Leonard V. Assante

* Leonard V. Assante, 52, currently controller of the AEP Service Corp., will become vice president, controller and chief accounting officer of the AEP Service Corp.
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Assante joined AEP in 1971 as administrative assistant to the treasurer.Since then, he has held various positions at AEP, including senior tax accountant, supervisor of tax accounting and manager of tax.He was promoted to director - taxes in 1980 and director - treasury staff in 1983.Appointed controller in 1990, Assante is responsible for accounting, financial reporting, and accounting software and technology.

Assante graduated magna cum laude in 1967 from Pace University with a bachelor's degree in business administration in accountancy practice.In 1977, he completed the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business AEP Management Training Program, and the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business National Tax Education Program in 1978.He has been a certified public accountant in the state of New York since 1970.

AEP's Vice President-Controller and Chief Accounting Officer, Leonard V. Assante, leads the five-year plan to streamline accounting operations, including consolidation and improvement of its accounts payable (AP) application.A team was assembled for AEP's Accounting Improvement Mission (AIM) to research theoptions to improve accounting operations.AEP's goal was to increase productivity and reduce costs, while solving a Y2K compliance issue on their legacy AP system.AEP enlisted Crowe Chizek to help on this project because of Crowe Chizek's work with AEP on other initiatives.Together, they identified the need for a flexible application to meet changing requirements with easier and more timely access to information using FileNET®'s content management technology.Crowe Chizek provided services to design, construct, test and implement the solution in approximately nine months.