Ron Kral, CPA, CMA, CGMA

Ron is a partner of Kral Ussery LLC (KU) and practice leader of our SEC compliance and internal auditing services. He is an advisor, trainer, and catalyst for companies to protect and grow client shareholder value. Ron has worked with hundreds of clients as a public accountant, many through Big-4 firms. Previous to KU, he was a general manager of a subsidiary for a large NYSE traded company. Ron was also a principal consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where he led operational audits and internal control projects. He began his public accounting career with a California CPA firm as a financial auditor where he signed audit opinions upon becoming managing director of the firm's Southern California office. Ron launched his career as a performance and financial auditor with the California State Auditor.

Ron is a nationally recognized speaker on boardroom effectiveness, corporate compliance, risk assessments, SEC disclosures, COSO control and ERM frameworks, auditing standards and accounting matters. He is passionate about governance and co-authored The Board of Directors and Audit Committee Guide to Fiduciary Responsibilities. Ron conducts in-house training sessions for external audit firms and public companies on SEC rules and PCAOB standards, as well as for non-profits and governments on internal controls and combating fraud. He has a keen focus on business realities and practical approaches anchored in professional and regulatory standards. Ron is a member of 4 of the 5 COSO sponsoring organizations; the AICPA, FEI, IIA and IMA. He is a CPA in CA, WI and NV; and a member of the Nevada Society of CPAs. Ron holds an MBA from Arizona State University and a BBA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Ron resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at RKral@KralUssery.com.

Michael Ussery, CPA

Michael is a partner of Kral Ussery LLC (KU) and practice leader of our accounting advisory and litigation support services. He has a long history of working with accounting firms, SEC registrants and privately-held companies on complex accounting and regulatory issues. For example, Michael has successfully prepared position papers on how transactions should be treated for U.S. GAAP and SEC reporting purposes. He knows SEC rules and regulations thoroughly enabling him to assist companies with the IPO process as well as SEC registrants with periodic and special reporting to the SEC. Michael has written and lectured extensively on SOX implementation and SEC compliance.

Michael has significant Big 4 accounting firm and financial executive experience. In addition to working with his clients' external auditors, many of them Big-4 firms, he previously was a Senior Manager with Price Waterhouse. He has extensive client experience in the oil and gas industry; including ConocoPhillips, SandRidge Energy and TransAtlantic Petroleum Ltd. Michael is a member of the AICPA and Texas Society of CPA's. He has a BBA in Accounting and Finance, Cum Laude, from Stephen F. Austin State University.

Michael resides in the Dallas, Texas area. He can be reached at MUssery@KralUssery.com.

Gary Cokins, CPIM

Gary is an associate partner with KU. He is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, and author in enterprise and corporate performance management improvement methods. Gary is widely considered a thought-leader regarding business analytics, activity-based-costing (ABC), strategic mapping, balanced scorecard and financial forecast modeling. 

Gary began his career as a strategic planner with FMC's Link-Belt Division and then served as Financial Controller and Operations Manager. In 1981 Gary began his management consulting career first with Deloitte consulting, and then in 1988 with KPMG consulting. In 1992 Gary headed the National Cost Management Consulting Services for Electronic Data Systems (EDS) now part of HP. From 1997 until 2013 he was a Principal Consultant with SAS, a leading provider of business analytics software. Gary received a BS degree with honors in Industrial Engineering/Operations Research from Cornell University in 1971. He received his MBA with honors from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in 1974. 

Gary resides in Raleigh, North Carolina area and can be reached at GCokins@KralUssery.com.

Prashanth Southekal. PhD

Dr. Prashanth H Southekal is a Data and Analytics advisor, author, and professor. He is a KU Director who leads our Data Quality services that includes data science, business intelligence, and analytics.

Dr. Southekal has advised for over 80 organizations including P&G, GE, Shell, Apple, FedEx, and McDonalds. He has authored three books - "Data for Business Performance", "Analytics Best Practices", and "Data Quality" and writes regularly on data, analytics, and machine learning in Forbes, FP&A trends, and CFO University. He serves on the Editorial Board of MIT CDOIQ Symposium, and is an advisory board member at BGV (Benhamou Global Ventures), Grihasoft (IN), Evalueserve (CH), Vectra Automation (US), and Astral Insights (US). Apart from his consulting and advisory pursuits, he has trained over 3,500 professionals worldwide in data and analytics. Dr. Southekal is also an Adjunct Professor of data and analytics at IE Business School (Madrid, Spain) and CDO Magazine included him in the top 75 global academic data leaders of 2022. He holds a Ph.D. from ESC Lille (FR), an MBA from Kellogg School of Management (US), an MS from IIITB (IN), and an ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors (CA).

Dr. Southekal lives between Calgary (CA), Madrid (ES) & San Francisco (US). He can be reached at PSouthekal@KralUssery.com.