Dbriefs U: Meet the Presenters

Learn more about a host or presenter by selecting their name below.

Select one... Rita Benassi Rick Bodnum Bob Brazzil Brad Brookner Jim Calzaretta Vickie Carr Patty Cornell Bill Dexter Scott Dinwiddie Pam Downs Elizabeth Drigotas Mark Garay Frank Garcia Gary Hecimovich Bob Kilinskis Jeff Kummer Amy Magenheim Kate Mantzke Bart Massey Kathleen McEligot Joan Millett Laura Mills Boake Munsch Dave O'Brien Nanci S. Palmintere Jim Schlesser Bryan Slone Randall Sogoloff Ron Sonenthal Jacien Steele Clint Stretch Joanna Theis Wolfe Tone Neil Traubenberg Tim Tuerff Jim Watts

Rita Benassi
Partner and National Leader – Income Tax Accounting & Auditing, Deloitte Tax LLP

Rita Benassi is a partner in Deloitte Tax LLP and is the National Leader - Income Tax Accounting and Auditing. She has 24 years of experience serving some of the firm's largest multinational clients. Rita is a frequent speaker on income tax accounting and reporting matters and is regularly consulted regarding the income tax effects of operations and transactions on the financial statements of multinational companies. She also is involved in the development and delivery of internal and external FAS 109 training and serves as the moderator for Deloitte's Dbriefs webcast series on FAS 109.

Rita followed in her father's footsteps when she chose to pursue a career in tax. In addition to that, she found tax the most interesting path — she liked the rules, ability to help clients save taxes, and linkage to the financial statements. What she has found most fulfilling is the ability to impact quality. Understanding not only the tax implications of a transaction, but the financial statement consequences too. Rita says it was Deloitte's culture that drew her to the organization — she finds it professional, yet collegial.

Rita enjoys travel and says her job allows her to do quite a bit of that, from client service throughout her career to speaking about tax accounting in numerous forums globally. Rita is a graduate of the University of Minnesota where she received a bachelor's in accounting and a master's in taxation.

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Rick Bodnum
Lead Tax Services Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Rick Bodnum is a lead tax services partner based in Chicago. He currently serves as the Midwest Competency leader for FAS 109 - Accounting for Income Taxes - and delivers tax services primarily to Fortune 500 companies. Rick joined Deloitte in 1999 as a senior manager.

Rick says that the daily interaction with clients and colleagues, and the flexibility the job affords, are the most fulfilling aspects of his chosen career. He truly lives the work hard, play hard, spend as much time with my family philosophy. His closest friends include many of his clients and colleagues, and the nature of his schedule allows him to coach his children's after school sports teams.

When he selected a career path Rick chose tax over audit, but ironically the majority of his time over the last several years has been spent on issues related to the audit of income taxes. The lesson learned, he says, is to be open and flexible as your career in public accounting will be filled with many twists and turns and most will end up being not only great experiences, but very good for your career.

Rick completed his undergraduate work in accounting at the University of Miami (FL) and received a master's degree in tax from the University of Illinois (Champaign). The most valuable education that he received though, is from his mentors and partners that he worked for as a staff member and manager.

Rick's hobbies and interests revolve around sports. He enjoys coaching his kids' sports and golfing (if you can call it that as he very seldom plays all 18 holes). The most amazing part of his golf game is that he can shoot a 120 on a prairie followed the next day by an 89 on Whistling Straits.

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Bob Brazzil
Director, Deloitte Tax LLP

Bob Brazzil is a firm director with the Washington National Tax office of Deloitte Tax LLP specializing in federal tax controversy services. He has over 35 years of experience with the Internal Revenue Service where he held a number of senior executive positions.

Bob was hired by the IRS when he was 19 and a college sophomore as part of a "whiz kid" program which eventually led to a formal coop program designed to attract promising future accountants to government jobs. He was given an abbreviated tax course normally provided to new revenue agents, building pass, and a letter of introduction from the District Director, and was sent out to do field audits of small schedule C businesses, mostly ma/pa shops. By the time he graduated from college, he had 2 1/2 years of experience as a revenue agent. Since he was underage, he remembers having to use the rear entrance to audit taverns. 36 years later, Bob retired from a senior IRS national executive position, young enough to join Deloitte for his second career. Bob says, "While at the IRS I experienced it all, from underworld figures, dope dealers, and crooked politicians to fortune 500 companies and abusive tax shelters."

Bob's extensive experience at the IRS includes work in the IRS Examination Division, serving as Regional Program Manager for Large Case Examination as well as Coordinated Examination Program Examination Branch Chief in Chicago. As a director of the large and mid-sized businesses division (LMSB) at the IRS, Bob oversaw pre-filing, filing and post-filing program activities in the retail, food, pharmaceutical and health care businesses.

He was also deeply involved in the IRS modernization effort, the design and implementation of LMSB technical issue resolution processes, and the development of the IRS procedures and enforcement policies related to tax shelters.

Bob has an MBA from St. Louis University and a BS from the University of Missouri.

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Brad Brookner
Director, Deloitte Tax LLP

Brad Brookner is a director in the Multistate Income and Franchise practice at Deloitte Tax LLP in the Houston office.

Brad is a certified public accountant and has had significant involvement in multistate income, franchise, and employment taxes. He is the lead multistate professional on many full service clients and specializes in the Texas franchise tax. He has been very involved in analyzing the new Texas margin tax statutes and their effect on taxpayers as well as spoken at numerous seminars around the country on the topic. Brad has been very involved in developing and leading tax training courses and is traveling to India to lead state tax training.

He assists clients with state tax compliance, planning, restructuring, audit support, and acquisition due diligence. In addition, he has represented clients and served as an expert witness at various levels of state tax protests. Brad has a diverse group of clients including manufacturing, oil and gas, banking, mortgage banking, services, transportation, real estate, retail, construction, as well as many others.

