Reif Kanan
Vistage
A. Rief Kanan, CPA is a member of the accounting faculty of the School of Business at The State University of New York at New Paltz, where he is the Director of The Business Institute and holds a Sam Walton Free Enterprise Fellowship. He is also the principal author of the college’s 150-hour CPA licensure qualifying program leading to the MBA degree. His over thirty years of experience includes public accounting, corporate auditing and accounting, corporate management and entrepreneurial activities in real estate and retail businesses. Professor Kanan has been teaching at the bachelor degree and MBA levels since 1983, in addition to his business activities. Courses he teaches include financial, intermediate and advanced accounting as well as auditing at the undergraduate level and advanced auditing at the MBA level. Since becoming a “full-time” college professor in 1997, he has maintained his entrepreneurial edge by assembling three “think tanks” of twelve to sixteen CEOs and company presidents each to work on the strategies and operations of their businesses under the international organization Vistage International. As Director of The Business Institute, he administers or delivers consulting services to small and mid-sized companies including executive coaching, training programs, company planning meetings, marketing research, operations management, organizational development and organizational behavior and web-based services consulting.
Mr. Kanan is a member of the Executive Board and ‘06/’07 Vice President as well as the chairman of the Relations with Colleges and Universities Committee of the Mid-Hudson Chapter of the NY State Society of CPAs. He recently returned to state-level committee service as a member of the Arbitration and Mediation and Auditing Standards and Procedures Committees of the Society. He is a past member of the Professional Ethics and the Accounting Standards Committees. He is also a member and campus champion of the American Institute of CPAs.
Mr. Kanan, his wife Nancy and their four sons live in the Hudson Valley and are great advocates of the many wonderful attributes of New York State.