Karen Amato
Partner, KPMG
Karen is an audit partner in KPMG’s Metro, New York consumer and industrial markets practice. Karen has spent her entire 20 year career with KPMG’s Long Island office and has been an audit partner for 7 years.
Karen is a certified public accountant in the states of New York and New Jersey. She earned a bachelor of business administration degree in accounting, magna cum laude, from Hofstra University. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Karen has provided audit services to companies in a wide range of industries, including cosmetic, pharmaceuticals and electronics. Karen has significant experience serving manufacturers and distributors. Her experience also includes servicing public companies subject to the accounting and reporting rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Karen also assists clients with private placement securities offerings, initial public offerings and due diligence assistance. Karen’s clients have ranged in size from middle market to large multinational companies.
Karen is the co-chair of KPMG’s Network of Women for the Long Island office (KNOW Network). The KNOW Network’s mission is to create professional development opportunities for women and to ensure KPMG is a great place for them to build their careers. Karen also serves on KPMG’s Northeast area Diversity Council. She is the Resource Management Partner for the Long Island office and has previously led the office’s recruiting efforts
Jean Lahage Cohen
Executive Director, Mentoring Partnerships of Long Island & New York
Jean holds an AB from Brown University in Applied Mathematics-Psychology and an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Formerly an economic business consultant to Fortune 500 companies, she has been involved with not-for-profit organizations for 25 years. Motivating and directing volunteers is one of her areas of expertise, having trained over 7,500 volunteers in mentoring. Her experienced training is in demand for mentoring programs across the country.The Mentoring Partnerships work to increase the number of children in mentoring programs. The Partnerships have helped start over 150 programs in schools, churches, temples, businesses and youth agencies. The Mentoring Partnerships train over 1,700 people annually in how to be a mentor as well as how to start safe and successful mentoring programs. Currently, they work with 300+ agencies that serve over 37,000 young people.
Ms. Cohen’s work ranges from developing school-based mentoring programs to finding compatible business and government partners to producing online resource materials and newsletters for the 300+ programs.
A co-author of Mentoring at the Middle School and a Woman of the Fortune 52, Long Island Press, Ms. Cohen mentored the same young woman for ten years. She was recently awarded the Nassau BOCES Partners in Education Award for 2009.
Ilene Cooper
Partner, Farrell Fritz
Ilene S. Cooper is a partner at the Uniondale-based law firm of Farrell Fritz, P.C. She practices trusts and estates litigation in Surrogate’s Courts throughout the Metropolitan area. Ms. Cooper is a frequent contributor to the firm's New York Trusts & Estates Litigation (www.nyestatelitigationblog.com) blog.
Ms. Cooper is the immediate past president of the Suffolk County Bar Association. She serves on the Advisory Committee of the Suffolk Academy of Law, is a member of the Association’s Surrogate’s Court Committee, its Professionalism Committee and is one of the founding members of the Association’s Scholarship Fund.
Ms. Cooper is a Member at Large and treasurer of the New York State Bar Association's Trusts and Estates Law Section; a Fellow of the New York Bar Foundation and the American College of Trust and Estate Council; and is a member of the House of Delegates, the Theodore Roosevelt American Inn of Court and Suffolk County's Pro Bono Action Committee. In 2010, she was reappointed to the Supreme Court of the State of New York's Grievance Committee for the Tenth Judicial District. She is an adjunct professor of law at Touro Law School, where she also serves on the School's Board of Trustees.
Ms. Cooper is a board member of The Hills Foundation, Suffolk County Child Care Council, Child Abuse Prevention Services, Half Hollow Hills Business Advisory Council, Children’s Medical Fund Corporate Alliance, Touro Law School’s Board of Governors, Long Island Women’s Agenda and the Suffolk County Youth Board Coordination Council. She serves on the Suffolk County Coalition Against Domestic Violence's Honorary Board.