He has specialized in multistate taxation since 1990 after receiving a master's degree in professional accounting, specializing in tax, and a bachelor's degree in business administration from The University of Texas at Austin.

In his free time Brad enjoys golf, snow skiing, windsurfing, and tinkering with his reef aquarium.

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Jim Calzaretta
Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Jim Calzaretta has recently become a partner in the Washington National Tax practice, specializing in partnerships and S corporations (Passthroughs). He is the head of the S corporation practice as well. Jim formerly was a partner in the Chicago office specializing in Passthrough and private companies. In addition, he is the national competency leader for Passthroughs and part of Midwest tax leadership as the Tax Diversity Leader. He is also a chairperson of an AICPA taskforce on trust accounting income with responsibility for developing a practitioner's guide on this topic.

While completing his undergraduate degree in finance at the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign, Jim took the intermediate accounting course as an elective. Accounting students often change majors after taking this course, but Jim liked it so much he dropped finance and began the accounting major! Next he took a course in auditing followed by individual taxes in which he earned an A. Since he hadn't understood anything he learned in auditing, Jim chose to pursue a career in tax. Fortunately, there were only two choices for him then - tax and audit - and he feels he made the right choice. Later, Jim completed a masters of science in taxation from DePaul University.

In addition to becoming a partner, Jim finds the most fulfilling aspect of his career thus far to be the opportunity to collaborate with so many smart and incredible people. He has met some of his very best friends at Deloitte.

When he's not on the job, Jim enjoys wasting money to play golf at some of the best courses throughout the country while never breaking 100. One of his fondest memories from college is when he and his dormmates used a Mr. Turtle pool to throw an indoor pool party during their freshman year.

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Vickie Carr
Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Vickie is a partner in Deloitte's National FAS 109 competency group focusing on clients, innovation and external training. She is based in our Memphis office and serves as the lead tax partner on large multinational corporations headquartered in the Southeast. She is also a regional specialist in accounting for income taxes. In this role, she presents to various audiences across the Southeast, including external and internal groups.

Vickie began her career as a tax intern in the Oklahoma practice and started full-time after completing her undergraduate work. Vickie primarily selected tax as a more appealing alternative to audit. However, after obtaining her CPA she realized the value of having audit experience and the importance of an advanced tax degree to a tax profession. She obtained her master's in tax from the University of Tulsa while working full-time and sought opportunities to work in audit. She soon realized she wanted to pursue a long-term career in tax.

Early in Vickie's career the most challenging and rewarding engagements were those involving the financial aspect of income taxes. In 1992, she worked on a longer term engagement implementing FAS109 on a large multinational company. She consistently focused on all aspects of tax - compliance, consulting, planning, restructuring and tax controversy work. Though throughout her career, she has found ways to stay involved in tax accounting. Over the last 4-5 years, her expertise in tax accounting has become very valuable as companies have worked through ensuring internal controls and technical aspects of FAS109 are met.

Vickie holds a bachelor's degree in business administration, with a major in accounting, from Oklahoma State University. She has many fond memories from Oklahoma State and always remembers the reason she was there - to obtain her degree and pursue a career in accounting. She and her husband (also an OSU graduate) enjoy the many sports activities of their daughter and son which includes almost every sport - basketball, soccer, football, baseball and volleyball. Her family also enjoys OSU games (football and basketball), the beach, and amusement parks - particularly roller coasters!

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Patty Cornell
Senior Manager, Deloitte Tax LLP

Patty Cornell is a senior manger in the lead tax services practice in Detroit. Patty joined Deloitte in January 1997 after completing her accounting degree from Walsh College. While in college, Patty decided that she wanted to work for Deloitte after some of her professors had told her about the great opportunities that Deloitte offered.

For the first few years at Deloitte, Patty worked on many different types of clients - corporate, partnerships, s-corporations and corporate executives. Currently, she specializes in closely-held corporations and partnerships, and is the leader of the Detroit Passthrough Competency Group. She is also very involved in other firm initiatives, serving on committees for WIN and Impact Day. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Matrix Human Services, which is a non-profit organization serving low-income individuals in Detroit.

Patty made the decision to go into tax after completing her two tax classes in college. She found that tax law was much more interesting than the audit classes she had taken. Prior to finishing her accounting degree, she had worked at various lawfirms where she was involved in client service and really enjoyed being able to help clients solve their issues.

The one thing that Patty finds most rewarding in her career is the ability to develop strong relationships with her clients. She works for many clients which are family owned businesses, where not only was she involved in their business tax planning, but also was very involved in the individual family members' tax planning.

Patty holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Walsh College. She recently completed her master's degree in Taxation, also from Walsh College, in June of 2007. She is a certified public accountant licensed in the State of Michigan. She is the mother of two children, who are now both in college. In her spare time, she enjoys golf, gardening, traveling to new places, and walking her two dogs.

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Bill Dexter
Director, Deloitte Tax LLP

Bill Dexter is a director in Deloitte Tax LLP’s private client advisors practice in Chicago. His career in public accounting has been focused on serving ultra-wealthy individuals, family groups, family offices, and closely-held business owners on tax and financial matters.

Bill is recognized in the Chicago office and throughout the firm as a leader in tax compliance for private clients. He currently serves as the Midwest region’s competency leader for Deloitte’s individual income tax competency group. He frequently instructs local office training and at national training conferences. He has also taught as an adjunct professor in the master of science in taxation program at DePaul University.

After graduating from DePaul in 1978, Bill worked for a number of local firms including his own along with two partners. He joined Andersen in 1994 and upon its demise in 2002, he moved to Deloitte along with most of the Andersen Chicago tax practice. The most important factor in his move to Deloitte was being able to stay with the people he enjoyed working with.

