Stefano BIANCHI

Profile

An international chartered accountant and auditor, qualified in the UK (ICAEW) and Italy (ONDCEC), with more than 25 years’ professional experience with BDO, Mazars, RSM International and PwC UK and Italy dedicated to Audit and to IFRS/Capital Market transactions.

Currently Audit Partner of BDO and Head of Accounting Technical Function of BDO Italy and member of the IFRS Task Force of BDO at International level.

Until June 2004 Senior Manager of the specialised European PwC Group based in London advising on Capital Market transactions and IFRS transitions of public companies listed on LSE. From 2004 PwC director of IFRS transition of Italian public companies and audit senior manager of SEC registrant companies. Member of the IFRS technical committee of PwC Italy and of the PwC European securitisation technical committee. From 2007 until 2010 International Contact Partner of RSM Italy, a member firm of RSM International, and member of the IFRS Leadership Group as European representative  of RSM International and from 2010 until 2015 Audit Partner of Mazars.Professional Experience

Partner, BDO                                                                                                       July 2015 -> today

Stefano’s main roles as Audit Partner are:

-the leadership of  the Accounting Technical Function of BDO Italy with responsibilities regarding the IFRS implementation; and

- the coordination of the Italian North-East Area with the responsibility of the Padua’s office and the development/advising on IFRS transition projects and IPOs. Stefano is the Engagement leader of the audit of Italian listed International Group and in-charge of the relationship with the Audit Committee.

Member of BDO IFRS Working Party at International level.

Partner, Mazars                                                                                                   July 2010 ->July 2015

Audit partner with Mazars and main roles ere the coordination of the North-East Area.

Partner, RSM International                                                                                June 2007- July 2010

Audit partner with RSM Italy SpA, an auditing and accounting firm registered with CONSOB (the Italian Stock Exchange Authority) and PCAOB (US). My main roles are the coordination of the North-East Area. I am also the International contact partner within RSM International and member of the European Council of RSM International based in London.

Director/Senior manager, audit and IFRS/Capital Markets, PwC Italy           June 2004- June 2007

Since joining PwC Italy my main activities have been at Milan and Treviso offices as follows:

-        the coordination of audit of SEC registrant companies as senior manager  and in-charge of coordinating the relationship with the Audit Committee in accordance with US GAAS (PCAOB rules).;

-         IFRS conversion of Italian public Companies and project manager of IPO projects on European Stock Exchanges (Borsa Italiana and London Stock Exchange).

I was also member of the Italian Technical Committee with responsibilities regarding the IFRS implementation and IAS 39 issues and the PwC Europe Securitisation Technical Committee focusing on derecognition and consolidation matters and member of the GCMG (Global Capital Market Group) Europe, specialised group of PwC dealing with US GAAP matters. I have also coordinated numerous bond offerings (including high-yield and mezzanine issues) under rule 144a and Regulation S and IFRS transitions.

Senior Manager, London Capital Markets Group, PwC UK                                 March 2002 - June 2004

The Group, within the PwC Audit Practice provides advisory services in connection with all aspects of London Capital Market transactions – i.e. selecting the right GAAP and GAAS, advising on regulatory issues including compliance with listing rules, execution support services including assisting companies to prepare financial and related disclosures and to convert or reconcile their financial information to the International Accounting Standards framework, undertaking financial and business due diligence investigations.

My main activities have been:

-        numerous engagements in both an advisory and coordination role of both UK and overseas audit teams. This was in connection with debt and equity transactions on the London and Luxembourg stock exchanges;

-        project management of PwC involvement in High Yield Bond issue in Europe, including US distribution;

-        project management for PwC UK of IFRS/IAS transition of public companies operating in CIPS/TICE;

-        coordinating advanced IFRS/IAS training for the PwC national group of IFRS/IAS champions and working on solution regarding differences between UK GAAP and IFRS/IAS 

-        contributing papers on a regular basis to the internal discussion groups, regarding the Prospectus and Transparency Directive.

Manager, Audit, PwC London, UK                                                       October 2000 - March 2002

In the Audit Practice part of Assurance and Business Advisory Services (ABAS) of PricewaterhouseCoopers UK I was involved as audit manager in numerous assignments ranging from UK medium-sized companies and listed groups for statutory purposes to subsidiaries’ audit for overseas engagement, mainly US and European groups reporting under IAS/IFRS. My audit clients have principally been Industrial Products, Retail&Consumer and Technology (software) companies.

Audit, PwC (former Coopers&Lybrand), Italy                           September 1995 to October 2000

In Coopers & Lybrand in the Middle Market & CIPS audit group. I specialised in auditing public companies, mainly Industrial and Retail oriented, listed on the Italian Stock Exchange. In March 1999, I gained the Professional Membership as an Italian Chartered Accountant (Dottore Commercialista) and joined the Italian Institute.

Professional Memberships

UK – Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) - full membership as Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA) since April 2004 (membership no. 9295628).

Italy - Ordine dei Dottori Commercialisti, Associate (Dottore Commercialista) of the Italian Institute of Chartered Accountants since 1999 and Certified Auditor (Revisore Contabile).  

Recent publications

Stefano is contributing regularly to technical discussion through workshop and articles on development of the European regulations and IFRS accounting issues and he is one of the editors of Beyond the GAAP (Italia), Mazars accounting newsletter.

Education

University of Venice (Italy)

Laurea in Economia Aziendale (Hons) 2.1 – Economics

Major topics included:

Business and Finance
Accounting (IFRS, US GAAP and Italian GAAP)
Micro/Macroeconomics and quantitative methods
Commercial Law and Company Law
Auditing and management accounting

Languages

Italian, mother tongue.            English, C2.            German, B1.

Computer skills

Experienced user of Windows XP, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint.