Mega CPE Conference Simulcast – Day 1

Christophe Réglat Related Seminars and Products

President/CEO

Coaxis International Tallahassee, FL

Christophe Réglat founded Coaxis, a Florida corporation, based in Tallahassee, in 2002. Coaxis originated as an application service provider (ASP), offering businesses access over the Internet to applications and related services that would otherwise have to be located on their own business computers. ASP has evolved to cloud computing, and more distinctly to managed data hosting services for Coaxis.

As President and CEO, Christophe leads the Coaxis team, serving clients in all 50 states, Canada, and India. Coaxis focuses provision of its managed hosting services to the financial, healthcare, criminal justice, and legal professions. The company maintains the highest levels of security and regulatory compliance for these targeted industry sectors through the ownership and operation of Coaxis’ private, single-tenant, data center. The data center features multiple power sources, four generators, four major Internet Service Providers, and has more than 10 levels of security to access the data center.

Professionally, Christophe is recognized as an industry expert in managed data hosting and cybersecurity. He is an active Board and Executive Council member for the Florida Technology Council. Christophe serves as a member on the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Task Force and has been invited to conduct Cybersecurity training with the FBI. Based on the FBI’s recommendation, Christophe serves as the Vice President of the Southeast Chapter of InfraGard.  InfraGard is a partnership between the FBI and key members of the private sector which is designed to provide a vehicle for seamless public-private collaboration with government to expedite the timely exchange of information while also promoting mutual learning opportunities relevant to the protection of Critical Infrastructure.

Through his leadership and corporate sponsorship, Christophe has been the driving force for the inception, continued success and growth of the Astronaut Challenge, the national STEM competition for middle and high school students, held annually at the Kennedy Space Center.

In addition to leading Coaxis, Christophe has over three decades of certification and experience as a commercial pilot. As an avid aviator, Christophe enjoys flying for business and personal trips. He is an avid runner and fitness enthusiast.

Prior to founding Coaxis, Christophe worked with Sprint PCS and Ikon Technology Service. Christophe completed his university studies in Marmande, France, majoring in Math, Physics and Biology. 

John Burgess, CPA,Esq.,LLM (TAX) Related Seminars and Products

Partner

Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP Tampa, FL

John brings a depth of experience to his law practice. Focused on employee benefit plans, he is a certified public accountant with an extensive tax and accounting background, which includes experience as an auditor with a large accounting firm. Clients draw on John’s ability to take a 360 degree view of their benefit plans and how they affect other areas of their business. His significant experience includes:

• Tax-qualified pension plans
• Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)
• Health and welfare plans
• Executive compensation arrangements

He routinely counsels clients on plan documentation (drafting plan documents, SPDs, amendments, and plan administrative procedures), plan qualification, and other benefit plan issues, including tax and fiduciary matters. John regularly represents clients before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of Labor (DOL) in benefits matters. In addition, clients draw on his wide-ranging experience in benefits issues in the context of business mergers and acquisitions, including assistance with due diligence on benefit plans sponsored by an acquired company.

Currently, John devotes a significant portion of his practice to ESOPs, advising clients on matters such as plan design, distribution policies, the structure and implementation of ESOP transactions, and administration matters. Active within the ESOP community, he frequently presents on ESOP issues at national and regional conferences.

Practicing for more than 15 years, John is also well-versed in individual, corporate, partnership, and estate and gift taxation issues at both the federal and state levels. He uses such knowledge to assist clients in tax planning and compliance issues, including matters for international employees and non-profit organizations.

Clients value John’s significant experience assisting in the correction of errors in both qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, including representing clients in Voluntary Compliance Program applications before the IRS. He regularly assists clients with executive employment agreements, severance agreements, change in control agreements and non-qualified deferred compensation plans, including compliance with Internal Revenue Code Sections 409A, 457(b) and 457(f).

Marcus Aron, CPA, CGMA Related Seminars and Products

Senior Auditor

US Department of Labor, EBSA Washington, DC

Mr. Aron has thirty years of experience in working with audits of ERISA-covered plans.  He is responsible for the day-to-day implementation of EBSA’s CPA Firm Inspection Program, providing technical assistance to plan filers and plan professionals, and providing ERISA-related accounting and auditing expertise within EBSA.

Mr. Aron is a certified public accountant and holds a B.B.A. degree with a major in accounting from the College of William and Mary in Virginia.