Theresa E Going
VP & Relationship Manager, Madison National Bank
Theresa E. Going is Vice President and Relationship Manager for Madison National Bank. Theresa’s responsibilities are to gather diverse portfolios while building strategic partnerships. When she joined Madison National Bank in 2007 as Vice President and Branch Manager she was charge of opening and managing the Melville branch. In just two short years, under her leadership, the Melville Branch has become one of the most progressive new banks in the area, earning the title of Melville’s Business of the Year. Ms. Going has been an integral force in the development process dealing with the implementation of new banks. She is a member of the Melville Chamber of Commerce, Long Island Business Association, AHA Long Island Go Red Luncheon Committee, EWGA, and Half Hollow Hills School to Business Partnership. Theresa is a strong believer in education and together with the Half Hollow Hills School to Business Partnership have hosted many class trips to the branch and made multiple visits to grades K-12 to emphasize the importance of saving.
Ms. Going has a well established career with over 25 years in the banking industry. She has served as Second Vice President, in the retail division at New York Community Bank. Theresa was a vital member of the launching team in the development and servicing of MyBankingDirect, an Online Subsidiary of New York Community Bank. She was part of the transitional team during the merger between Roosevelt Savings Bank and The Roslyn Savings Bank, while holding positions as Branch Manager of the third largest branch, training coordinator and troubleshooter for special projects. Theresa started her banking career with Roosevelt Savings Bank holding various positions from teller to Assistant Vice President, while earning her bachelor’s degree in Accounting at SUNY Old Westbury. Her years of dedicated service are not only evident in banking, but also in her work with various organizations.
Lorraine Greenwald, PhD
Dean of the School of Business, Farmingdale State College
Dr. Lorraine Greenwald is Dean for the School of Business at Farmingdale State College in Farmingdale, New York. She has a lifelong yearning for learning that has propelled her from a career in industry to academia.
Straight out of high school, she completed a bachelor degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Stony Brook University. Over the next 15 years she accepted increasingly responsible positions in banking, government and telecommunications. While employed full time, she earned an M.B.A. in International Business and Finance from Stern’s Graduate School of Business in New York City.
In order to transition to her career in higher education, Lorraine earned a second Master’s degree in Operation Research, and continued for her doctorate in Computational Applied Mathematics at Stony Brook University. Her research applied Simulated Annealing optimization to the well-known Traveling Salesman Problem and to model gene expression in Drosphila. This interdisciplinary approach is one she favors and is reflected in her accomplishments to date. A member of the Farmingdale State College community since 1998, she has taught courses in information systems and data communications both in the traditional classroom environment and via distance learning.
Dr. Greenwald has a proven track record in team building and problem solving, and is committed to excellence in teaching, scholarship and service. Possessing a distinctive blend of experience in both industry and academia, she serves on the Advisory Council for SBPLI First Robotics and on the Board of Directors for both The Great Knights and ExecuLeaders. She is an active member of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and the Association for Information Technology Professionals (AITP).
Susan Winters
Merrill Lynch
Northeast Board President, Canine Companions
Susan has been in the financial services industry since 2006 and joined Merrill Lynch in 2010. Working with a team of ML specialists her focus is on developing strategies and solutions for non-profits; helping with their endowments, foundations and retirement plans. Additionally, Susan works on personal and corporate solutions for individual and corporate retirement plans helping her clients in all sectors meet their short and long term goals; exploring solutions that include investments, retirement, estate planning services and philanthropy.
Susan received a B.S. in Business Management from Farleigh Dickenson University. Her entrance into the Financial Industry followed a 25 year career helping run a successful private family business as the Executive Vice President. Her business was the recipient of multiple awards including the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award , 1994 NAWBO Award- Top Women Owners of Long Island and was listed in America’s Top 500 Women-Owned Businesses.
Susan has been philanthropic throughout her career. She was N.E Regional Board President of Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) for 11years and remains on the Board as Immediate Past Board President of CCI, providing service dogs, at no charge, for physically disabled children and adults, other than blindness, including wounded veterans. Susan was awarded the 2010 ExecuLeadership Award and CCI’s Jack Warnock Award. She currently holds a position on The Moxxie Network Advisory Board and is an active member of the Molloy College Advisory Committee
Susan’s approach in wealth management is consultative, objective and committed to excellence; taking the time to listen and review client financial situations, preferences and goals in order to make the best recommendations that accurately reflect each client’s expectations.