Lutof Awdeh
RSM
Lu Awdeh provides tax consulting services in all aspects of state and local taxation including corporate, individual, sales and use, and income tax for clients in a broad spectrum of industries. Lu also represents clients in state tax audit and controversy matters before the Massachusetts Department of Revenue as well as other state and local tax authorities. He is also a member of the RSM national mergers and acquisitions practice. He has over 19 years of experience in public accounting serving clients in a myriad of industries including private equity, investment management, financial institutions, consumer products, real estate and biotechnology. Before he began practicing in the public accounting industry, Lu spent more than eight years at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s Litigation Bureau, representing the Commissioner of Revenue in state tax and bankruptcy litigation matters. He is currently a member of the MA DOR Advisory Council and former Co-Chair of the BBA’s State & Local Tax section.
William Baker, Assistant Attorney General
Vermont Department of Taxes
Will Baker is a Vermont Assistant Attorney General and chief legal counsel to the Vermont Department of Taxes. He has served since 2007, representing the Department in litigation and providing general counseling. Since 2016 he has served as the chief legal counsel. He has served his community in various volunteer positions, including on the board of directors of the Vermont Bar Association, chairing his school district board of directors, and serving on his town’s planning commission. Prior to state service, he was employed at a Burlington, Vermont law firm. He is a graduate of the George Washington University and Northeastern University School of Law.
Mark Boughton, Commissioner
Connecticut Department of Revenue Services
Commissioner Boughton has prioritized fair and equitable tax administration, excellent customer service, and utilizing data and analytics to increase efficiencies and contribute to the economic well-being of Connecticut He is leading the Department during a multi-year modernization initiative, which will stage an environment that supports data-driven tax collection, offers enhanced online tax filing and payment options, and promotes voluntary taxpayer compliance.
Fred Coolbroth
New Hampshire Department of Revenue
Fred Coolbroth is the Director of the Audit Division of the Department of Revenue Administration. Before he was Audit Director, Fred served as general counsel. Fred and his colleagues developed the Department’s nationally recognized “monitor forward” program. Prior to state service, Fred worked in private practice, primarily in tax and corporate law, with a particular focus on renewable energy. Fred was previously elected Chair of both the Tax Section and the Corporation, Business & Banking Law Section of the NH Bar. He previously served in various other nonprofit roles, including Vice Chair of the NH/VT Region of the American Red Cross.
Joseph R. Crosby
CEO, MultiState
Joe Crosby is & CEO of MultiState, the nation’s leading state and local government relations services firm. Joe is involved in all aspects of the firm’s efforts to help clients resolve the challenges they face in the state and local government arena, with a concentration on providing strategic counsel, identifying and deploying political assets, and advancing tax policy objectives. Prior to MultiState, Joe spent a decade plus with the Council On State Taxation (COST) as chief operating officer & senior director, policy. Joe is a nationally recognized expert on state and local business tax policy. He was identified by State Tax Notes as the “single most influential person in state taxation” and named as the publication’s inaugural Person of the Year.
Daniel DeJong
KPMG
Dan De Jong is a Managing Director in KPMG’s Washington National Tax group based in Washington, D.C. where he focuses on state and local tax issues. He supports our engagement teams across the tax practice and assists clients with a variety of tax-related income/franchise, financial services, and associated issues. Before joining KPMG in 2015, Dan served as tax counsel for Tax Executives Institute (TEI), where his duties there included preparing Supreme Court briefs on a range of U.S. state and local tax issues and drafting or editing submissions to state tax administrations and state legislators, as well as foreign tax authorities. He also testified on state tax matters before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law and regularly represented TEI at meetings with state and local tax administrators.
Michael Fatale, General Counsel
Massachusetts Department of Revenue
Michael T. Fatale is the General Counsel at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. He is the primary author of numerous Massachusetts state tax regulations and administrative pronouncements and has litigated or co-litigated several high-profile DOR cases. Michael is the author of ten law review articles on constitutional and federal law that have been cited in various state tax cases, including cases decided by the Ohio, Iowa and West Virginia Supreme Courts and the California and New Mexico Courts of Appeal. He is also an adjunct professor at Boston College Law School and at Boston University School of Law, and has served for many years as an instructor in the corporate income tax training program offered by the Multistate Tax Commission.
