IIA-ACCA helper - ACCA CIA Challenge Updated: 2023

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – On this Veterans Day there's an exercise challenge raising money to help vets. It's called Burpees For Vets.

A burpee is like a jumping squat with a push up, very challenging to say the least. People around the country and here in Philadelphia are doing them for vets.

Coaches at F45 Training Bala Cynwyd are dung a burpee for every dollar donated by members to the Burpees For Vets campaign.

41 year old Juspin Jones is a navy veteran and also a trainer at F45.

Stahl: "How many burpees at one time can you do?" 

Jones: "I think once I get to about 40 it's a tap out mode after that."

The burpee challenge is a national platform that different organizations and individuals have joined.

The money raised will go to organizations that help vets transition out of military service.

"It's very different coming from military service back into the civilian life so I think it's a pretty good thing, stuff like this is happening," Jones said. 

The burpee challenge is especially popular here because the exercise is incorporated into most classes. 

"A burpee is a full-body movement, essentially you're jumping back into a plank, lower your chest to the floor, you jump back in and you jump up," Marysel Jones the owner of F45, said.

Marysel says burpees are a whole body workout one of many incorporated into these 45-minute high intensity interval circuits. 

"I was dealing with pre-diabetic obesity and high blood pressure. Since I joined I have lost 52 pounds," Apurva Bidja said.    

Team training that's helping people get healthy now joining forces to help raise money for veterans. 

"I think it's really important that we recognize the sacrifices that they've made and thank them," Marysel said.

F45 Bala has raised about $200 for the cause.

Nationally the goal is half a million dollars. So far the campaign has collected more than $260,000.

Plante Moran's newly elected managing partner, Jason Drake, will be taking the helm next July, and hopes to grow it into a $2 billion firm.

"We need to continue to grow," he said. "We do have target growth rates, just from an organic perspective. We're a billion-dollar firm. We're going to be a $2 billion firm not too far in the distant future. To me, that's all working together as partners and staff and team members to help grow the business. And part of that growth is bringing in new clients. But a lot of it is providing the right solutions and adding value to clients as well that will get us that growth."

Right now, the Southfield, Michigan-based firm ranks No. 15 on Accounting Today's 2023 list of the Top 100 Firms. Drake was elected earlier this month to succeed Jim Proppe, who has been managing partner for the past seven years (see story). Drake will be only the eighth managing partner in the firm's 100-year history. 

He has a long history of his own at Plante Moran. "I've been with the firm since 1999," he said. "I interned with the firm between my junior and senior year of university. I went to Michigan State University, and in my senior year of college, I also worked part-time in our East Lansing office and started full time after I graduated from MSU in 2000."

His current role is group managing partner of the firm's Chicagoland, Ohio and international region. "What I do on a day-to-day basis is work with our offices on office-related strategies, implement firm-wide initiatives, and really around people-related items," said Drake. "What are we doing to attract, retain and recruit the best and brightest?"

Prior to joining the management team, he led the international practice at the firm and has stayed involved with it.

"That's a practice area that I've been involved with from when I interned with the firm," said Drake. "I spent most of my career between our audit practices and our consulting practices. We have a consulting practice called Global Services that helps our middle-market clients as they expand overseas. During my career, a lot of my time was spent with our internationally active clients, helping them understand how to do business internationally and simplify the complexity of doing international business. I've done on-the-ground work in about 50 countries, helping U.S. middle-market companies expand around the globe. And I also have spent a lot of time with foreign-owned companies as they set up operations in the U.S."

Among his greatest experiences at Plante Moran is helping open up its consulting offices in China, Mexico, India and Japan — but even though Drake has worked at expanding the firm internationally, that isn't one of his main goals ahead. 

"We rely heavily on our partners internationally through Praxity," he said. "We have many boutique firms in many countries that we partner with. We've looked at our international practice as really a platform to help our clients where they need it. We know how to do business internationally. We know how U.S. companies want to do business, so how can we partner with firms internationally to make that an easy connection, make it a lot easier to do work internationally? We've grown into those office locations because that's where we've had clients that have had needs. We're always looking at different international locations. We would love to have something in Europe at some point. But again, it's very client-driven. Where do our clients have those needs and need the help?"