When he entered college he initially majored in chemistry. However, he found he was not crazy about lab work since there was little social interaction. After taking an accounting course he found it easy and switched his major to accounting. While in college he also prepared tax returns for family, friends and coworkers. He found he greatly enjoyed tax work and helping others prepare their tax returns. He sat for and passed the CPA exam in his senior year and then entered public accounting. After two years, he decided to focus in taxation and went back to school for a master's degree in taxation.

Bill actually finds two very fulfilling aspects to his career. The first is being able to help clients and become their trusted business advisor. He works with a number of wealthy and ultra wealthy clients where he not only provides tax compliance but also provides tax planning. The second is working with staff, seniors and managers where he especially enjoys teaching them about technical tax concepts. He finds it very rewarding to be able help them learn many of the tax concepts that he has learned over the years. This also benefits him because as he likes to quote: If you want to learn something, teach it.

Bill's primary focus outside of work is seeing his four children complete college. In his remaining spare time he likes to do major home remodeling/improvement projects. He also likes riding and working on his recently purchased Harley-Davidson Dyna Low Rider. Bill received a bachelor's degree in accounting from DePaul University and he earned a master's degree in taxation from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University.

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Scott Dinwiddie
Principal, Deloitte Tax LLP

Scott Dinwiddie is a principal in Deloitte's Washington National Tax office and leader of Tax Xchange, a program which positions Deloitte Tax professionals to effectively share, utilize, and develop quality information in order to better serve clients.

Scott came to Deloitte directly out of law school in 1995. He was the Deloitte research fellow, which offered him an interview with Deloitte & Touche, and he joined Deloitte Tax for two reasons: (1) because it offered the opportunity to focus on tax full time and (2) because it was a large organization with offices all around the United States and the world, which would presumably make it easy to change locations. This second feature provided its value immediately, as Scott never started in the market in which he was hired, Seattle, but instead followed the significant other in his life (now his wife) to New York and later to Washington, DC.

In law school, Scott found his tax courses to be some the most enjoyable courses he took. He enjoyed working the problem sets and enjoyed a field that combined the gray areas of the law with the precision and absolutes of mathematics. Feeling like he had only scratched the surface after six tax courses in law school, Scott looked for a professional opportunity where he could focus on tax full time, and found it with Deloitte.

He has found this career rewarding as it affords him the opportunity to develop well-rounded skills, including tax technical, business, management, and leadership and make a good living doing so.

One of Scott's favorite memories of college is windsurfing off the coast of Rhode Island and looking back at the beautiful sand beaches with distinct New England style shingle cottage architecture.

Scott's current hobbies include cycling - as a means of commuting to work, on weekends with his wife, and as captain of the Deloitte Greater-Washington MS Cycling Team. He also enjoys travel photography.

Scott holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Brown University, a Juris Doctor from the University of Washington School of Law, and a Master of Laws in Taxation from New York University.

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Pam Downs
Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Pam Downs is the Mid-America Regional (MAR) Service Line Leader for Deloitte Tax's Multistate Tax Services (MTS) Practice. Pam is responsible for the strategic management and operational execution of the Practice throughout the seven state MAR geography. She oversees the development of the 135 member practice that specializes in various multistate specialties, including income/franchise, excise and sales/use tax service lines. Pam is the MAR Tax WIN Leader and also serves on the Deloitte Tax Partner/Principal/Director Due Diligence Committee.

Pam continues to serve a diverse group of clients in the consumer markets, manufacturing, oil and gas, and services industries assisting in M&A, compliance, and a variety of tax consulting areas. She has extensive state and local tax corporate experience, and works with clients in all areas of multistate taxes, specializing in corporate income/franchise taxes.

Pam is a frequent speaker at internal and external conferences on multistate tax topics such as Texas Tax legislation, trends in state taxation and FIN 48/FAS 109 issues. In addition, she was recognized, along with seven other Deloitte Tax LLP Partners, in 2007 by the International Tax Review in its World Tax 2007 publication.

Pam is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Texas and a member of the AICPA and Texas Society of CPA's. Raised in Texas, Pam is a graduate of Texas A&M Commerce, with a BBA in accounting. She currently resides in Dallas, Texas where she is Past President and Board Member of the Association of Retarded Citizens of Dallas.

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Elizabeth Drigotas
Washington National Tax Principal, Deloitte Tax LLP

Elizabeth Drigotas is a principal in the Washington National Tax group, focusing on compensation. Her responsibilities include helping employers understand the tax consequences of compensation and benefits plans, and working on compensation issues related to business transactions.

Elizabeth's career in tax began somewhat by accident. After law school she planned to do litigation work in the health administration field, but soon realized she would prefer being part of the planning process instead of handling things when they haven't gone as planned. She was introduced to aspects of tax when she moved into employee compensation. Later, Elizabeth worked for the U.S. Treasury Department on compensation and benefits related regulation projects before joining Deloitte in 2003.

Elizabeth enjoys helping employers design compensation plans that meet their goals and deliver on expectations. Problem solving and creativity are needed to solve some of the complicated problems that come up in this area, making her work challenging and fulfilling.

Elizabeth holds a bachelor's degree in history from Bowdoin College in Maine, and a Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has two daughters, a fourth grader and a sixth grader. Outside of work, Elizabeth likes to spend time with her family and her dogs Zeke and Zeniba.

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Mark Garay
Chief of Staff, Merger and Acquisition Services, Deloitte Tax LLP

Mark Garay is Chief of Staff, Merger and Acquisition Services, Deloitte Tax LLP. In this role, Mark is responsible for, among other things, keeping the CEO of Deloitte Tax updated on the latest regulatory and legislative developments impacting the U.S. Mergers and Acquisitions Services practice, for which the CEO is also responsible. Before moving to his current role, Mark was the director of tax policy, responsible for keeping the firm's clients and his colleagues up to speed on current legislative and regulatory tax developments in Washington.

