Panel on SOC 2 and SOC 2+ Assurance Services - Feb 2025

Dr. J. Efrim Boritz is the Ontario CPAs’ Chair in Accounting in the School of Accounting & Finance at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He is also the founding Director of the University of Waterloo Centre for Information Integrity and Information Systems Assurance.

Dr. Boritz is the author or co-author of numerous books, monographs, book chapters and articles in academic and professional journals and has served on numerous editorial boards. His research focuses on professional practice in external and internal auditing, particularly in the context of information systems, with the goal of enhancing professional judgment through better quality information, models and processes.

Dr. Boritz has served on numerous task forces and committees of domestic and international professional and academic associations. He is a former president of the Canadian Academic Accounting Association which has given him all three of its major teaching, research and service awards. The Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario gave him its highest award, the Award of Outstanding Merit in 1999. In 2010 he received the Candian Institute of Chartered Accountant’s Bill Swirsky Innovation Leadership Award and in 2012 he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. In 2023 he was inducted into the Canadian Accounting Hall of Fame and in 2025 he has been awarded ISACA’s Global Excellence in Education award. He is a member of the AICPA’s Information Integrity, Trust Services and Cybersecurity Working Groups.

Nancy Bagranoff is University Professor (Accounting) at the University of Richmond.  Professor Bagranoff was Dean of the Robins School from 2010 until 2019.  Prior to that appointment she served as Professor of Accounting and Dean of the College of Business and Public Administration at Old Dominion University.  Dr. Bagranoff has taught at several universities, including American University, George Mason University, and Miami University.  Her areas of teaching and research are accounting, accounting information systems, and cybersecurity. In addition to publishing many research articles, she has co-authored books on the topics of accounting information systems, information systems auditing, accounting education, and consulting.  In 2021, she received the AICPA Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education award.  She has been President of the American Accounting Association and Chair of the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce.  She served on the Board of Directors of the AICPA and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Chris Halterman has more than 36 years of experience in the public accounting profession, focusing on internal control reporting, IT audit and information integrity. Prior to his retirement in June 2024, he led E&Y’s Advisory System and Organization Control Reporting practice globally and in the Americas, with responsibility for developing methodology, training, client service strategy, quality assurance programs and market initiatives. Chris is a member of several AICPA working groups related to SOC reporting and was formerly a member of the AICPA Assurance Services Executive Committee (ASEC). He chaired the ASEC Trust/Information Integrity Task Force from 2008 to 2024. In this role, he led the development of the AICPA SOC for Cybersecurity, SOC 2, data integrity reporting frameworks, including revisions to the trust services criteria for evaluating the system security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy. In his role, Chris speaks on cybersecurity reporting, and SOC 1 and SOC 2 reporting.Chris graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison-Masters of Accountancy (Accounting and Auditing); University of Iowa-Bachelor of Science (Mathematics and Economics)

Sean Linton is an Audit Partner at EisnerAmper providing assurance and technology control services. He specializes in System and Organization Controls (SOC) examinations, risk assessments, and information systems advising and strategy, and has deep expertise in multiple audit disciplines. Sean has served organizations from across the business spectrum, from small investment firms to large international corporations. As a SOC auditor, he helps his clients devise and execute audit strategies to meet myriad compliance and regulatory requirements related to data security and system integrity. Over the years, Sean has led international audits in the UK, France, Hong Kong, India, and Taiwan, with much of that fieldwork being performed abroad. These experiences have allowed him to become well versed in international reporting and compliance frameworks, in addition to his detailed knowledge of U.S. reporting guidance and regulations. Prior to joining EisnerAmper, Sean was an Audit Partner providing technology and consulting services at Lurie LLP, a Minneapolis-based accounting and advisory firm, which provided clients with solutions in accounting, audit, tax planning and wealth management, serving business leaders in a wide variety of industries including health care, professional services, technology, manufacturing, real estate and more. As an active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Sean serves as the current chair of the AICPA’s SOC 2 task force and is also a national instructor teaching SOC-focused courses to CPAs around the country. Sean is also a peer reviewer and performs enhanced oversight reviews of SOC engagements for the AICPA’s peer review program. He lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife and 4 children.