Member Profile

Keith Piper

Keith Piper’s longtime appreciation for tax began directly after his graduation from Pennsylvania State University. “More than thirty years ago, during my first job out of college, I was a staff accountant with a cable television company in Northern Virginia and assigned responsibilities for property taxes and income tax provision,… Read more »

Jim Kennedy

For Jim Kennedy, there was little doubt that his calling was to be a tax professional. In law school, Kennedy took every tax course he could and wrote a comment for the University of Pittsburgh Law Review on safe harbor leasing under ERTA and TEFRA. “This interest in tax legislation… Read more »

Mitch Frank

For some corporate tax practitioners, interest in tax issues begins with their first job in the financial area; for others it’s law school; still others, college. But for Mitch Frank, general director, taxes, at BNSF Railway Inc., it began in high school. “I took a bookkeeping course that included reference… Read more »

Lynne Clare

Lynne Clare knows value-added tax (VAT). She really knows VAT. Currently the strategic VAT director at Sony, Clare has been involved with VAT issues for most of her career. It all began a little more than 26 years ago when she was posted to a VAT team at Her Majesty’s… Read more »

Angela Wallace

Angela Wallace didn’t just jump right into tax. One month after graduating from college with a bachelor of science in biology, Wallace and her husband started their family. She chose not to pursue her plans to become a physical therapist. “I waited tables for four years because it provided flexible… Read more »

Martina Krummen

When Martina Krummen joined KPMG for her internship, she was transferred for three months to the indirect tax department for a special project. During this time, she traveled across Canada and the United States for a major client of the firm to identify sales tax opportunities for their various business… Read more »

Nancy Farahmand

Someone once said, “The world is made up of two kinds of people: Those who love solving puzzles—and those who don’t.” Nancy Farahmand, the director of international taxes and planning at JCPenney, loves solving puzzles. “I always enjoyed solving puzzles and knew, from my first tax course in college, that… Read more »

Katrina Welch

In her first two years at the University of Texas, Katrina Welch was a petroleum engineering major and worked as a roustabout in an oil field during the summer. Perhaps that rugged experience helped pave the way for what Welch is doing today—serving as vice president and head of tax… Read more »

Sandhya Edupuganty

Many of us don’t like change. Sandhya Edupuganty embraces it. “I recognize the importance of and enjoy change, which is why I specialized in tax and have had the benefit of seeing what works and what can be improved. I believe it is important for tax departments to streamline and automate… Read more »

Rita Makaris

Rita Makaris’ memory of her college tax course is vivid—and not particularly positive: “All I remember was how frustrating it was—nothing but rules with exceptions and exceptions to the exceptions.” But thirty years later, after an incredibly successful career in tax, Makaris, senior tax manager and assistant firm-wide controller at… Read more »