Just out of law school in 1991 and new to Washington, D.C., Mark got a job as a legislative assistant to U.S. Congresswoman, Nancy Pelosi, who is now Speaker of the House. It was interesting work and he learned a lot, but knowledge doesn't necessarily pay the mortgage. So a business contact, and a desire to pay his bills, brought him to Deloitte.

In college, Mark would have never imagined himself working for a large accounting firm, much less entering the tax profession. But while working in both the public and private sectors he began to appreciate the vital and exciting (yes, exciting) role that tax plays in both policy making and business planning. Sharing knowledge with his clients about what is really happening in Washington on tax issues is undoubtedly the most fulfilling aspect of Mark's career. Also, occasionally he is interviewed for network television which provides an ego boost and proves they'll let anybody appear on TV.

Mark received his law degree from the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor of science in communications and a bachelor of arts in liberal arts, both with honors. For fun, Mark writes fiction and hopes to one day become a published novelist. Now all he has to do is finish the novel.

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Frank Garcia
Senior Manager, Deloitte Tax LLP

Frank Garcia is senior manager with Deloitte's Chicago tax practice, serving privately held companies and their owners. He is a CPA and has been working in public accounting for 10 years. Frank specializes in taxation of flow through entities and their owners, and trusts and estate tax matters. He came to Deloitte in 2002 via Arthur Andersen, where he started his career in public accounting.

Frank says he enjoys tax as it affords him the opportunity to work with dynamic, diverse professionals and to mentor and coach younger persons on a daily basis. Also, he finds the opportunity to serve so many different clients with complicated tax planning and transaction issues very rewarding. Recently, Frank traveled to India to work in Deloitte's Hyderabad, India office and this was a wonderful opportunity to get to know the tax professionals in India and experience the Indian culture.

Frank holds a B.A. in accounting and minor in business administration from Dominican University. He is currently completing his last course in the Masters in Taxation Graduate Program at Golden Gate University. While at Dominican, Frank played on the varsity basketball team—an experience that significantly influenced his tax professional career. The ability to team with others—and recognize differences and strengths in others—are skills he learned as a member of the team, and he now uses these same skills every day at Deloitte.

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Gary Hecimovich
Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Gary Hecimovich is a partner in the Washington National Tax Office of Deloitte. He is a member of Deloitte's Accounting Methods and Periods Group and has over 13 years of public accounting experience specializing in tax accounting and federal income tax credits. In this role, Gary and his team provide due diligence, structuring and transactional consulting with respect to a wide array of Federal Tax Credits and incentives.

Gary is a frequent public speaker and published author on federal tax matters. His articles have appeared in Tax Notes and The Tax Adviser, two of Deloitte's popular monthly publications, and he is a frequent public speaker on these topics to industry trade groups.

He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BS in business administration and a Masters of Accountancy specializing in taxation. He is a member of the AICPA and Greater Washington Society of CPAs.

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Bob Kilinskis
Managing Partner, Federal Tax Accounting, Deloitte Tax LLP

Bob Kilinskis is the managing partner of the Federal Tax Accounting (Periods & Methods) Team in the Washington DC office of Deloitte Tax LLP. His responsibilities include, in addition to managing the team, overseeing quality control of the federal tax accounting practice of Deloitte and promoting the growth of the practice and the provision of federal tax accounting services to Deloitte clients.

Bob first joined Deloitte in 2002 along with a number of other partners from Arthur Andersen after that firm collapsed in the wake of the Enron scandal. Bob had been with Arthur Andersen since 1984. From 1992 to 1995, Bob was the Accountant-Advisor in the Office of Tax Legislative Counsel, Office of Tax Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury. While at Treasury, he worked on a number of regulatory and legislative items including President Clinton's first tax act in 1993 and Hillary Clinton's failed universal healthcare proposal.

Like many, Bob entered the accounting profession for the promise of an intellectually challenging, well paying, secure job. He turned to the tax profession as he saw an opportunity to use his creativity and be more entrepreneurial. Bob could not be happier with his career choice. He enjoys working within a team construct necessary to solve some of the most complex federal tax accounting issues for clients. Although taxation is challenging, the fun part of the job comes from working with all the different personalities within Deloitte.

A licensed CPA in both Illinois and Washington D.C., Bob received an undergraduate accounting degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Master of Science in Taxation degree from DePaul University.

On weekends in the summer, Bob spends most of his time at his lake house in Michigan. Mostly he drives his boats for others who wakeboard, tube, ski, fish or just cruise along. On land, Bob is willing to take on anyone in a friendly game of bags.

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Jeff Kummer
Director of Tax Policy, Deloitte Tax LLP

Jeff Kummer is the Director of Tax Policy in the Washington National Tax Office of Deloitte Tax LLP. Jeff oversees the content development of Tax News & Views and other Deloitte Tax publications, serves as a Washington resource for the firm's Technology, Media & Telecommunications and Consumer Business practices and is a frequent speaker and writer on tax policy developments. He has over 18 years of experience in the tax policy arena, joining Deloitte in 2000 after spending nine years at another accounting firm.

Moving to Washington, D.C., right after college, Jeff began his career working as a legislative assistant on tax and budget issues for former U.S. Senator and Senate Finance Committee member Steve Symms, R-Idaho. After interviewing at the Agriculture Department, the CIA, the Bethesda Navel Hospital and a men's clothing store, he received an opportunity to interview in Senator Symms' office. The Senator had two positions open - an entry level legislative correspondent position and a job operating the elevators in the Capitol Building. Perseverance, tenacity, and the fact that he shared the Senator's alma mater gave Jeff his first experience in the congressional legislative process.

While on the Hill, Jeff was responsible for international trade as well as tax issues. Later, he decided to join the private sector (he was broke...), and interviewed at an accounting firm for a tax policy position and a law firm for an international trade policy position. He vowed to follow the career path of whichever firm hired him. In his current position at Deloitte, Jeff enjoys the opportunity to meet with clients and help them understand how the tax policy process in Washington really works.

