John C. Blackshire, Jr. 

Auditing, Internal Controls and Financial Systems Expert

More Than 50 Years of Practical Business, Audit and Technology Experience

​

Connect with John C. Blackshire, Jr. on LinkedIn

​

John C. Blackshire, Jr., CPA (Retired Practitioner), brings more than five decades of experience in auditing, accounting, internal controls, enterprise financial systems, information technology, management consulting and professional education.

​

John’s career has placed him on multiple sides of the audit and control environment. He has worked as a Big Four external auditor, enterprise-software executive, implementation consultant, project manager, business owner, internal-control advisor, Audit Committee member and continuing professional education instructor.

​

This breadth of experience gives John a practical understanding of how organizations establish objectives, manage risks, design controls, implement technology and respond when their processes fail.

​

John does not teach auditing and internal control as abstract subjects. His programs draw upon decades of actual audits, software implementations, control assessments, troubled projects, business turnarounds and advisory engagements.

 

Founder of Corporate Compliance Seminars

 

John is a founder and principal of Corporate Compliance Seminars (CCS), a provider of live instructor-led CPE training for internal auditors, external auditors, accountants, compliance professionals, information-technology professionals and organizational leaders.

 

Since establishing CCS, John has helped develop and deliver professional education covering:

• Internal auditing

• Internal-control design and operating effectiveness

• Audit Committee governance

• COSO internal controls and enterprise risk management

• Sarbanes-Oxley compliance

• Fraud prevention and detection

• Information-technology general controls

• Cybersecurity governance

• Artificial intelligence for auditors

• PCAOB auditing standards

• GAO Green Book and Yellow Book requirements

• Financial-services and insurance compliance

• Audit documentation and report writing

• Ethics and professional judgment

• Financial-system implementation

• Business-process improvement

 

More than 15,000 professionals have attended CCS training programs. John has developed courses ranging from focused two-hour webinars to multi-day academies, audit boot camps and customized programs for individual organizations.

​

Founder of The Accountware Group

​

John founded The Accountware Group in 1986 to provide specialized consulting assistance to organizations implementing and improving financial application systems.

 

The firm’s work has included:

• Financial-system selection and implementation

• Business-process analysis and improvement

• Internal-control assessments

• Sarbanes-Oxley compliance

• Information-technology control reviews

• Software implementation quality assurance

• Chart-of-accounts design

• Financial and management reporting

• Project planning and management

• Application conversion and integration

• Internal-audit and management-advisory services

 

John also served as CEO of The Application Support Company, a project-oriented financial-systems implementation firm. Under his leadership, the organization grew to more than 125 professionals and generated multimillion-dollar revenues.

​

Big Four External Audit Foundation

​​

John began his professional career in public accounting. From 1973 through 1976, he worked for Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Company, now KPMG.

​

As an in-charge accountant within nine months of joining the firm, he participated in financial audits and related assignments involving:

• Banking

• Life insurance

• Property and casualty insurance

• Manufacturing

• Textiles

• Grain exporting

• Wholesale and retail operations

• Nonprofit and membership organizations

• State and local governments

• Publicly traded companies

 

His assignments included financial-statement auditing, accounting research, tax work, GAAP conversion and evaluation of computerized accounting systems.

​

That public-accounting foundation continues to influence John’s approach: understand the business, identify the risks, examine the evidence and determine whether the controls actually support the organization’s objectives.

​

Enterprise Financial-Software Leadership

 

Long before enterprise resource planning became a common business term, John was helping organizations implement large, integrated financial applications.

Insurance Systems of America (ISA)

John joined Insurance Systems of America in 1976 as an accounting and financial-systems specialist. His work involved the company’s Accounting, Budgeting and Cost Allocation applications for insurance organizations.

 

During his tenure, John:

• Helped establish and manage an implementation consulting organization

• Helped grow the consulting team from approximately five people to 94 professionals

• Managed technical sales activities

• Sold software and implementation projects to more than 150 organizations

• Developed a structured four-phase implementation methodology

• Directed significant financial-application enhancements

• Improved software documentation and customer education

• Supported insurance accounting and regulatory-reporting requirements

• Advised insurance organizations on financial systems and internal controls

 

This work required a combination of accounting knowledge, insurance-industry experience, technology expertise and the ability to translate business requirements into functioning software.

Walker Interactive Products

From 1982 through 1985, John held management positions with Walker Interactive Products, a pioneering provider of enterprise financial software for large IBM mainframe environments.

 

His responsibilities included:

• Managing implementation assistance

• Directing customer education and field support

• Managing technical sales and client-account functions

• Developing financial-application implementation methodologies

• Consulting with major Walker customers

• Performing accounting reviews and application testing

• Developing sales training and product demonstrations

• Teaching customers how to use Walker applications

• Advising software-development teams on accounting and control requirements

 

His functional work covered general ledger, budgeting, cost allocation, financial reporting, procurement, accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets, account reconciliation and governmental commitment accounting.

