Member Profile
Timothy Chuk
Timothy Chuk’s first major interest wasn’t tax—it was architecture. He first developed an interest in tax while working for an organization that developed a different type of architecture—IBM. “Achieving business objectives in today’s ever-evolving global landscape requires tax planning and foresight to strategically move the business forward,” Chuk explains. The… Read more »
Laura Deerwester
Have you ever had that kind of day where deadlines are looming, the boss needs you in his office to go over numbers, and the auditors have just one more question? You start daydreaming, hearing the Southwest Airlines slogan (“Wanna get away…”), and what comes to mind but a secluded… Read more »
Shirley Chin
After practicing as a corporate attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, Shirley Chin returned to San Francisco and spent several years advising nonprofits. In addition to general board advisory and corporate governance work, the technical law that governs exempt organizations is tax law, she notes, with a… Read more »
Anthony O’Donnell
Anthony (Tony) O’Donnell was a history major in college and, during his formal legal training, never set out to pursue tax. “I fell into it late in law school when I took the basic tax course and found that the key concepts of tax made sense to me and the… Read more »
Ralph Corasaniti
Some budding corporate tax specialists have a five-year plan to become part of this fascinating profession, whereas others just sort of fall into it. That was the case for Ralph Corasaniti, who thought he would be more interested in finance positions because he didn’t see himself as a general auditor.… Read more »
Richard Pettigrew
Are in-laws the bane of your existence? Well, that’s not the case with Richard Pettigrew, who first became interested in tax when his father-in-law introduced him to this complex yet interesting field in 1972. Pettigrew had just begun his education at the University of North Texas, and his father-in-law asked… Read more »
Ellen Berenholz
When Ellen Berenholz was in college and working for a CPA firm, she could recite financial statement opinions backward and forward. You think that might have come in handy when she began her post-college career at Arthur Andersen’s audit group? Actually, Berenholz proofread financial statements at the CPA firm, checking… Read more »
Julia Lagun
Some say that practicing tax law is like playing chess. If that’s true, then Julia Lagun, a competitive chess player since age four, has had quite a lot of practice. Lagun, senior vice president and senior tax director at KeyCorp, has always been good with numbers and puzzles and has… Read more »
Gregory Viggiano
What on earth could the late 1960s television show The Green Hornet have to do with tax planning at the AP Moller–Maersk Group? Let’s let Gregory Viggiano, the company’s senior director of tax planning, explain it in his own words: “When I was five, I was a fan of the… Read more »
John Mann
John Mann has distinct childhood memories that foretold his current career in tax. One involved attending a meeting with his mother and the tax advisor who prepared her tax return. Another was having that same advisor prepare his own tax return for part-time work during high school. “It’s funny how… Read more »
Intangible Asset Valuation for Tax Purposes Under Fair Market Value and Arm’s-Length Standards Business transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, and business reorganizations often…
The New Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax: Five Not-So-Obvious Rule Applications to Consider Editor’s note: This article was written in mid-December 2022. It…
How Remote Workforce Programs Trigger Myriad Tax Problems—Part One Editor’s note: Given the complexity of this topic, this will…
Embracing ESG: Four Ways Tax Departments Can Add Value Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations command a continually growing…
In Memoriam: Eric Lee Johnson The TEI community recently lost an amazing tax professional and…
How Remote Workforce Programs Trigger Myriad Tax Problems—Part Two The coronavirus pandemic created an explosion in remote workforce programs,…