I am honored to be serving you as your international president for the 2022–2023 fiscal year. I have been a member of TEI and part of the Executive Committee for many years, and TEI has played a significant role in my professional career. I’m very proud to be part of this amazing organization.
The goals for my tenure as international president are to help design the future TEI so it can be an even better organization—so it can meet the changing needs of its members, chapters, and sponsors. We will accomplish this by increasing the diversity of our global tax community and ensuring that each TEI member has access to the benefits, resources, and opportunities in-house tax professionals need to develop and succeed in our profession. I want to share here several initiatives for my presidential year.
Enhancing and Communicating Membership Value
We are a diverse group, with members at different stages in their careers; we will seek to ensure the needs of all member groups are addressed and that all members are aware of the resources and opportunities available to them as TEI members. We will also promote member engagement through specialty discussion groups that will bring our members together, such as a pass-through entity issues forum, a transfer pricing specialty group, chapter-level women in tax programs, and a tax technologists group. We will also launch the online TEI Academy to enhance our virtual education offerings and reintroduce industry forums.
Connecting and Supporting Our Chapters
Our chapters are the lifeblood of TEI, but we are one TEI. Our work will identify chapter needs, assess resources to support chapter programs, and connect chapters with each other to promote the sharing of best practices. We will hold monthly chapter webinars and launch a TEI sponsor portal to help chapters develop local continuing education content.
We seek to address how TEI can better align chapter and Institute efforts to support TEI’s mission and succeed as one TEI.
Diversity and Inclusion
TEI holds a unique role as the leading organization for in-house tax professionals. This work will seek to drive engagement with students and young professionals that are underrepresented in our profession, thus helping us advance diversity in the tax profession and further an inclusive and collaborative culture that encourages individuals with diverse backgrounds and talents to lead, contribute, and progress. I recently conversed with the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) and believe we should leverage relationships with organizations like NABA to identify students worthy of TEI scholarships and to provide speakers to discuss the merits of a career in tax. And I believe strongly that this is an area in which mentorship can play an important role. We also will continue to highlight the work and resources compiled by TEI’s Diversity & Inclusion Working Group.
Attracting and Supporting Emerging Tax Professionals
The tax profession is changing rapidly. TEI must ensure that it is agile, attracts emerging tax professionals, and meets their needs—and that it meets them “where they are.” We will work to identify tools and resources to attract and engage emerging tax professionals, embed a leadership development curriculum in TEI’s continuing education programs, and create mentoring, guidance, and leadership opportunities for younger members of the tax profession. We will involve CTOs and other tax leaders in this effort.
Creating a Value Proposition for CTOs and Their Tax Departments
In-house support for TEI is essential to our success—and it’s the job of TEI leaders to clearly demonstrate why the Institute is essential. To further this mission, TEI recently launched a monthly CTO discussion group for heads of tax to foster and engage this influential community. We would like to enhance the CTO discussion group by using industry, geography, and team/company size to develop more targeted discussion and advocacy forums and review how TEI can help CTOs develop and support their staff.
Strengthening the TEI Brand With Sponsors
TEI’s sponsors provide TEI members with valuable information and resources and are a critical component of the Institute’s financial support. This work will address how TEI can further promote its brand with our sponsors, strengthen the TEI value proposition for them, and identify ways for them to provide benefits while gaining additional value.
Advocacy
I’m proud that we advocate for our members. TEI is dedicated to improving the tax systems administered in jurisdictions where TEI chapters are located. TEI advances this objective by communicating concerns to government decision makers and recommending changes and improvements to the tax rules via written submissions and liaison meetings. TEI will reengage its advocacy and liaison meeting efforts to provide a voice for the in-house tax profession as the pandemic subsides.
Throughout my tenure, I hope to share my story with you. I want to hear your stories too, but, most important, I want to hear your thoughts about designing the future TEI and about the goals we’ve shared with you.
I welcome each of you to work on the above goals with me. If you’re already involved with TEI, stay involved; if not, now is a wonderful time to become engaged.
Best regards,
Wayne Monfries
TEI International President
