TONY P. IELASE CISA

Tony has over 30 years of experience providing internal audit, SOX compliance, enterprise risk management and strategic reviews of internal audit and compliance functions for various industries, including utilities, retail, manufacturing, higher education, healthcare, financial services, technology and aerospace and defense.

Prior to joining Schneider Downs, Tony was a director at a National Big 4 firm for 15 years where he helped lead their risk consulting practice in the Columbus and Pittsburgh markets. He has significant experience managing large scale SOX 404 readiness engagements, focusing on both financial and IT-related control activities. These projects included SOX IPO program readiness and implementation, acquisition integration, material weakness remediation support, SOX program optimization and providing PMO and oversight of SOX program execution.

Tony also has significant experience helping companies successfully transition from an in-house model to an outsourcing model. He currently serves as the Chief Audit Executive (CAE) at a publicly traded online higher education technology company, overseeing the company’s ERM program from an outsourced model perspective. Additionally, Tony served as an interim CAE for a multi-national public organization where he turned around an underperforming internal audit function and managed the function’s risk assessment, audit plan development and execution, IIA Standards assessment and remediation, quality assurance, as well as Audit Committee reporting and SOX compliance.

Professional and Community Involvement

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Do you have a hobby/personal passion?
Golf and pugs.

What was the best advice you’ve ever received?
If you want to make a million dollars, work a million hours.

Who is your role model?
My father.

What was your childhood dream?
To be an artist.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to your college self?
Don’t stress out.  If you work hard everything will work out

People would be surprised to know that I…
…was an Art major my freshman year in college.

What is the best or most interesting thing about your career?
I get to meet and work with some of the brightest minds in the business community.

What was your first job?
Kirby sweeper salesman (true).

Do you have a “motto”? (spoken or unspoken)
“Don’t worry if the horse is blind- just start loading the wagon”

When you have an hour of free time, what do you like to do?
Spend time with my daughter Madison and walk the pug.

Do you have advice for young professionals?
Don’t be afraid of making mistakes.  Learn from them.  And if you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably not challenging yourself enough.

Our Thoughts On

FEATURED

Big Problem: A Limited Employee Benefit Plan.


Big Thinking: Increased Contributions And Employee Retention.

Shareholder JOE BRUCE has more than 21 years of public accounting experience since joining Schneider Downs in 1996. He has expertise with a variety of clients including construction, manufacturing, retail, oil and gas industries, and employee benefit plans.
One of Joe’s clients had a successful business and was interested in contributing more to their retirement accounts. However, the client was limited by the existing employee benefit plan structure and IRS contribution limitations on their existing structure. Joe’s team was familiar with the structure of their existing plan and offered to do an analysis of their options. “The Schneider Downs Retirement Plan Solutions Group suggested a cash balance plan and provided an analysis to the business owners which quantified the impact and provided options to allow the client to evaluate the direction they were most comfortable moving forward with.” Bruce said. “The client elected to adopt the cash balance plan and was able to significantly increase contributions into the owners’ retirement accounts. This also enhanced the quality of the retirement benefits for their employees, which in turn helped improve employee retention.” Schneider Downs provides Big Thinking and Personal Focus in delivering a variety of services for large and small businesses, both publicly and privately held, as well as nonprofit organizations, government entities and more. Through our commitment to thought leadership and knowledge management, we deliver the solutions our clients need with a personal commitment to service.

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