Karl Frieden
Council On State Taxation (COST)
Karl Frieden is the Vice President and General Counsel of the Council On State Taxation (COST). Karl’s responsibilities at COST include managing its amicus program; co-leading its advocacy efforts relating to state taxation of foreign income, sales taxation of digital products, and DSTs; and providing oversight to state tax research studies for COST’s affiliate – the State Tax Research Institute (STRI). Prior to joining COST, Karl was a tax partner with Ernst & Young and Arthur Andersen. Earlier in his career, he was the Deputy General Counsel of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. Karl has had extensive experience with state and local, federal and international taxes. Karl has spoken on state and local and global tax issues at business, government and tax policy forums in the US, Europe and Asia. He has frequently testified before state legislatures and the US Congress on state tax policy issues. He is the author of numerous tax articles in Tax Notes State and Tax Notes International. Karl also wrote Cybertaxation: The Taxation of E-Commerce (CCH 2000) – the first comprehensive book written on the taxation of the digital economy.
Joe Garrett
Deloitte
Joe joined Deloitte Tax LLP in 2019 as a Managing Director in the Multistate Tax Practice. Prior to joining Deloitte, Joe served as Deputy Commissioner for the Alabama Department of Revenue for 17 years. He began his state tax career in public accounting as a state and local tax manager in Atlanta. Joe is well known and respected in the state tax community for his strong tax technical skills which he demonstrated regularly by working with other states’ tax officials on tax policy matters and subjects such as Wayfair and the state impacts of federal tax reform.
Olga Goldberg
Pierce Atwood
Olga J. Goldberg is a SALT Partner at Pierce Atwood LLP based in Portland, Maine. Olga advises clients in complex state and local tax matters. She represents clients on tax controversies from the administrative level through litigation and appeal or settlement. She also counsels businesses of all sizes on multistate transaction planning and tax compliance. Olga’s practice covers all types of state and local taxes, including corporate income, business profits, franchise, sales and use, gross receipts, and property tax, with a focus on New England taxes. Olga regularly speaks and writes on a wide range of state and local tax matters, and is actively involved in IPT, ABA, NASBTS, ISA, and COST.
Leonore Heavey
Council On State Taxation (COST)
Leonore Heavey is Senior Tax Counsel for the Council On State Taxation (COST) and is COST’s lead advocate for the Northeastern states. Before joining COST, Leonore was the Louisiana Senate’s Chief Revenue Counsel where she served as the Senate’s tax advisor and lead drafter of Senate tax legislation. She began her SALT career at the Louisiana Department of Revenue and served in numerous roles during her tenure in the Policy Services, Tax Administration, and Audit Review divisions. Her undergraduate degree in Agriculture and masters in Agricultural Economics are from Washington State University. She earned her LLM in Taxation from the University of Denver and her JD from the University of Idaho College of Law.
Jennifer Jensen
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
Jennifer is a state and local indirect tax partner in our East region covering our East coast states. She has been specializing in the sales and use taxes for over 20 years. She assists clients through various multi-state tax studies, reverse sales tax audits, due diligence, indirect tax compliance, process automation and improvement and general indirect tax consulting projects. Prior to joining the East region practice, Jennifer was located in our Washington National Tax Services group in Washington, DC as an indirect tax subject matter expert providing services for clients nationwide and serving as a national resource for our network of indirect tax professionals.
Carolynn Kranz
Kranz & Associates
Carolynn is the Managing Member of Industry Sales Tax Solutions, a subscription database containing the sales and use taxability of software related transactions, digital content and cloud services; and the Managing Member of Kranz & Associates, a boutique law firm specializing in state and local taxes. Carolynn is a CPA, and a member of the D.C and Pennsylvania Bar Associations. Carolynn was recognized by State Tax Notes in its monthly State Tax Spotlight, which regularly profiles a person or organization influential in the state and local tax world. She is a frequent speaker and author on state tax issues.
Lindsay LaCava
Baker McKenzie
Lindsay M. LaCava is a Partner of the Firm’s Tax Practice Group in New York and is a member of the Firm’s Global Indirect Tax Steering Committee. Lindsay advises individual and business clients on a full range of state and local tax issues. She was ranked by Chambers in 2019 and 2020, was named a “Rising Star” in Tax Law in 2015 by Law360, has been recognized by International Tax Review in its “Women in Tax” Leaders Guide since 2016, and has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a New York-Metro “Rising Star” for Tax since 2013. Prior to joining Baker McKenzie, Lindsay was a partner in the state and local tax group of an international law firm. In addition, she previously worked at a Big Four accounting firm, where her practice focused exclusively on state and local tax. Lindsay speaks on a variety of state tax topics at events around the country and also frequently writes about state and local tax issues, including serving as the former Managing Editor (State and Local Tax) for the American Bar Association’s “The Tax Lawyer,” co-authoring Bloomberg’s Connecticut Corporate Income Tax Navigator, and co-authoring Checkpoint Catalyst’s New York Corporate Franchise Tax guide. She also teaches State and Local Tax as an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law.