This experience gave John an unusual combination of audit, accounting, software-development, implementation and customer-support expertise.

Leadership of Major Financial-System Projects

John has managed or advised complex financial-system projects for major corporations, universities, insurance organizations and government agencies.

 

His project experience includes work involving:

• American Express

• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

• CIA

• Resolution Trust Corporation

• Small Business Administration

• Amtrak

• United Airlines

• AlliedSignal

• Amoco

• Guardian Life Insurance

• General American Insurance

• American General Insurance

• Sentry Insurance

• Laclede Gas

• Wayne State University

• Major utilities, universities and federal agencies

 

One of John’s largest assignments involved the Financial Information Management System used to combine Resolution Trust Corporation operations with the FDIC.

 

The project included hundreds of FDIC personnel and a rapidly expanding consulting team. More than 250 million accounting records were converted to a consolidated chart of accounts. Initial production operations began on schedule, and the project was completed within its established budget.

 

John also advised American Express Travel Related Services on a worldwide financial and management-reporting implementation. The system processed transactions involving approximately 130 currencies and supported reporting from local offices through regional and consolidated operations.

Internal Controls and Sarbanes-Oxley Experience

John has provided internal-control, audit and Sarbanes-Oxley assistance to more than 20 major corporations in the first three years of SOX compliance.

 

His work has included:

• Entity-level control assessments

• Process and control documentation

• Control-design evaluation

• Operating-effectiveness testing

• Information-technology general-control reviews

• COBIT-based technology-control documentation

• Risk and control matrices

• Management review of testing documentation

• Remediation planning

• Internal-audit advisory services

• Audit Committee education

• Fraud-risk evaluation

 

John has provided or subcontracted expertise through organizations including Accenture, CACI, Grant Thornton, IBM, KPMG, Lockheed Martin and other major consulting and systems-integration firms.

Audit Committee and Governance Experience

In August 2023, the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board appointed John to its Audit Committee.

 

His Audit Committee work draws upon his experience in:

• Financial reporting

• Public-sector accounting

• Internal and external auditing

• Internal controls

• Information technology

• Cybersecurity

• Fraud risk

• Enterprise risk management

• Auditor independence

• Audit Committee charters

• Management accountability

• Organizational governance

 

John approaches Audit Committee service from the perspective that management owns the organization’s objectives, risks and controls, while the Audit Committee must provide informed, independent and appropriately skeptical oversight.

Industries Served

John has worked with organizations across a wide range of industries and sectors:

• Banking and financial services

• Life insurance

• Property and casualty insurance

• Government

• Public education

• Higher education

• Utilities

• Manufacturing

• Healthcare

• Continuing-care retirement communities

• Retail and distribution

• Transportation

• Telecommunications

• Nonprofit organizations

• Professional services

• Software and technology

He has completed assignments in 48 states and several foreign countries.

A Practical Teaching Philosophy

John’s instruction connects professional standards with the realities auditors face in the field.

 

Participants are challenged to move beyond checklists and ask more important questions:

• What objective is this process supposed to accomplish?

• What could prevent that objective from being achieved?

• Has management designed controls that address those risks?

• Are the controls actually operating?

• What evidence supports the auditor’s conclusion?

• Does management understand the problem?

• What corrective action will address the cause rather than merely the symptom?

 

Professional colleagues and clients describe John as analytical, hardworking, ethical and highly attentive to detail.

 

They also recognize his ability to break complicated problems into manageable components and develop practical solutions.

 

A longtime insurance-industry client described John as possessing the uncommon ability to balance real-world practicality with theoretical requirements. That balance is central to every CCS program John develops or presents.

Education and Professional Background

John earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of South Carolina in 1973.

 

His professional and community background includes:

• Certified Public Accountant—Retired Practitioner

• Institute of Internal Auditors

• ISACA

• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

• IASA

• Service on the Dean’s Advisory Committee of the Darla Moore School of Business

• Member of Delta Sigma Pi

• Member of Beta Alpha Psi

• Eagle Scout

• Former volunteer leader with the Boy Scouts of America

• Presenter and panelist for professional accounting, auditing and insurance organizations

Learn From Experience—not Just a Textbook

John Blackshire’s CPE programs are designed for professionals who want more than a summary of auditing standards.

 

Participants benefit from lessons developed through decades of actual experience with audits, enterprise systems, internal-control failures, major implementations, regulatory requirements, difficult projects and organizational change.

 

Explore John Blackshire’s upcoming webinars, in-person seminars and customized training programs below.