Student profiles
Braden Turner
Notre Dame MSA Program
Class of 2009
“In the MSA program, the expertise, skill, and experience of the Notre Dame faculty have been incredible. The professors have the real world stories and business experience to illustrate the concepts and principles they are teaching. Most students begin the program straight out of undergrad, and it’s critical to have professors who can take the material out of the classroom setting and teach it in a way that will help us in our accounting careers,” says MSA student Braden Turner. Braden, who grew up in a family with six kids in Fort Wayne, Indiana, vacillated between engineering and accounting before eventually settling on a major in accounting.
For Braden, who enrolled in the MSA program with nearly two thirds of his Notre Dame undergraduate class, the advanced training has been invaluable. In addition to the classroom training, Braden participated in multiple external audits of banks and investment firms during an internship with PricewaterhouseCoopers last summer. During the summer of 2007, he worked at BKD in Fort Wayne in both the assurance and tax departments, performing internal and external audits and compliance tests as well as preparing taxes, reconciling assets, and valuing investments.
Noting that the current business climate has reinforced the need for ethics in business today, Braden says, “The MSA program is geared toward helping students begin a career in public accounting. Many of us will begin in auditing, and I appreciate the MSA program’s overarching ethics emphasis. As independent auditors, we need to act ethically, and the right blend of ethics and technical knowledge will serve to make us reputable accountants.” As Braden begins his career as an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers in September, he hopes to do so with an understanding of the finer elements of accounting, an ability to see the big financial picture, and a greater ethical awareness – skills he has honed at Notre Dame.
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Chantal Ottino
Notre Dame MSA Program
Class of 2009
Chantal Ottino could be called the cheerleader of Notre Dame’s MSA program. A Notre Dame fan for as long as she can remember, Chantal calls her Master of Science in Accountancy degree “a dream come true,” and says that she would have paid three times the tuition to go through the program again.
Her MSA journey began after she earned an undergraduate degree in Accounting. Hearing about the benefits of a Notre Dame education from a neighbor as well as a mentor from the University of Arizona, Chantal visited the campus and was impressed from the moment she arrived. Invited by a professor to sit in on a class, she immediately felt a part of the program.
After she became a student, Chantal soaked up the teaching at Notre Dame. “Two years ago GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) was in vogue; today, it’s IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). The professor taught both ways, which was helpful as we move forward in international business,” says Chantal. “In an auditing class, we explored cases the professor himself had experienced and witnessed the outcome of each.”
In March of 2008 Chantal and many of her classmates took a trip to China, where they visited accounting firms and other financial institutions, in the process learning much about banking and finance. The trip to Beijing and Hong Kong blended both educational and tourist activities. In a visit to the Great Wall of China, one of the highlights of the trip, Chantal ran into a group of tourists at the top, only to find that they were fellow Notre Dame graduates. Now at Ernst & Young in Phoenix, Arizona, Chantal says, “From Phoenix to South Bend, Indiana, to the Great Wall of China, you never know where you will meet fellow alumni!”
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Sarah Geisman
Notre Dame MSA Program
Class of 2009
After graduating from Notre Dame with a major in Accounting and a minor in European Studies, Sarah Geisman decided to pursue a Master of Science in Accountancy. The faculty and administration in the MSA program greatly influenced her decision: Sarah was impressed with their accessibility, finding each one more than willing to spend extra time going over class issues or career questions.
For Sarah, who likes to look at each company “as a big puzzle to analyze,” the auditing field is particularly appealing. In two summer internships with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sarah helped organize and perform audits and engaged in client-specific accounting research. Though she worked in two different cities, Chicago and Washington, D.C., and with different clients, Sarah worked primarily with non-profits, concentrating mainly on colleges and universities. Though she’d like to broaden her scope of experience, Sarah found her work with higher education clients to be very rewarding.
Rounding out Sarah’s training has been a student employee/internship position at Notre Dame, where she has been responsible for creating reports, gathering and analyzing documentation, and processing fund expenditures for the university’s property, plant, and equipment. While in this position, Sarah participated in a committee working to implement new databases for the university’s financial information.
This fall, Sarah will begin a one-year FASB/GASB Fellowship program, where she will be participating in the financial accounting standards-setting process. Eventually, she is interested either in pursuing a career in academics or a role within the international business arena, having studied in England for a semester during her undergrad and having recently visited China in conjunction with her MSA studies. The possibility of combining accounting with global business offers Sarah unparalleled opportunities for a career that already appears to be on the fast track.
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Lawrence M. Iwanski
Notre Dame MSA Program
Class of 2000
Manager, Investigations & Dispute Services
Government Contracts & Grants Team
Larry Iwanski is a Manager in Ernst & Young’s Investigative & Dispute Services practice in the Atlanta, Georgia office. Mr. Iwanski performs a variety of services offered by Ernst & Young to assist clients in contracting with the Federal Government in the areas of accounting compliance, overhead rates, changed work claims, contract terminations, and transactional due diligence support. Mr. Iwanski also participates as an advisor to audit teams in the evaluation of estimates to complete and other financial reporting matters. Mr. Iwanski has assisted clients on a number of federal contract matters, including consultation on accounting and estimating cost issues, accounting systems reviews, and compliance with Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).
Mr. Iwanski has conducted extensive examinations of contractors' estimating processes, including evaluation of estimating methodologies for direct and indirect costs; reviews of estimating process policies and procedures; and analysis of client’s estimating process flow and evaluating client’s change management processes.
Prior to joining the Investigative & Dispute Services practice, Mr. Iwanski worked as an Assurance and Advisory auditor. His responsibilities included leading audit engagement teams to provide attest services to companies registered with the SEC. Mr. Iwanski’s assurance clients included companies from the Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Communications, and Financial industries. His specific assignments included the following: Accounting & Auditing Malpractice Matters; Accounting & Financial Modeling; Accounting Investigations; Fraud Investigations and Forensic Accounting; Mergers & Acquisitions; and Contract Purchase Price Disputes.
Prior to joining Ernst & Young LLP, Mr. Iwanski spent 9 years as a commissioned officer in the United States Army and 2 years in manufacturing operations at Bose Corporation where he held leadership positions in both personnel and project management. His background includes positions in unit command, maintenance management, production management and control, logistics operations and management, operations management and planning, and training. He is a Major in the United States Army Reserves and holds a Top Secret / SCI clearance at the Department of Defense. Mr. Iwanski is an Executive Agent for a working group in a counter terrorism think tank. The working group provides advice and consulting services to the NYPD on chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear related issues. He has recently authored an operations handbook for use in crisis response situations.
Mr. Iwanski holds a BS in Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MS in Accountancy from the University of Notre Dame. He is a Certified Public Accountant, a member of the AICPA, an associate member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and a member of the Public Contract Law, Litigation and Dispute Resolution Sections of the American Bar Association.
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