Doug Lindholm
Council On State Taxation (COST)
COST, with a membership of over 500 multistate corporations, is dedicated to preserving and promoting equitable and nondiscriminatory state taxation of multi-jurisdictional entities. Prior to taking the helm at COST, Mr. Lindholm served as Counsel, State Tax Policy for the General Electric Company in Washington, DC, and as Senior Manager in the Washington National Tax Office of Price Waterhouse LLP. He has written numerous articles on federal, state, and local tax issues in a wide variety of publications; testifies frequently before state legislatures and Congress on state tax issues; offers commentary on radio and television; and is a frequent keynote speaker at national tax conferences and seminars.
Kateryna Melnikova
CBIZ Advisors, LLC
Kateryna Melnikova is a Senior Manager who joined CBIZ MHM, LLC’s National State and Local Tax Practice based in Greenville, South Carolina in May 2024. Kateryna focuses on helping clients with complex direct and indirect state tax matters. Kateryna has experience in dealing with a wide variety of state tax issues including state apportionment sourcing analysis, non-business income testing, impact of interplay with federal tax reform (incl. TCJA & CARES Act), tax controversy, assessments, voluntary disclosure agreements, and appeals. In 2014, she began her career at PwC in Boston, MA and later, in 2019, joined RSM US LLC in Boston, MA. She kept up-to-date of tax law changes through diligent research and monitored legislative developments to advise clients effectively. Her contributions extended to supporting M&A activities by conducting comprehensive due diligence on acquisitions, covering a range of state tax implications. She also developed thought leadership content and conducted training sessions on state and local tax matters, showcasing her expertise and leadership within the firm, as evidenced by her selection for the leadership development program for high-performing female managers.
Jessica Morgan
Ernst & Young
Jessica Morgan is a Senior Manager specializing in US state and local taxation. Part of EY National Tax, Jess supports the firm’s state income tax and transactions practice, providing thought leadership and technical expertise to EY service teams and clients. Jess helps businesses plan for state tax and accounting impacts of transactions, from acquisitions and divestitures to corporate reorganizations. She has assisted companies in aligning their tax profile to their strategic objectives through nexus and apportionment studies, federal conformity analyses, and entity structuring. Jess supports inbound investment, consulting on US site selection and the state tax implications of US legal entity formation and establishment of commercial domicile. She advises multinationals with respect to taxability, application of US-international tax treaties, and audit defense. Jess also partners with the firm’s US State Policy Services team, advising businesses and government as to the effects of new global economic developments on current state tax law and administration. She is a frequent speaker and writer on the state tax implications of international tax reforms, including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the OECD BEPS 2.0 proposals.
Alexis Morrison-Howe
Deloitte
Alexis Morrison-Howe is a Principal in Deloitte’s Washington National Tax Practice where she leads the Multistate WNT practice. She has over 17 years of experience in multistate corporate taxation, serving clients in the life sciences, technology, and consumer business industries. Her practice has focused on restructurings, cross-border transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and controversy. Alexis began her career at Deloitte working in multistate tax in the Boston office and in international tax in the London office. She served as Tax Counsel to the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board before rejoining Deloitte, where she serves as the firm’s technical leader on state issues related to transactions and tax reform as well as co-Jurisdictional Technical Lead for Massachusetts.
David Nagle
Sullivan Worcester
Dave is a managing partner of Sullivan. His practice involves both transactional tax planning and representing taxpayers in disputes before the Internal Revenue Service and the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
Richard Pomp
University of Connecticut School of Law
Richard D. Pomp is the Alva P. Loiselle Professor and Board of Trustee Distinguished Professor of Law at UConn Law School. He is also an adjunct professor at NYU Law School in the LL.M. Program in Taxation. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. He has taught at Harvard, New York University, Columbia, University of Texas, and Boston College. Professor Pomp has been qualified as an expert witness in more than 35 states and the federal district courts and has appeared in more than 120 cases. He serves as counsel and a litigation consultant to law firms, corporations, accounting firms, and state tax administrations. He has participated in various capacities in U.S. Supreme Court litigation.
Michael Rylant
KPMG
Mike is a Managing Director in KPMG’s State & Local Tax (“SALT”) Practice and leads the Connecticut SALT team. Mike has worked on all aspects of SALT with a primary focus on state income/franchise tax compliance, consulting, and strategic planning. Mike serves as KPMG’s Connecticut state tax resource member. Mike has both public accounting and industry specific experience. Mike started his career with EY and was there for 8 years prior to heading over to Industry where he worked at two Fortune 300 companies for a total of 14 years prior to joining KPMG in 2022. Mike also serves on the Board of Directors for the New England State and Local Tax Forum.
