About CSM Empowering Education Through Technology
Executive Team
Gary Cichella-President
Gary served as managing partner of an auditing and consulting firm for 17 years. The firm grew from a small local firm to one of the top 70 CPA firms in the United States. Through Gary’s leadership CSM has quickly emerged as a leader in school district consulting. Over the past few years CSM has continued to expand and diversify the services being offered to districts to include a variety of technology related services to a nationwide market.
David Cichella-Vice President
David began his career working with school districts in 1992 when he founded a consulting firm based in Southern California. David joined a regional CPA firm in 1997 where he performed over one hundred school district, city and special district audits. David joined the CSM team in 2001 and the company quickly became a leader in educational technology consulting. Currently, he serves as Division Chief of the firms financial services division including the firms very successful software development specialty.
Brian Cichella - Vice President
Brian Cichella has 20 years of experience working with Local Education Agencies in an array of areas. His expertise and leadership as Division Chief of CSM’s Health Services Division has resulted in the firms success and dominance in the area of Medicaid Reimbursement. Brian currently serves on the Board of Directors for (California School Boards Association’s) Practi-Cal, Inc. a leading firm provider of Medicaid services. Brian earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from California State University, San Bernardino. His background includes audit experience of state/federal compliance in Local Educational Agencies and Local Governmental Agencies. He also has extensive experience in the area of Associated Student Body Accounting and is part of the team of experts for the firms ASB 360 software program.
Kim Friends - Vice President
Kim Friends is a nationally recognized expert in the Universal Service Administrative Company’s (USAC) E-rate program. Since the program’s inception almost 12 years ago, Ms. Friends has been involved in every aspect of the program including applicant, trainer and consultant. Currently, Kim serves as the firms Division Chief, responsible for E-Rate filings to in excess of 200 School District’s nationwide. Kim is a statewide trainer to School Districts on behalf of the California Department of Education. She has participated as a USAC committee member for development of online processes for applicants nationwide. Kim has served as an expert witness for litigation processes regarding E-Rate. She has extensive experience in managing client response and interactions with KPMG and USAC audits.
-
Latest News
Our firm will be attending the LEANET conference in Washington D.C. If you can't attend, let us know if we can get any information for your district.
SLD Workshop next week in Los Angeles. Contact us for specifics.
-
Testimonials
“I can't do this without them...CSM is almost indispensable”
- Riverside COE"Thanks to your work, you guys have really made a difference for me and Apple Valley Unified."
- David Hall, Apple Valley Unified