Agins, CFE; Board Chair Gerard Zack, CFE, CPA, CIA; ACFE Vice President and Program Director Bruce Dorris, J.D., CFE, CPA; Board Vice Chair Tiffany R. Couch, CFE, CPA/CFF; ACFE President and CEO James D. Ratley, CFE; Alton Sizemore, Jr., CFE, CPA/CFF; and ACFE Vice President and General Counsel John Warren, J.D., CFE.

David C. Rule, CFE, CISM, CPP, and Tiffany R. Couch, CFE, CPA/CFF, took their oaths of office as newly elected members of the Board of Regents during the board's semi-annual meeting on Feb. 17 at ACFE headquarters in Austin, Texas.

Members elected Gerard Zack, CFE, CPA, CIA, to be chair and Tiffany R. Couch, CFE, CPA/CFF, to be vice chair. They elected Agins to be secretary; Sizemore, treasurer; and Rule and ACFE President and CEO James D. Ratley, CFE, assistant treasurers.

The board reviewed and discussed the membership growth of the ACFE, which approached 75,000 members at the time of the meeting. (The total membership, as of publication, has exceeded that number.) International new member growth continues to outpace domestic growth, with 40 percent of new members residing outside the U.S.

Since the 2014 spring meeting of the Board of Regents, the ACFE added 17 new chapters including those in Bahrain, Taiwan and Slovenia. As of publication, the ACFE has 171 chapters in 51 countries.

In 2014, the ACFE added 24 new partners to the Corporate Alliance program including a number of major organizations, Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 companies. The Corporate Alliance is designed to support the implementation of anti-fraud best practices in organizations by providing access to tools, training and resources from the ACFE. Participation in the ACFE Corporate Alliance helps companies demonstrate their commitment to the fight against fraud.

Board members considered recommendations from the ACFE Board of Review on several member disciplinary matters. The Board of Regents also reviewed ACFE committee reports and appointed new members to replace outgoing members. In addition, the board voted to change the charters of the Chapter Awards Committee, the Membership Awards Committee and the Higher Education Committee, limiting membership to Certified Fraud Examiners.

The next meeting of the Board of Regents will be held during the 26th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference on June 14 in Baltimore, Maryland.