He feels similarly about expanding in the U.S. "The fortunate thing about us and our practices is we go to where clients need our help. We already do work in pretty much all 50 states in the U.S.," he said. "We have clients in Hawaii. Even though we don't have bricks and mortar on the ground, we have clients all over. And our teams travel and work with our clients wherever they need and operate. Do we want to continue to grow our geography? Yes, we do. But again, it's really dependent on where our clients need help. Fortunately, with the use of technology and traveling, we can help clients really wherever they have a need."

The firm is nevertheless continuing to look at merger opportunities. "To me, that's not our primary growth objective, through mergers, just because we care so much about our culture," said Drake. "Our culture is what got us to 100 years, and our culture is what's going to get us to the next 100-plus years. To me, it's culture first, people first, client service first. And if we find the right opportunities from a merger perspective from a growth perspective, that's an added benefit, but it's not our primary driver."

In terms of services, he sees the firm continuing to invest in areas like technology consulting, and environmental, social and governance reporting. 

"Where do we see clients that have needs right now? A lot of it is around the digital landscape, around cybersecurity, around data analytics and machine learning, and how we can help clients in that space," said Drake. "That's something that we're investing in now, around innovation. We have a Client Solution Center as well. And a lot of things that are coming up in our Innovation Center and Client Solution Center are around the digital landscape, and how we can help our clients in that area. We're investing in ESG as well. ESG right now in the U.S. landscape is heavily dependent and driven by what's happening in Europe. We're continuing to invest in that area, but a lot of that depends on the adoption rates from our clients in the U.S."

'A very strong pipeline'

Unlike many accounting firms, Plante Moran has been able to keep hiring enough young accountants to fill its pipeline.

"Fortunately, to date, we've been very successful in that area and continue to be," said Drake. "We have a very strong pipeline. If you asked me to take over this position, and we didn't have the firm that we have, I would be hesitant, but fortunately, we have a great team, and we have a great pipeline of future partners and future candidates."

He believes the firm's culture helps attract and retain young accountants. "Part of it is just our involvement around our culture and investing in people, giving them meaningful experiences and meaningful opportunities," said Drake. "That 'we care' culture has helped us retain people. Even during the heart of the pandemic, we didn't have the turnover that many accounting firms had, just because of our model and investing in that long-term nature for our people. When you look at the accounting profession overall, and the reduction of talent going into that pipeline, part of it is just us going into the community, working with the profession on getting to high schools, to show some excitement around the industry."

Plante Moran partners have been involved in campus recruiting efforts.

"The other thing that we're doing is really getting partner involvement on campuses to help recruit the top talent," said Drake. "To date we've been successful. Is that going to be a challenge and will it continue to be a challenge? Yes, but to me if we're intentional and meaningful, providing those meaningful experiences, getting on campus, showing the benefits of the profession and doing a good job recruiting, I think we'll be successful. But the flip side of it is, we're going to continue investing in technology and innovation as well so that we can make things more efficient for clients and leverage technology. If we leverage technology together, we can focus on what's important to our clients, and that's adding value."

The partners have also been visiting historically Black colleges and universities to build a more diverse firm.

"We continue to see progress from a diversity perspective," said Drake. "We need to continue to invest in diversity, equity and inclusion. Some of the ways that we're doing that is we're looking at different universities to continue to recruit at. Part of it is that recruiting piece, and can we get access to more diverse talent. We're recruiting at historically Black colleges and universities. We're going to continue doing that. So it's bringing in the right team. But the other piece that's so important is that retention piece, making sure we're investing in our diverse talent. We're giving that talent those opportunities, giving them meaningful experiences, and also sponsoring them, giving them leadership opportunities, showing the long term-progression that they can envision within a public accounting firm."

He hopes to continue to build the firm to provide opportunities for young accountants who began as interns and worked their way up the ranks.

"What's special at Plante Moran is our culture and that 'we care' attitude," said Drake. "We're very driven by our values and principles, and that's what got us here. A lot of people have invested in me and got me here. To me, our stewardship model, investing in others so we can create a better opportunity for others in the profession, is the route we're going in and will continue."


 Thallion Pharmaceuticals announced that the first patient has been enrolled in its Phase II trial evaluating TLN-4601 as a second line, monotherapy treatment for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), an advanced form of brain cancer.
 
 

News

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Bayer HealthCare AG announced that VEGF Trap-Eye achieved durable improvements in visual acuity and in biologic measures of neovascular disease, including retinal thickness and active choroidal neovascularization lesion size, for up to one year in a Phase 2 study in the neovascular form of Age-related Macular Degeneration (wet AMD).