Jeff received an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and graduated with a bachelor of science in political science from the University of Idaho. He is an avid outdoor photographer who can be found at least once a year wandering around Glacier National Park (if you see him, please point him toward the nearest trail). His two and a half old triplets keep him busy the rest of the year.

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Christine Lussier
Senior Tax Manager, Deloitte Tax LLP

Christine Lussier is a senior tax manager in the private client advisors group of Deloitte Tax LLP. She has worked in public accounting for over 15 years. During her career, Christine served as a senior tax accountant at a life insurance company, served individual and small business tax clients at a local accounting firm and served as the chief financial officer of an emerging software company. At Deloitte, Christine focuses on individual income tax compliance and planning for high net worth individuals, executives and wealthy families. In addition, she is serving as Deloitte's national competency manager for individual income tax. In this role, she is responsible for managing knowledge content, sharing communication and best practices, and developing and identifying tools, practice aids and training curriculum for the individual income tax practice.

Christine's road to tax began with her first audit job at Price Waterhouse where, after completing a 6 week rotation in the tax department, she transferred to tax because she found more technically challenging and interesting. Collaborating with intelligent, creative and hard-working professionals who are at the top of their profession is what Christine finds most fulfilling about her career. She also enjoys serving as a trust advisor to individual clients and mentoring and developing young people.

Christine practices yoga, enjoys dance and theater, and volunteers in economically distressed urban communities. She currently serves as treasurer on the board of Chester's Community Grocery Coop whose mission is to bring fresh, nutritious food at affordable prices to an urban community which has not been served by a major supermarket for over 15 years. Christine holds a bachelor of science in accounting from the University of Connecticut and a master's degree in taxation from Villanova University.

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Amy Magenheim
Senior Manager, Deloitte Tax LLP

Amy Magenheim joined Deloitte as a tax staff accountant over 15 years ago. She chose a career in tax because she enjoyed math, and she chose Deloitte because of the people. She has worked in many areas of taxation including corporate, expatriate, international, and individual. She enjoys working for a large international firm that allows her to pursue multiple interests including technology, recruiting, training, strategic planning marketing and sales. At Deloitte she has had the opportunity to visit India, South Africa, France, England, and many U.S. cities. Amy says the life of an accountant is never boring. It is a very dynamic work environment that is always encouraging her to grow and stay busy.

Amy currently works in the Washington National Tax practice with a knowledge management team responsible for TaxShare, the intranet site. She focuses much of her time working with their third party research providers such as LexisNexis, CCH, BNA, Tax Analyst and RIA.

Amy earned a bachelor of science in accounting from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. After graduation, she became a CPA. While in college, Amy was very involved with IU Student Foundation where she was on the Steering Committee for the Little 500 Bicycle race.

Amy and her husband Doug have two daughters - Hailey (9) and Lexi (7) - and a Havanese dog named Mitzi. She works on a flexible and reduced work schedule to balance her personal and professional responsibilities.

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Kate Mantzke
Kieso Professor of Accountancy, Northern Illinois University

Kate Mantzke is an associate professor at Northern Illinois University where she also directs the Master of Science in Taxation program. Before becoming a professor, Kate started her career with Arthur Andersen. In the eight years she spent with the firm, Kate worked primarily in the state tax consulting practice, rising to the level of tax manager. Kate is a licensed C.P.A. in Minnesota and a registered C.P.A. in Illinois.

Kate's interest in entering the tax profession began when she took her first tax class. It was at that point that all of her accounting knowledge came together and clicked. She was also excited by the thought that she could help taxpayers deal with issues that made sense to her.

Kate learned in public accounting that the world needs smart, ethical tax practitioners. She's excited to be someone who helps to educate tomorrow's leaders in the profession. Kate strives to provide her students with a solid, conceptual foundation in tax and, more broadly, accounting and business.

Kate earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a Master of Business Taxation degree at the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Bart Massey
Senior Manager, Deloitte Tax LLP

Bart Massey is a senior manager in the Tax Policy group and has worked in diverse roles within the tax profession. He began as a CPA in conventional tax compliance and planning, then worked as a journalist covering the development of tax legislation on Capitol Hill, and now is a tax specialist tracking tax legislative developments on behalf of Deloitte's clients and tax professionals. At Deloitte, his role has offered him strong and fulfilling opportunities for professional and personal growth.

Bart entered the profession because the constantly changing nature of tax law provides countless opportunities to continually learn and apply knowledge for the benefit of clients. He finds this type of environment is both satisfying and challenging. The opportunity to mentor and train others in the tax profession, and to see them succeed in their own roles, has been the most fulfilling aspect of his chosen career path.

He enjoys traveling abroad, meeting new friends, and experiencing new cultures (he has visited almost 50 countries and all seven continents). These interests also provide learning and growth opportunities that often help him work better in his professional role.

Bart holds a bachelor of science in accounting from Auburn University in Alabama.

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Kathy McEligot
Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Kathy McEligot is a tax partner based in Deloitte's San Francisco office. She is the lead tax partner on engagement teams that serve large multinational corporations headquartered in the western US. She is also a national specialist in accounting for income taxes for Deloitte. In that role, she teaches and speaks to various audiences across the country, including industry associations and large client groups.

Kathy earned an undergraduate degree in business administration, with an emphasis in accounting, from University of California, Berkeley. Kathy started with the audit function in Deloitte. Her college tax courses were good - but not good enough to make her think she should choose tax as a career. But after two busy season rotations in the tax function, she realized that she really liked tax work and decided to transfer into tax full time. What appealed to Kathy was that tax professionals work more in the future by doing tax planning (as opposed to auditing the past) and they bring value by bringing ideas to save cash taxes.

