It has been said, “There are two types of people - those who come into a room and say, "Well, here I am!" and those who come in and say, "Ah, there you are."”

Ah, there you are! We welcome you.

By virtue of your visiting this page, you demonstrate you are our kind of person. Not minimizing the depth and breadth of expertise and service areas we offer, it is our people that differentiates our firm most uniquely from others.

Introducing Medical Practices Services Team Leadership — all locally based:

Joseph B. Fornasiero Partner Tax Advisory Group jfornasiero@dopkins.com

Joe is the Partner-in-Charge of the Medical Advisory Group as well as the Tax Advisory Group at Dopkins & Company. Joe has worked in public accounting since 1969 and for most of that time has concentrated in local business accounting and tax consulting. Joe has spent much of his career working with clients in the medical field assisting with internal controls, accounting systems, personnel evaluation, retirement planning, billing and collection, cash flow problems, compensation structuring, and mergers & acquisitions.

Joe began his public accounting career with a national firm after graduating from Lehigh University. He then established and developed his own firm for fifteen years until it merged with Dopkins & Company, LLP in 1987. He has been awarded the accounting advocate of the year by the U.S. Small Business Administration and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Ralph M. Jeswald Partner General Services rjeswald@dopkins.com

Ralph has extensive experience assisting medical practices achieve that “next level” by specializing in Performance Management and Improvement (PM&I) solutions. As a trained facilitator, Ralph's experience has focused primarily on the design and implementation of custom PMI solutions primarily for service-based entities with a focus on medical practices. He has had significant training and experience in strategic planning, lean-six-sigma, activity-based cost/management, performance measurement, and other related performance improvement methodologies currently used in the best practices today.

He has had significant training and experience six sigma, lean, activity-based cost/management, theory of constraints, performance measurement, lean/process-based accounting and other related improvement methodologies and tools.

Ralph's work has been published in the New York State CPA Journal and Canada’s Chartered Accountant and has been a featured speaker at events such as the Financial Tracking for Six Sigma conference sponsored by the International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC). The value stream costing method developed in his role as consultant to HSBC helped to win the Best Defect Elimination in Service and Transaction Award 2004.

Ralph is a member of the New York State Society of CPAs as well as the AICPA. Ralph holds a BA in Psychology from the State University of New York and an MBA in Accounting from Canisius College.

Jerry Maciejewski Manager, Dopkins Medical Solutions jmaciejewski@dopkins.com

Jerry has more than 30 years of experience in the health care industry. He has held leadership positions with medical practice, health insurance and management service organizations. Jerry specializes in the analysis/assessment of operational strengths/weaknesses and the development of corrective action or continuous improvement plans to maximize efficiency and revenue. As one of only fourteen individuals nationally certified by Allscripts, Jerry can develop or assist with the development of Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems analysis, decisions and implementations.

Tina F. MacDonald, CPC, CMBS, CCP Manager, Dopkins Medical Solutions tmacdonald@dopkins.com

Tina is responsible for the billing and credentialing activities as well as work process development and implementation. She earned certification in professional coding (CPC) in December of 2002, as a Certified Medical Billing Specialist (CMBS) in 2005 and Certified Compliance Professional (CCP) in 2006.

Tina has been involved in the health care industry for over twenty-five years and is member of the American Academy of Professional Coders, Medical Billing Association, and Medical Group Management Association.

After completing an A.A.S. in Medical Secretarial Science, she spent over 15 years as a Medical Transcriptionist and Medical Office Secretary. In 1987, she added purchasing, human resources and billing to her responsibilities of a major physicians group in Western New York.

Albert A. Nigro, CPA, CVA Director Tax Advisory Group anigro@dopkins.com

Al specializes in providing accounting, tax and consulting services for individual physicians, physician groups and other health care organizations. He has over fifteen years experience in public accounting and the private sector in the following areas: practice formation and mergers & acquisitions, performance of operational and internal control reviews of medical practices, design and implementation of financial accounting and reporting systems, income tax planning and business valuation of medical practices and valuation of physician licenses. Al is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants and the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Canisius College in 1990.

Stephen C. Studley, CPA, CVA, CFP, ChFC Senior Manager Tax Advisory Group sstudley@dopkins.com

Steve has over 20 years experience in public accounting servicing a diverse clientele including physicians and medical practices. He provides assistance in the area of financial reporting and accounting, qualified plan design, and implementation, personal financial planning, tax planning, and compliance and entity formation. He holds designations as Certified Public Accountant, Certified Valuation Analyst, Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Life Underwriter, and Chartered Financial Consultant. A 1983 graduate of Niagara University with a B.S. in Business Administration, he is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the NYS Society of Certified Public Accountants, National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts and the Financial Planning Association. He also serves on the board of a number of not-for-profit organizations.

Robert Souliske Systems Specialist Dopkins Medical Solutions

Bob has 10 years of experience in programming and designing software involved in medical billing. He has also worked with support and training on most billing systems used in the Western New York marketplace. A good portion of his time has been spent on installing billing systems and electronic medical record systems. Because many billing systems have inadequate management reporting platforms, Bob has also designed software configurations to produce necessary report data from the billing systems.

Pamela A. Geib, CPA Supervisor Tax Advisory Group pgeib@dopkins.com

Pam specializes in professional services for medical physician groups, closely held corporations, professional limited liability corporations and personal taxes. Pam currently oversees medical practice administration for several medical groups. In addition, she coordinates day-to-day operational activities and provides consulting to assist groups and companies on improving business techniques to create greater efficiency.

Pam joined Dopkins in 1995 after seven years of public accounting at another firm. She earned a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from the SUNY at Buffalo School of Management and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Chad R. O’Connell Investment Advisor Dopkins Wealth Management, LLC coconnell@dopkins.com

Chad is responsible for providing comprehensive financial services to high net worth individuals, business owners, trusts, and qualified retirement plans. Chad’s primary focus is working with business owners and organizations on implementing, managing and investing their retirement programs. Chad has over 12 years of investment advisory, and employee benefit experience. Prior to joining Dopkins Wealth Management, LLC, he held a variety of positions in the Investment Group of M&T Bank. Most recently he was a senior Retirement Services Relationship Manager responsible for managing corporate and institutional retirement programs for the Bank’s Western New York region. He holds a B.S. degree in Finance from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and an M.B.A. from Canisius College.