Combination Vaccines

Several options for improvement of RTS,S-based vaccines are being investigated. Sequential immunization schedules with RTS,S/AS02 combined to prior PfCSP DNA vaccination^[89,130] or CS-expressing adenovirus 35^[85] or followed by CS-expressing live MVA^[131] have been investigated. A multistage, multiantigen recombinant vaccine based on RTS,S and MSP-1 from the 3D7 strain is under evaluation at WRAIR.^[119]

The Molecular Immunology unit of the Swiss Tropical Institute in cooperation with Pevion Biotech Ltd and the Institute for Organic Chemistry (University of Zürich, Switzerland) is developing a candidate malaria vaccine based on synthetic peptides displayed on the surface of reconstituted influenza virosomes. This new antigen-delivery system is based on phospho-lipid-anchored antigenic peptides mixed with nonbounded phospholipids and influenza surface glycoproteins, creating virus-like particles, supposed to be strong inducers of B- and T-cell immunity.^[132] The aim of this formulation is to be able to include several antigenic peptides and develop a multiantigen, multistage vaccine. Presently, two virosome formulations,both including a synthetic peptide mimicking an important part of the native protein, one comprising a CS-like sequence (PEV 301)^[133] the other an AMA1 like sequence (PEV 302),^[134] were taken to clinical evaluation. A Phase I clinical trial was conducted at the University Hospital of Basel, followed by a Phase IIa trial at the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, at Oxford University, UK. A rapid age de-escalation Phase Ib study will be conducted in Mali.^[154,155]

The Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) has developed vaccine candidates based on a replication-deficient adenovirus derived from wild-type serotype 5 through several gene deletions that encode P. falciparum genes from the 3D7 strain. One construct expresses CS, another AMA1. A Phase I/IIa trial is ongoing in the USA. Volunteers seronegative for adenovirus serotype 5 will receive each construct individually or combined. Vaccine protection against experimental sporozoite challenge will be evaluated.^[154]

Investigators from the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research and the Australian Cooperative Research Center for Vaccine Technology in Queensland, the Walter and Eliza Hall Research Institute and the Swiss Tropical Institute have developed a vaccine candidate combining MSP-1, MSP-2 and the ring-stage infected erythrocyte surface antigen (RESA) adjuvanted with Montanide. In a small Phase IIa challenge study, this candidate vaccine failed to induce a reduction or delay in parasitemia, but in a subsequent Phase I/IIb trial in children in Papua New Guinea, it showed a reduction in parasite density in some vaccinees compared with controls^[135] but the selective pressure was restricted to parasites expressing the 3D7 allelic form of MSP-2.^[136] To date, this was the first successful blood-stage vaccine to show some vaccine efficacy. Future vaccine candidates will include the opposite dimorphic form of MSP-2, FC27.

A chimeric molecule called PfCP-2.9, including MSP1-19 and the C-terminal region of AMA1, expressed in P. Pastoris, and formulated with Montanide ISA 720, is in development in China. Anti-PfCP-2.9 sera from immunized animals inhibited in vitro growth of two P. falciparum parasite strains. A Phase I clinical trial is ongoing with support from the MVI and the WHO.^[137]

The Statens Serum Institute (SSI) in Denmark has developed, with EMVI support, a malaria vaccine candidate based on a recombinant hybrid including the 85-213 sequence of glutamate-rich protein (GLURP) and the C-terminal part of MSP-3, expressed in Lactococcus lactis.^[138] GLURP is expressed both at the pre-erythrocytic and erythrocytic stages of infection. A Phase I trial using the GLURP vaccine candidate segment showed the induction of antibodies that exert in vitro a dose-dependent inhibition of parasite growth in the presence of monocytes.^[139] Adult trials with the combination vaccine ca-ndidate adjuvanted with aluminum hydroxide are ongoing. An EMVI-supported Phase Ia trial is ongoing in Tuebingen, Germany, and an AMANET-supported Phase Ib trial is ongoing in Lambaréné, Gabon.^[154]

In San Diego, the U.S. Navy is continuing a year-long struggle to limit public scrutiny of port operations. In early November, as the newly-refitted USS Pinckney (DDG 91), a Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, left port for an initial shakedown cruise, harbor webcams tracked the vessel’s every move through the port. Online, a viral frenzy dissected the Pinckney’s ungainly, “bug-eyed” refit. Days later, the U.S. Navy Criminal Investigative Service started shutting the webcam service’s cameras down.