The most fulfilling part of Kathy's career is the ability to combine her love of accounting with her technical tax knowledge by working full time in the area of accounting for income taxes. Kathy's clients have very complicated tax structures. Making sure the tax impact of those structures are appropriately reflected in the financial statements is challenging - but it is a challenge Kathy enjoys. People with both skill sets - accounting and tax - are rare, so Kathy is in demand these days!

Kathy works in a practice area that is demanding all year around. Kathy has clients with many different year-ends, so the year-end audit work on tax provisions happens throughout the year. Add to that the quarterly reporting deadlines (all of her clients are SEC filers) and you get a schedule that has few slow periods. Kathy puts some "balance" into her life by traveling to locations where she can truly escape - from both voice mail and email. Although the list of locations that are not yet wired is shrinking, Kathy is working her way through that list by taking exotic vacations around the world. Kathy has recently been to Bhutan, Kenya, Laos...just to name a few.

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Joan Millett
Director, Deloitte Tax LLP

Joan Millett is the leader of the Southeast Tax Controversy Services practice. In this role, Joan assists clients with a broad range of procedural matters and manages large IRS exams at all stages. She joined Deloitte Tax LLP in June 2003.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Joan was a partner at the law firm of Baker & Hostetler LLP in Orlando, Florida. Joan also served at the IRS Office of the Associate Chief Counsel (International) in Washington, D.C. as an Attorney Advisor and as an Assistant to the Branch Chief. Joan started her career as an Attorney Advisor (aka, law clerk) to the Honorable Joel Gerber of the United States Tax Court.

Joan has a B.S., Accounting; M.A., Taxation; and J.D. all from the University of Florida (Go Gators!). She continued her education with an LL.M. from New York University. Joan's lowest grade in her undergraduate studies was in her first tax class. However, she enjoyed the course so much she was not discouraged and chose a career in tax.

In her free time, Joan spends time with her two daughters (ages 9 and 11), two cats and two dogs.

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Laura Mills
Senior Manager, Deloitte Tax LLP

Laura Mills is a senior manager in Deloitte's Northeast Global Employer Services practice. Prior to joining the Northeast practice, she was part of the National Tax Office in the Employee Benefits Tax group in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Global Employer Individual Solutions practice in the Chicago office.

Laura specializes in advising clients on the tax rules and reporting requirements for retirement, health and welfare, and executive compensation plans. Her experience includes consulting on the tax and economic issues arising out of establishing, maintaining, and terminating employee benefit plans, and the development and implementation of deferred compensation programs that address long-term and short-term corporate objectives.

Laura was originally heading for a career in financial consulting but the accounting firms happened to hold their campus interviews first. Through that process, she learned that an accounting firm is so much more than auditing and tax returns. She participated in Deloitte's management development program which provided her invaluable skills and experiences as part of Deloitte's national tax practice. After successful completion of the program, she was able to rejoin a practice office and use her newly acquired skills and knowledge.

Laura received her bachelor of science in business administration with majors in accounting and finance from Xavier University in Cincinnati. She competes in Ironman triathlons (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) and is the volunteer coordinator for several Autism Speak events in the DC metro area.

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Boake Munsch
Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Boake Munsch works in the lead tax services group in Minneapolis and serves clients in the real estate, venture capital and energy industries.

Boake entered the tax profession because he found the technical aspects challenging and rewarding. He says the profession rewards and encourages creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit. At Deloitte, he enjoys building personal relationships with clients, helping them solve difficult issues and ultimately saving them money. He finds the most rewarding part of his career to be the opportunity to work with talented and smart people in an ever-changing business environment.

Boake graduated from the University of San Diego with a bachelor of arts in accounting. In his free time he likes to hunt and fish and has had the opportunity to enjoy these pursuits with clients during his career.

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Dave O'Brien
Atlanta Tax Office Managing Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Dave O'Brien is an international tax partner and leads the Atlanta tax tax practice. He has 30 plus years experience serving multinational companies. As lead tax partner for numerous FORTUNE 500 companies, Dave has served clients in a wide variety of industries: agriculture, biotechnology, financial services, software, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, communications, forest products, mining, retail, publishing and transportation.

Dave holds a bachelor of science degree in accounting from the University of Notre Dame and a masters in management from Northwestern University. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family, watching Notre Dame football, and playing golf.

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Nanci S. Palmintere
Vice President, Finance and Enterprise Services and Director, Global Tax and Trade, Intel Corporation

Nanci S. Palmintere is vice president of Finance and Enterprise Services and director of Global Tax and Trade for Intel Corporation. She directs the worldwide organization responsible for all tax, export licensing, and customs planning and compliance. Palmintere is also responsible for all negotiations with the IRS, state and local tax authorities, and foreign tax authorities.

She is responsible for transfer pricing, including advance pricing agreements, tax planning for mergers and acquisitions, and tax planning for employee benefits including creation of Intel's pension and profit sharing plans. She also is responsible for negotiating with governments for tax incentives associated with site selection.

An internationally recognized expert on taxation, Palmintere has testified before the U.S. Senate and state legislatures on a variety of tax policies and proposed legislation, has received National Commendation from the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service on audit simplification, and is a frequent speaker on audit, tax administration, and employee benefits issues.

Palmintere joined Intel in 1979 as a tax attorney. She has more than 25 years of experience in tax, licensing and customs. Her prior assignments at Intel include director of Tax, Licensing and Customs, director of Tax, and Director of Tax Administration. Prior to her employment at Intel, Palmintere held positions at the law firm of Ruffo, Ferrari and McNeil (now Pillsbury Winthrop), and in the tax practice of Coopers and Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers).

