HPU to Host Accounting Day this Friday

Howard Payne University’s School of Business will host an Accounting Day this Friday, September 28. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend the 10 a.m. session in room 136 of Newman Hall on HPU’s Academy of Freedom campus.

Four alumni will be welcomed back to the university to share their successes in the accounting field.

“The goal of the presentation is to promote the accounting profession and to show how one may become employed with a ‘Big Four’ accounting firm,” said Dr. Les Plagens, dean of the School of Business. “We are very pleased to have these four exemplary graduates come to campus and give back to our students.  They have an excellent message to share.”

Emily (Tittle) Attaway received an accounting degree from HPU in 2009 and is a 2010 graduate of The University of Texas at Dallas with a master’s degree in accounting information systems. She was licensed as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in August 2011. Attaway interned as a tax season clerk at JHB, LLP in Dallas during the 2010 tax season and is currently employed there full time as a tax associate.

Clee Heston graduated from HPU in 2002 with degree in accounting. He began his career as an audit intern with KPMG LLP in January 2003 and obtained his CPA license in March 2004. During his tenure at KPMG, he served on multiple public and private client engagements in the assurance practice. In November 2006, he accepted a position with HMT, Inc., a private construction company serving the energy industry, where he served as assistant controller and eventually as corporate controller. In September 2011, Heston accepted the assistant controller position at C&J Energy Services, a public oilfield services company.

Tristan Summers, CPA, is a 2009 graduate of HPU and the Academy of Freedom. He holds a master’s degree in professional accounting from The University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business, where he attended under merit scholarship. In 2011, Summers joined PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Austin where he provides assurance services to one Fortune 50 technology client.

A 2005 HPU accounting graduate, Justin Woodard, CPA, is in the seventh year of his professional career. After completing his undergraduate studies at HPU, Woodard attended The Ohio State University and received a Master of Accounting, summa cum laude, in 2006. He was a University Fellow at Ohio State and received a full-ride scholarship to the graduate program. He began his career with KPMG, a Big Four accounting firm, and worked for five years in external audit at both KPMG and a regional accounting firm affiliated with BDO Seidman. He recently joined Sabre Holdings in Southlake, where he works in technical accounting.

For more information, contact Mary Hill in the School of Business at (325) 649-8704 or via e-mail at mhill@hputx.edu.