Russell Safirstein CPA

Russell Safirstein has over 25 years experience in the Risk, Audit and Technology disciplines. As a Senior Executive with a diversified financial background, Mr. Safirstein has been both an entrepreneur and Chief Audit Executive for a number of multi-billion dollar diversified organizations within the insurance, banking and capital markets industries. He is a highly regarded and sought after speaker on leading audit and risk practices and mentors several prominent Chief Audit Executives throughout the industry. Mr. Safirstein joined Prager Metis Technology in 2017, adding his audit, risk and analytics expertise to their significant cyber-security capabilities, The parent firm, Prager Metis, is a nearly 100 year old Top 50 accounting firm with offices located in New York, Connecticut, California, Florida, the UK and India. Prior to joining PMT, Mr. Safirstein co-founded Paracon Group, and led the firm’s advanced analytic delivery platform and the remainder of its risk advisory services. He was the General Auditor for Liquidnet, the #1 institutional equities marketplace. As General Auditor, he created a robust and innovative Internal Audit function and partnered with the Chief Risk Officer, to develop an integrated and converged Enterprise Risk Model that delivered results and savings to the Audit Committee, management and internal audit. As the Deputy General Auditor for MetLife, he was able to collaboratively transform the internal audit organization through some innovative solutions. Prior to MetLife, Mr. Safirstein was Senior Vice President & Chief Auditor for Roslyn Savings Bank, a large regional savings bank in the New York metropolitan area, for nearly ten years. As a member of the Bank’s Executive Leadership group, he gained valuable experience in consumer and commercial banking, finance, mergers & acquisitions, IPOs, regulatory compliance and other financial service areas. At the time of his promotion he was the youngest Chief Auditor in NYS. Mr. Safirstein started his career with KPMG (Peat Marwick) in their Financial Institution practice after graduating from Adelphi University with BBA in Accounting.