STELLA MARIE B. SANTOS, CPA
EXCELLENCE IN FINANCE/ACCOUNTING
Nominator: Maria Fides Balita, 2014 HOF Awardee
of Excellence in Finance/Accounting,
Stella Marie B. Santos is the Managing Director and Founding Member of Adelfia LLC. Adelfia LLC is public accounting firm proud to be owned by Filipino women. Adelfia LLC provides assurance, advisory, accounting, tax, information technology review/audit services. Under Stella’s leadership, the firm has grown from 3 founders to a 5 partner firm with 24 full time employees in just 4 years.
Stella is a Certified Public Accountant. She started her career at SyCip, Gorres, Velayo & Co. (Manila, Philippines) (member firm of Ernst & Young) as a staff auditor and progressed as an audit executive. After SGV, she served as an assistant to the Vice President- Finance for Norgate Apparel Manufacturing, Inc. She also worked at E. C. Ortiz & Co., LLP since October 1993, and became a Partner in January 2003. She has over 25 years of experience in serving tax and audit clients in the fields of financial, compliance and operational audits, management and financial accounting.
Stella graduated Cum Laude from the University of the Philippines with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Accountancy. She is a Certified Public Accountant both in the Philippines and in Illinois, USA. She ranked 12th place in the Philippine CPA examination. She is a licensed CPA in Illinois and Indiana.
Stella’s professional affiliations include being a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Illinois CPA Society, Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) – Special Review Committee, and the Philippine CPAs of Greater Chicago. She is a peer reviewer under the AICPA Peer Review Program, a Sub-Committee Chair and member of the Peer Review Executive Committee of the Illinois CPA Society Peer Review Committee. Stella also served as the Vice-President External Affairs of the International Society of Filipinos in Finance and Accounting (ISFFA) Chicago Chapter.
Her contributions to the finance and accounting profession are highly recognized with these two awards:
- 2014 Circle of Empowered Women by the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) Illinois Chapter, and
- 2014 National Council of Philippine American Canadian Accountants (NCPACA) Councilors – Lifetime Achievement Award.