Palmintere is currently an Executive Committee member of the Tax Executive Institute, Vice Chair of its National IRS Administrative Affairs Committee and a Chapter Representative. She is also on the Board of Directors of the California Chamber of Commerce and Vice Chair of its Tax Committee. She is a Board Director of The Tax Council and the Tax Foundation. She is a member of the California State Bar Taxation Section and a former Executive Committee member, she is a member MAPI Tax Council I and former chairman. Palmintere is also on the editorial board of CCH Journal of Tax Practice and Procedure and on the Advisory Board of the San Jose State University Graduate Tax Program. Additionally, Palmintere is a founding director of Silicon Valley Employee Benefits and Compensation Association, a member of the ABA, Financial Executive Institute's Committee on Taxation, AEA and SIA's Tax Committees , NAM Tax Leadership Committee and the Silicon Valley Tax Directors' group. She is a Board member of the Cornell HEAA, a member of the Cornell Nor. Cal. Alumni Assoc. and The President's Council of Cornell Women.

Palmintere received a Juris Doctor degree from Santa Clara University Law School and a bachelor's degree from Cornell University.

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Jim Schlesser
Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Jim Schlesser started his career at Deloitte in the audit department in 1976. He viewed the organization as having great opportunity for career advancement and a culture that was supportive to each individual's aspirations. In the early 1980s, Jim transferred from audit to tax. He has served as a lead tax partner on both large, multinational engagements, as well as closely-held businesses. He was the Chicago office tax managing partner before assuming the role of professional practice director, responsible for risk management and quality assurance for the Midwest Region in 2004. In June of 2007, Jim transferred to our Washington D.C. Office, where he joined of the National Quality Assurance and Risk Management Group, working with various regulatory matters and providing policy guidance throughout the country.

Jim views tax as an extremely technical, constantly changing, and challenging field of expertise. He is intrigued by the value that tax professionals bring to businesses by helping them minimize their future tax liabilities and adhere to laws and regulations. Most fulfilling is the appreciation for the value of tax services shown by his clients. In each of his engagements, Jim focuses on educating the client to make the best business decisions possible based on the facts and circumstances. When a client comes to understand both the business and tax issues and can make an intelligent informed decision, Jim is personally rewarded.

Jim holds a bachelor's of science degree in mathematics and education as well as a master of science in accounting, both from Illinois State University. He also earned a masters of science degree in taxation from DePaul University.

Jim loves the outdoors, and particularly enjoys jogging. He joins a group of about 10 individuals who run 6 to 8 miles each Saturday morning, virtually year round. Over the last six years, Jim has run more than 10 half marathons and 3 marathons. In addition, Jim has taken to the sport of bicycling, enjoying further distances and greater amounts of scenery. While he is not the quickest runner or biker of the group, he enjoys socializing as part of the work-out experience.

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Bryan Slone
Nebraska Office Managing Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Bryan Slone is a tax partner and the Nebraska practice managing partner. Bryan leads marketplace activities and serves in an advisory or tax partner role for several clients. Bryan was the former leader of Deloitte's national Tax Controversy Services group and has more than 20 years experience as a tax professional in governmental and private practice positions in the U.S. and Germany.

Bryan first joined Deloitte after law school in the early 80's. He was also licensed as a CPA and, at the time, the accounting field provided a more diverse opportunity to develop tax consulting skills than law firms. He enjoyed accounting, and tax provided the perfect interaction between the technical and negotiating portions of a legal practice, and the regulatory and business aspects of a financial accounting practice. He later practiced law and served as Tax Counsel to a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and as Assistant to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) before returning to Deloitte in 1997. Helping clients deal with crises is the most fulfilling aspect of Bryan's career in tax. He has been involved in several large tax cases and has worked with many of the largest companies in the world. In addition, his career choices have led to some incredible opportunities. For example, as a lawyer based in Berlin, he traveled throughout Asia and Europe to help multinational companies negotiate multilateral tax agreements with various foreign governments.

Bryan is a graduate of the business school and the college of law at what he describes as "Harvard of the Plains" (aka, the University of Nebraska). His hobbies include golf and riding his Harley on weekends.

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Randall Sogoloff
Partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP

Randall Sogoloff is a partner in Deloitte's national office in its accounting standards and communications group. His role includes leading the subject matter team for leasing, consolidations, and income taxes. Randall is responsible for monitoring the activities of the various standard setters, preparing responses to exposure drafts and discussion documents, updating firm guidance, and writing internal and external publications on newly issued accounting guidance. Randall is also a participant in Deloitte's Global IFRS Leadership Team and part of Deloitte's IFRS Centre of Excellence for the Americas region. He is a member of the AICPA's Accounting Standards Executive Committee and previously completed a two-year fellowship program with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), where he served primarily as a project manager focusing on implementation and emerging practice problems.

Helping engagement teams and clients understand the complexities in accounting and being involved in the move to IFRS are the most fulfilling aspects of Randall's career. He travels to many different countries around the world to discuss accounting issues under IFRS and works closely with clients in the U.S. to help them understand the potential implications of moving to IFRS.

Randall first joined Deloitte in 1994 after graduating with a bachelor's and master's degree in accounting from the University of Florida and Florida International University. He has published many articles and speaks at conferences around the country. His hobbies include tennis, golf, and skiing.

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Ron Sonenthal
Chicago Office Tax Managing Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Ron Sonenthal is a partner and leads the Chicago tax practice and is the deputy regional managing partner for the Midwest region of Deloitte Tax LLP. He has more than 24 years of experience in executive compensation, including issues such as the design of incentive pay and salary administration programs. He specializes in closely held businesses. In addition, he is experienced in accounting for compensation arrangements and has assisted in the design and implementation of deferred compensation arrangements and shareholder redemption strategies.

Ron serves as the chairman of Working in the Schools (WITS), the chair of the Great Lakes Regional Board of INROADS, which is dedicated to developing and placing minorities within the corporate workplace, the chair of the School of Business Advisory Board of Chicago State University, and is a director-for-life for the Jewish Council for Youth Services.

Ron chose to pursue a career in tax after completing a summer internship between junior and senior year with an advertising agency. He spent half the summer working with the auditors, and half with the tax practice. The tax guys were more fun. Since Ron has a fairly short attention span, he likes the constant change—he's doing something different today than he did last year, and something different than he did the year before that.