It was a strange incident. The USS Pinckney, testing an important electronic warfare system, sported a new topside geometry, modifying the distinctive Arleigh Burke silhouette. Commentators and internet observers employed San Deigo webcam images to help news of the destroyer’s new refit go viral, detailing, discussing—and sometimes disparaging—the destroyer’s top-heavy new look.

The Navy’s apparent response to the USS Pinckney’s mixed online reception was swift. Barry Bahrami, the San Diego Web Cam’s long-time volunteer organizer, took to the site formally known as Twitter, reporting that NCIS personnel had “reached out to Kona Kai,” a local waterfront resort currently hosting a few of the service’s cameras. Citing a range of concerns and threatening the property with litigation, the investigators urged the resort to, essentially, stop the show.

According to Bahrami, the cameras are now down, but if NCIS fails to justify the legal basis for their verbal request in writing, the cameras will, in a few days, go right back online. Fed-up and frustrated by the Navy’s actions, Bahrami is perplexed by Navy’s refusal to engage directly with his Navy-friendly volunteer organization—or to even simply talk about ways to resolve any outstanding security issues. An irked Bahrami now seems ready to engage the Navy in a bruising legal action to affirm the public’s right to livestream harbor traffic.

The NCIS actions were oddly timed. After allowing the harbor cameras to go unmolested for more than a decade, NCIS has encouraged the shut down of Bahrami’s unsparing cameras twice this year-but only after the webcam feeds fueled widespread viral scrutiny, likely discomfiting Navy leaders.

NCIS’ interest in the San Diego Web Cam can be traced back to November 2022, when the service’s webcams caught two Navy ships going head-to-head in the San Diego port channel, narrowly avoiding a collision. The Navy’s high-level investigation into the incident, fueled by public outcry over the viral webcam clips, detailed serious operational failings aboard both ships. As the investigation results leaked into public view in April 2023, NCIS encouraged the National Park Service to shut down San Diego Web Cam cameras located on National Park Service property—the very cameras that had originally detailed the Navy’s dangerous game of port channel “chicken.”

While the San Diego Web Cam’s constant, high—definition video monitoring is certainly jarring, the Navy’s effort to cut San Diego’s harbor webcams seems, at this point, more punitive than prudent. Over the course of the Cold War, Soviet trawlers lingered outside key U.S. submarine ports, filming and monitoring military comings and goings. The Navy was pretty sanguine about that surveillance work, confident transiting subs and ships suffered few ill effects.

Today, surveillance trawlers are Cold War relics, and adversarial surveillance has likely moved ashore and online. China and Russia almost certainly maintain constant overwatch of San Diego’s naval infrastructure through sensors in rented housing, hacked cameras or other obscure technical means.

But the key difference is that the contents of rival surveillance is never made public.

And that is the point.

Aside from the fact that the Navy seems able to tolerate close opposing force surveillance, detecting rival surveillance and rolling it all back is really hard work. NCIS, for its part, certainly hasn’t reported many instances of detecting and degrading persistent foreign surveillance of critical ports and naval infrastructure.

Instead of protecting the force from foreign monitoring, Navy security appears to be taking the far easier and higher profile path of protecting the Navy’s reputation.

It is telling that, the moment webcam footage began informing public discourse, revealing some Navy fault or sparking other tough discussions, the Navy’s security apparatus rolled into action, seeking to eliminate the reputational “threat.”

Reputation management and force protection are related, but they are two distinct activities that should not be conflated.

SEWIP Block 3 Has An OnlyFans Moment

The Navy has good reason to be sensitive about the USS Pinckney. As the first demonstrator of what may grow into a class-wide, $17 billion modernization project, upgrading the electronic warfare systems, radars and software aboard most of the Navy’s large Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyer fleet, the $121 million Pinckney upgrade is a big deal. After a disastrous Ticonderoga-class cruiser modification program, the Navy, obviously eager to couch the refit as a success, is likely to be somewhat oversensitive to the ship’s public reception. If the ship is already top heavy and rolling in light seas, the last thing the Navy wants is for the public to highlight the issue.

Poor public reception aside, the Navy also likely has good reason to be bit shy about revealing detailed imagery of the ship’s new structural modifications. The USS Pinckney is testing out a new electronic warfare system, SEWIP Block 3, known officially as the AN/SLQ-32(V)7 Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program Block 3. The last thing the Navy wants is a close inspection of the new weapon system as it goes through tests and trials.

