Sandra Stearns Kuba, Certified Public Accountant at Intuit, was recently selected as Empowered Woman of the Year for 2024 by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) for her outstanding leadership, dedication, and courage it took for her to go up against one of the biggest companies in the world.

Inclusion with the International Association of Top Professionals is an honor in itself; only a few members in each discipline are chosen for this distinction. These special honorees are distinguished based on their professional accomplishments, academic achievements, leadership abilities, longevity in the field, other affiliations, and contributions to their communities. All Honorees are invited to attend the IAOTP annual award gala during the year for a night to honor their achievements.

www.iaotp.com/award-gala 

With more than three decades of experience in the industry, Sandra has certainly proven herself a seasoned and trusted expert in the industry.  As a dynamic results-driven leader, Sandra has been successful in every position she has ever held.  Her impressive repertoire of prior roles has included working as a certified public accountant for Intuit and Disney in addition to holding accounting-related jobs with the American Heart Association, Belkin International, and Orange County National, before taking up her current position. While employed by Disney, Ms. Kuba put together the Product Online Transmission Tool, which was later given the moniker “Mrs. Potts” and chosen as the company’s central repository for all dining and tour events. Mrs. Potts was still being used by Disney even in 2023 (8 years after its creation).

Her areas of expertise include but are not limited to collaboration, conflict resolution, efficiency, strategizing, detecting patterns of fraud, and tax issues.

Before embarking on her professional career path, Ms. Kuba received her Bachelor of Accounting degree from Elmira College. She then went on to attend the Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University, where she obtained her Master’s degree in Accounting.  

Sandra courageously was the whistleblower regarding financial and tax fraud and internal control issues with Disney. Sandra claimed that employees at Disney falsely inflated revenue for years. Some of the alleged methods included pretending that complimentary golf games or other free or discounted promotional services and products were paid in full. Software flaws supposedly allowed these and other misstatements to be entered. Kuba claims that Disney manipulated many small transactions, allegedly at its theme parks, misrepresenting their actual value and, when totaled, significantly increasing the company’s revenues. It came about because of her training, education and experience. It was not well received by those in her company because it went all the way to the top, and information obtained by the State of Florida has proven the fraud, saying that it was "the most egregious exhibition of corporate cronyism in modern American history". That is only part of it and when they continue with the investigation the remainder will come out. Ms. Kuba states “It may rival Enron and could result in being declared a criminal organization under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.”

Throughout her illustrious career, Ms. Sandra Stearns Kuba has received many awards and accolades and has been recognized worldwide for her accomplishments. She was recently awarded as Top CPA/Chartered Global Management Accountant of the Year by IAOTP.  This year, she will be considered for a feature in TIP (Top Industry Professionals) Magazine. She will be honored at IAOTP’s annual awards gala at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville for her selection as Empowered Woman of the Year.  

The President of the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP), Stephanie Cirami, stated: “Choosing Sandra for this honor was an easy decision for our panel to make. It takes guts in this day and age to go up against big corporate giants and report fraud.  Sandra is inspirational, influential, and a true courageous leader. We cannot wait to meet her and celebrate her accomplishments at this year’s gala.” 

Looking back, Sandra attributes her success to her perseverance, work ethic, and the mentors she has had along the way. When not working, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her family. In the future, she hopes to inspire and give others courage, if you see something wrong say something.

For more information please visit: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-stearns-65192a178/

About IAOTP

The International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) is an international boutique networking organization that handpicks the world’s finest, most prestigious top professionals from different industries.  These top professionals are given an opportunity to collaborate, share their ideas, be keynote speakers, and to help influence others in their fields. This organization is not a membership that anyone can join.  You have to be asked by the President or be nominated by a distinguished honorary member after a brief interview.

IAOTP’s experts have given thousands of top prestigious professionals around the world, the recognition and credibility that they deserve and have helped in building their branding empires.  IAOTP prides itself to be a one-of-a-kind boutique networking organization that hand picks only the best of the best and creates a networking platform that connects and brings these top professionals to one place. 

For More information on IAOTP please visit: www.iaotp.com

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