He received his bachelor of science degree in accountancy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his graduate degree in taxation from DePaul University in Chicago. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the Illinois Society of CPAs.

Ron enjoys reading and running (but not at the same time), and just completed his first marathon.

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Jacien Steele
Strategic Client Tax Services National Managing Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Jacien Steele is the National Managing Partner, Strategic Client Tax Services for Deloitte Tax LLP. In this role, he assists partners throughout the country with client service planning, resource allocation, and strategic deployment. He also ensures that our most important clients are served by our best lead tax partners and service line specialists. He is also the U.S. regional leader for the Global Strategic Clients practice and coordinates and facilitates seamless client service with other geographic regions of the world for the tax practice.

Jacien is an experienced tax partner with more than 30 years experience serving large public companies in the manufacturing, service, and retail sectors. He joined Deloitte Tax in 1997 after spending nine years as a partner with another Big Five firm. During that time he was a member of the firm-wide tax accounting methods and periods team and international tax and business advisory team. He served as a regional coordinator for the international tax practice and worked with large multinationals and foreign inbound investors. His experience includes acquisition structuring and due diligence, financing and repatriation transactions, transfer pricing planning, corporate tax function reengineering, and tax accounting methods reviews. He has served as the leader of the Manufacturing Industry practice for the Atlanta office, as well as the East Sector Tax Leader for Global Strategic Clients.

Jacien holds a bachelor of science in business administration, with a major in accounting and finance, from Bowling Green State University. Originally, Jacien had planned on a career in corporate finance but public accounting jobs were more plentiful and paid better salaries.

Jacien has a wife and two children, a ratio that has worked well for him. If he did not have a family to support, Jacien would be professionally racing sailboats in the Caribbean by day and playing in a band in a bar by night. Due to his busy travel schedule with Deloitte Tax, he can usually be found sleeping in a seat on a Delta airlines plane.

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Clint Stretch
Managing Principal, Tax Policy, Deloitte Tax LLP

Clint Stretch is the firm's Managing Principal, Tax Policy, in the Washington D.C. national office of Deloitte Tax LLP. His responsibilities include responding to emerging tax legislative and regulatory issues, and he is widely quoted in the media on U.S. tax matters. Clint also serves as the chief knowledge officer for tax for both Deloitte Tax LLP and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

Clint started his legal career as an attorney advisor to the Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service and then moved to the staff of the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation where he was responsible for the technical work on such major pieces of legislation as the Windfall Profit Tax Act of 1980 and the Life Insurance Companies Tax Act of 1984. In 1985, he joined the Washington office of Deloitte where a number of his former colleagues from government were already building successful careers.

Clint says that he became a tax professional because it was the most challenging legal career he could find - it is like getting paid to play championship chess or tournament bridge.

Clint finds that the opportunity to help others develop in their careers and to learn is the most rewarding part of his career. While he started out to be a tax lawyer, he has been surprised with greater opportunities at Deloitte including serving as the chief knowledge officer and building a public relations effort that has made him the most widely quoted tax professional in the country.

Clint has a bachelors in political science from Davidson College (1971) and a J.D, with honors from the University of North Carolina (1975).

When not in the office, Clint enjoys kayaking, hiking, and rock climbing just about anything else that can be done out-of-doors.

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Joanna Theis
Manager, Deloitte Tax LLP

Joanna Theis is a tax manager currently doing a two year rotation in Deloitte’s Management Development Program working internally for the Chief Tax Officer. As such, Joanna is involved not only with the tax returns for the Deloitte U.S. Firms, but also works on the tax aspects of strategic planning and issue resolution projects. Before taking on her current role, Joanna focused on passthrough entities in the real estate, private equity, and professional services industries. Joanna came to Deloitte through internships in college and began fulltime after college.

As an accounting major, stumbled into tax through her first internship. She liked it so much she chose to stay. She enjoys the ever evolving nature of tax policy and the challenge of keeping up to date on the latest changes. She is happy to specialize in a specific area and use that knowledge to serve her clients.

The parts of her job that Joanna enjoys the most are interacting with her clients and developing others. Joanna has spent several years on many of her clients, growing from an associate to the manager on the client engagement. She has developed great working relationships with her clients and enjoys being a trusted advisor. Additionally, working in teams in tax has given Joanna the opportunity to develop and teach those who work with her. She derives great satisfaction from watching the associates and seniors in her group learn.

Joanna received her Bachelor of International Business degree in 2001 from Northeastern University. Joanna later went back to Northeastern and graduated with a Master's of Taxation degree in 2006. She is currently back on campus for a third time, but now to teach – she teaches classes for the College of Professional Studies as well as for the Master's of Taxation program.

When she can, Joanna enjoys traveling and has taken three trips to Europe in the last two years. She has also taking up running, and although she is slow, she recently completed her third half-marathon.

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Wolfe Tone
Partner, Deloitte Tax LLP

Unlike many people, Wolfe knew at an early age that he wanted to pursue a career in business. While most kids aspired to be a firemen or astronauts, Wolfe always had a keen interest in companies and how they operated. During college, he refined this passion to wanting to own and operate his own business. Through the encouragement of his tax professor, he entered the tax profession as a stepping stone to the mergers and acquisitions arena. He quickly realized that he could do a significant amount of transaction type work in public accounting. Moreover, he discovered that managing his clients and the various client teams fulfilled his desire to operate his own business.

During his 12 years in public accounting, Wolfe says that he most appreciates the people aspect of his profession. Not only does he have an opportunity to provide exceptional value to his clients but he is able to work with the most outstanding professionals in the industry.

Wolfe graduated from the University of Iowa in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in accounting. Growing up in Iowa, Wolfe has always been an avid fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes. During his elementary ye