The new system, emplaced in complex steel “bug eye” structures on either side of the ship, that, according to Defense News, “have to maintain just the right angles and flat surfaces for the system’s arrays.” Adversaries, by getting a close look at the geometry beamed to them via the internet, can get a jumpstart on figuring out ways to defeat the new gear.

It is hard to underestimate just how critical SEWIP is for the U.S. Navy.

As a platform that enhances anti-missile defenses, while also providing counter-targeting, counter-surveillance, electronic attack and other interesting capabilities, the SEWIP Block 3 is rightfully wrapped in mystery. But the public can make a few simple guesses about what the new SEWIP can offer. With, for example, more confidence that incoming missiles won’t land, the Navy can shift the contents of the fleet’s limited number of vertical launched missile tubes towards other missions—and that is a big deal as China and the U.S. square off in the Pacific.

Informed observers, eyeing the platform from a more adversarial point of view, can make inferences of their own, immediately employing the high-resolution images to start work to degrade the effectiveness of America’s latest-and-greatest electronic warfare platform. Nothing is certain, but, given the system’s complexity and the Navy’s constant struggle to integrate interdisciplinary systems engineering assessments into complex platforms, Navy engineers may well have overlooked security concerns, and, in the ship’s structure, revealed more than might be advised.

Force Protection Does Not Mean Protection From Mistakes

In an increasingly crowded world, public encroachment on military bases and Navy operations is a fact of life. And with technology offering ever-more opportunities for constant, intrusive surveillance, the Navy is obviously struggling to adjust. The abrupt technology-driven empowerment of public scrutiny is a sea change for Navy officials, and the Navy is simply not managing it well.

Nobody likes being on stage all the time, but far from being a threat, interested outside observation is an asset. For decades, the Navy has paid millions to think tanks and consulting companies for “external assessments of performance.” Today, webcam operators, bloggers and commentators are offering many of these insights up for free.

While disconcerting, these are opportunities worth exploiting.

But the Navy, where careers can end in a viral moment, hates being embarrassed and, as a result, the organization fears public engagement it cannot fully control. So, more often than not, the institution resorts to a sort of defensive crouch, lashing out at well-meaning observers and often refusing to engage observational stakeholders that are beyond the fence line.

Rather than engaging these interesting—albeit hard to control—assets, and getting about the business of fixing—or even exploiting—things, the Navy resorts to a crude form of maladroit expediency. Time after time, the organization simply ignores the issue at hand and, instead, tries to limit or remove the means for public scrutiny.

Sadly, the Navy is comfortable using security as a reason to squelch domestic debate. With no public oversight, the organization simply circles the wagons and acts as if mishaps don’t happen. It is how big Navy debacles like Red Hill, fire safety, bad barracks or other local problems are allowed to fester—and by failing to percolate up the internal command chain, these issues were permitted to lurk until they exploded into something impossible for the Navy and Navy policymakers to ignore.

The San Diego Web Cam crackdown is not an isolated incident. In 2008, facing a blog-fed public uproar over the materiel condition of the fleet, the Navy closed off public access to vessel inspection reports, known as INSURVs. By classifying the already-redacted reports, choking off any external means for the public to evaluate the material condition of naval vessels, the Navy then let their vessels continue to decay. Ironically enough, it is why the Navy is so panic about the Pinckney refit—the surface Navy’s materiel condition has decayed to the point where, if the Arleigh Burke refits fail, the organization will have little left in reserve.

At the end of the day, public scrutiny from interested stakeholders helps the Navy get better. While wide public notice and viral discussion of mistakes, anomalies and accidents are embarrassing and may discomfit those in charge, few things encourage the Navy to change course faster than sustained public attention.

And yes, there’s certainly a line somewhere. The fight in Ukraine is demonstrating the value of real-time social media leaks. Information on vessel location can quickly get flipped into a targeting solution for incoming missiles. Technical information gleaned from video close-ups can give opposing-force researchers a leg up. That’s nothing new, but, these days, America’s cadre of public observers and commentators likely offer little information that America’s sophisticated rivals haven’t already discovered.

It is a big challenge, but the Navy certainly won’t resolve those threats if it continues the stupid business of conflating reputation management with the tough work of real, honest-to-God force protection.