Beers with Brent No. 3: Does CAS make sense (featuring Nicole Owren-Wiest)

Fed Talks is a series of audio episodes featuring current issues in government contracting, offering thoughtful, bite-sized insights with rotating guests from inside and outside Baker Tilly.

On the third installment of our Fed Talks miniseries edition: Beers with Brent, we discuss the Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) with special guest Nicole Owren-Wiest, a partner at Crowell & Moring LLP. Questions addressed include:

• What was the background and theory behind CAS?
• Does CAS successfully establish the original mission of the CAS Board?
• What can contractors do to ensure success when they make cost accounting practice changes?

This week’s beers: None of This Makes Sense IPA and But Does It Make Sense IPA

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Meet this episode’s guest speaker:

Nicole Owren-Wiest, Partner at Crowell & Moring LLP

Nicole advises contractors of all sizes across numerous industry segments, including many of the top defense government contractors. Nicole has extensive experience helping companies navigate the government's complex cost and pricing rules—including the FAR Part 31 cost principles, the Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), commercial item and pricing rules, and Truthful Cost or Pricing Data (f/k/a TINA) requirements—and assisting clients to mitigate compliance risk by working with them to develop strategies, policies, procedures, systems, and internal controls to comply with these special rules.

About the producer

Andrew Graziano, Senior Consultant

Andrew has been with Baker Tilly for over 2 years and has spent that time working with government contractors on a wide variety of compliance matters.  In particular, Andrew has experience with incurred cost proposals, indirect rate modeling, price proposal preparation, cost impact analysis, and commercial sales practice disclosures. In his spare time, he produces and edits this Fed Talks podcast.

Next episode: An update on commercial item determinations

Music Credit
Artist: Chael
Song: Sparks