Atlantic Chapter Ethics: Protecting the Integrity of Florida CPAs (0004980)

Michael Kridel

Principal
Michael S. Kridel, CPA, PA

Michael Kridel has practiced public accounting in South Florida since graduation from George Washington University in 1974. He reestablished his solo practice in being a principal and litigation services practice leader of Rehmann Robson, a Top 100 national accounting firm, from 2013 to 2018. Previously, Mr. Kridel was a partner in Daszkal Bolton from 1996 to 2013. He was a sole practitioner between 1977 and 1996 while providing consulting services to other firms. 

Since 1974, Mr. Kridel has provided litigation, management consulting, tax, accounting, planning and educational services to a broad spectrum of individuals, enterprises and fiduciaries, including probate accounting. The litigation services include both plaintiffs and defendants in a range of matters including family law, shareholder/partner actions, financial damages, fraud detection, criminal and civil tax matters, breach of fiduciary duty, wrongful employment discharge and accountant malpractice defense. Additionally, he has provided consulting and training services to large and small companies and professional practices. Mr. Kridel has testified in deposition, hearings, trial and alternative dispute resolution proceedings as an expert in numerous jurisdictions.

Mr. Kridel is a member of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA) and Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA) He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Accounting and Certified Forensic Consultant of the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute. He is a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and is an associate member of the American Bar Association and the South Palm Beach County Bar. He chaired the Valuation, Forensic Accounting and Litigation Services Section of the FICPA. In 2001, Mr. Kridel was one of the first CPAs to achieve the Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) designation offered by the AICPA. He was also among the original CPAs in 2008 to be Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF) by the AICPA. He has served on the Top Technologies Task Force of the AICPA. He has been included as a leading forensic accountant in the South Florida Legal Guide each year since 2009 as a Top CPA and Litigation Support Professional. He also received the South Florida Business Leader Magazine’s 2010 IMPACT Leaders Award. Mr. Kridel has received the FICPA Outstanding Discussion Leader each year since 2004.

Mr. Kridel is a frequent speaker, garnering numerous awards, at national and local conferences for accountants and attorneys on topics such as litigation services, professional ethics, fraud investigation, eDiscovery, investigation techniques, practice management, information technology and human resources. He is a certified CPA ethics instructor in Florida. Mr. Kridel is also a frequent speaker to at-risk teenagers participating in Judge Luis Delgado’s juvenile justice intervention program in Florida’s 15th Judicial Circuit. He is an online instructor in forensic accounting for the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and is a facilitator for courses offered by the Corporate Training Department of Florida Atlantic University as well as a visiting instructor in business law classes. He was a Facilitator in the Professional Training Department at the Florida campus of Johnson & Wales University for several years. Mr. Kridel is a longtime member of the Editorial Review Panels of the Journal of Accountancy and Florida CPA Today. He is active in several community service organizations, serves on the board of directors for a charter school serving students with autism spectrum disorders. Mr. Kridel has created and facilitated an award-winning seminar, Ethical Decision Making in the Workplace and Society, for Broward County high schools, positively influencing more than 15,000 students since 1992. He is also the profession’s representative on the Education Advisory Committee of the Florida Board of Accountancy. Mr. Kridel has served as a Commissioner on the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics since 2013.