MEET KENNETH PURFEY, B.ENG, MBA, CITP, CFM, CFP, FCPA, CFS, CFF, CPA
KENNETH J. PURFEY is a builder of companies and has over 35-years of executive financial experience mostly in Fortune 200 firms. The bulk of his functional expertise is in the fields of Finance, Planning, Mergers & Acquisitions, Wall Street Capital Markets, and International Corporate Finance; and secondarily in Strategic Management, Compliance, Accounting, Budgets, Tax, Stocks, Bonds, and Personal Financial Planning. He is also an Anti-Fraud Expert.
In the last 15 years, Ken has been the Chief Financial Officer of four Hi-tech and computer Information Technology companies, a Partner at a Sarbanes-Oxley firm, and Chief Executive Officer of a Bio-tech company. He has started up 70 other companies as a Consultant to others. In his career, Ken has been a key player in the consummation of 72 acquisitions totaling over $15 Billion, and has consulted on Mergers as large as $7 Billion on Wall Street. Ken has held the positions of Chairman, President, CEO, CFO, VP-Finance, Treasurer, Controller, and Director of Mergers & Acquisitions working for a wide range of companies. Ken’s career has taken him all over North America, including Dallas, Anchorage and Prudhoe Bay Alaska, San Francisco, Cleveland, Houston, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, and San Jose. Ken’s Alaskan experience enabled him to work on the Trans Alaskan Pipeline and in March of 1979 to become the first documented CPA of any nation to reach and stand at the North Pole!
For 10 years, Ken was also an Adjunct Professor of Finance at Robert Morris University and the University of New Orleans where he instructed in Principles of Managerial Finance, International Business Finance, Portfolio Management, Money and Banking, and Capital Markets. He also sat on the Board of Trustees. Other professional accomplishments include being the Founding Father of two charitable organizations: the ERI Educational Foundation, and the ASPIRE Foundation for needy children.
Ken is an Income Tax Expert being a Special Agent Registered with the Internal Revenue Service, is a Professional Tax Preparer for both personal and corporate taxes, and is a Special Foreign Agent Registered with the US Treasury Department Financial Crimes Enforcement Network under the International Bank Secrecy Act.
He is also a 6-time published author including articles on Mergers & Acquisitions and Cash Management in the Handbook of Financial Technology (CRC Press), and is also an AICPA National Spokesman for Sarbanes-Oxley, is a published author on the topic, is a Corporate Governance expert, installed SOX and Anti-Fraud Controls at over 42 Hi-Tech companies, and was an Expert Witness for the Securities & Exchange $13 Billion 101-count indictment and lawsuit against the former executives of Fannie Mae in Washington DC. He was also a consulting Corporate Governance Expert Witness in the SECs $7 Billion lawsuit against Bank of America.
Ken was also chosen by the Clinton administration to go to Russia and assist in the start-up of the former Soviet Union’s first free market stock market and was instrumental in initiating the Moscow and Vladivostok stock exchanges. Ken has had the opportunity to work with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan.
Ken’s credentials include an MBA-Finance and an Electrical Engineering (BE) degree combined with the Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP), Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA), Certified Financial Manager (CFM), Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Fraud Specialist (CFA), Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF), and Forensic CPA (FCPA) designations. Ken is the first and only person in the United Stated to attain all nine major certifications. It was this unique accomplishment, along with other notable achievements, professionalism, and community service, that enabled Ken to be honored by the Governor of Pennsylvania as the “CPA OF THE YEAR”, win Ohio’s “GOLD MEDAL FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT“, and be a FINALIST for the AICPA’s “NATIONAL CPA OF THE YEAR”!
As a result of some of these awards, Ken has been interviewed by the Wall Street Reporter, appeared several times on National Television, including the Jim Lehrer News Hour and most recently, as a special guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. In 2001 Ken was officially inducted into the AICPA’s NATIONAL “HALL OF FAME” – Business and Industry for Lifetime Achievement. In 2015 Ken was nominated for the worldwide Financial Executives International “Hall of Fame” again for Lifetime Achievement and where he is Chairman of the Academic Relations Committee, and Chairman Emeritus of the FEI Rising Stars Board.
Ken and his wife Cathy live in San Jose, CA and have two children, both college Masters graduates.