Shirley Sicilian
KPMG
Shirley Sicilian is a consultant for KPMG LLP on SALT Controversy matters. From January 2014 to June 2023, she served in KPMG’s Washington National Tax office as National Director of State and Local Tax Controversy. In that role, she supported KPMG’s network of controversy specialists in every state and delivery of KPMG SALT controversy services nationwide. Prior to joining KPMG Shirley was General Counsel for the Multistate Tax Commission. While at the Commission she was heavily involved in updating MTC Compact provisions containing the model Uniform Division of Income for Tax Purposes Act (UDITPA), and many other model state tax laws. Prior to her work with MTC, she served as Director of Policy and Research, and then General Counsel for the Kansas Department of Revenue. Before working in the tax area, Shirley worked in public utility regulation serving as the Chief of Economic Policy and as Assistant General Counsel for the Kansas Corporation Commission.
Marc Simonetti
State Tax Law
Marc Simonetti advises and represents business clients on matters across the United States in all areas of state and local taxation, including income, franchise, sales & use tax, and gross receipts tax. He represents clients in tax controversy matters, advises clients on uncertain tax positions, counsels clients on tax planning engagements, and works with clients on tax policy matters. Marc zealously represents his clients in controversy matters from audit through litigation—defending their tax positions and working to achieve practical solutions to controversy matters. He represents clients in matters ranging from audit defense to appellate litigation. Marc leads the team through every aspect of litigation: discovery, depositions, motion practice, trial, and appeal.
Geoffrey E. Snyder, Commissioner
Massachusetts Department of Revenue
Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder is responsible for administering the tax, child support, and municipal finance laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Mr. Snyder has several decades of senior-level leadership experience in the financial industry and previously served as the Deputy Commissioner of Administrative Affairs and Acting Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at DOR from 2016 into 2019. In his role as Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Snyder provided oversight of finance, human resources, facilities management, the Office of Ethics and Employee Responsibility, internal audit, labor relations, and risk management functions.
Lindsey M. Stepp, Commissioner
New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration
Lindsey M. Stepp is currently Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration and a member of the Board of Directors for the Federation of Tax Administrators. Lindsey received her Master of Business Administration degree from Plymouth State University, after receiving her B.S. in Economics from Trinity College in Hartford, CT. Lindsey served as Director of Business Services for the Information Technology Services Department at Plymouth State University, and previously worked at the Department of Revenue Administration as a Financial Analyst. Lindsey began her career at Ernst & Young LLP as an International Tax and Transfer Pricing Consultant.
Alexander Weber, General Counsel
Maine Revenue Services
Alex has served Maine Revenue Services in the Office of General Counsel since 2017. Prior to public service, Alex practiced at the law firm of K&L Gates and at the accounting firm, KPMG, both in Seattle, Washington. Alex earned his bachelor’s degree from University of Hawaii at Hilo, J.D. from the American University School of law, and LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Washington School of Law. Alex currently resides in Scarborough, Maine.
Marilyn Wethekam
Council On State Taxation (COST)
Marilyn A. Wethekam is Of Counsel to the Council On State Taxation. COST, with a membership of over 500 multistate corporations, is dedicated to preserving and promoting equitable and nondiscriminatory state taxation of multi-jurisdictional entities. Prior to joining COST Marilyn was a partner at HMB Legal Counsel in Chicago where she had a national SALT practice representing multistate and multinational corporations in all areas of state tax advising clients on multistate tax issues involving income, franchise, and transaction taxes. Prior to going into private practice, she was tax counsel for both Mobil Oil Corporation and Montgomery Ward & Co. where she developed an understanding of the complex issues encountered by multistate and multinational corporations.
Bethany Whitmarsh, Assistant Tax Administrator
RI Department of Revenue
Bethany M. Whitmarsh has been with the RI Division of Taxation since 2019. With her background as an attorney leading her to a position as a legal officer within the Division, she was soon promoted to Chief of Staff, and she has served in her current role as Assistant Tax Administrator for the last three years. Bethany began her legal career at Providence, RI-based law office Coia & Lepore, after graduating with her Juris Doctorate from Roger Williams University School of Law, where she studied on a full scholarship and was a member of the Law Review. After 12 years working for Boston-area firms Harmon Law, Litchfield Cavo, and LeClairRyan, she returned to her native Rhode Island to spearhead the opening of LeClairRyan’s Providence office. In addition to her JD from the Roger Williams, Bethany earned her undergraduate degree from Fordham University (NY). A skilled mediator, she also holds a certificate from Harvard Law School’s Negotiation Institute.
