SPEAKERS' BIOGRAPHIES

To view the programme, the speakers and book the conference, please visit the Global Tax Policy Conference 2025 Homepage.

BENJAMIN ANGEL is currently Director for direct taxation, tax coordination, economic analysis and evaluation, in the Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union of the European Commission (TAXUD), where he has also served as Director for indirect taxation. He has been Director for the Treasury and Financial operations and Director for the economies of the Member States in the Directorate General for economic and financial affairs (ECFIN). He has been a member of the cabinet of three European Commissioners for economic and monetary affairs (Yves-Thibault de Silguy, Pedro Solbes and Joaquin Almunia) and has served as Head of the unit ‘Financial institutions and stability mechanisms’ in DG ECFIN. Benjamin Angel has a PhD in law, a masters in Business Administration with a specialisation in finance, a masters of Public Administration with a specialisation in economics and a masters in political science.

PROFESSOR BRIAN J. ARNOLD is a senior adviser at the Canadian Tax Foundation. Prior to his current role, he served as a tax consultant with Goodmans LLP, Toronto. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D., 1969) and taught tax law at a Canadian law school for 28 years. He has been a consultant to various Canadian government departments, the OECD, the United Nations and several governments. He has taught international tax courses at Harvard Law School, the University of Sydney, and the University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna, and in 2005 and 2012 was Visiting Professor at New York University School of Law. He has written extensively on tax matters, and from 2000 to 2007 was a member of the Permanent Scientific Committee of the International Fiscal Association (IFA).

ALEX COBHAM is an economist and chief executive of the Tax Justice Network. He has been a researcher, focused on illicit financial flows, effective taxation for development, and inequalities, variously at Oxford University, Christian Aid, Save the Children, and the Center for Global Development, and has consulted widely, including for UNCTAD, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia, DFID, and the World Bank. Published books include The Uncounted (Polity Press) and Estimating Illicit Financial Flows: A Critical Guide to the Data, Methodologies, and Findings, with Petr Janský (Oxford University Press, open access). His new book, What Do We Know and What Should We Do About… Tax Justice? is published by SAGE.

CLARE COSTELLO has responsibility at Assistant Secretary level for a range of tax policy functions. This includes working closely with the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, and representing Ireland in EU and OECD taxation negotiations, particularly in the area of indirect tax. Also, analysing policy proposals and drafts and preparing legislation, including the Finance Bill.

MANAL CORWIN is the Director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD. She took up her duties on 3 April 2023. Prior to her role at the OECD, Manal was principal-in-charge of KPMG’s Washington National Tax Practice and America’s Regional Tax Policy Leader; a member of the KPMG Board of Directors and Lead Director. Earlier roles at KPMG included national service line leader for International Tax and leader of KPMG's Global BEPS Network. Prior to this, during her time at the U.S. Treasury Department, Manal served as International Tax Counsel in the Office of Tax Policy and as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs. Manal shaped the development and implementation of FATCA and was head of the delegations responsible for negotiating income tax treaties with several countries. Before this, Manal practised as an attorney specialising in international taxation and served as editor-in-chief of the Boston University Law Review. Manal has also served as the United States delegate and Vice Chair to the OECD’s Committee on Fiscal Affairs and was actively engaged in the origination and development of the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative. She also served as the U.S. delegate to the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. An American national, Manal has a Bachelor of Arts (cum laude) from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor (magna cum laude) from Boston University School of Law. She is fluent in English and Arabic and conversant in French.

BRENDAN CROWLEY is a Senior Counsel in the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund.  Brendan provides legal advice on tax issues in the context of the IMF’s capacity development, surveillance, and financial assistance programs, with a particular focus on tax law drafting and design. Prior to joining the IMF, Brendan was Head of International Tax with the Irish Department of Finance. He began his career with the Irish member firm of KPMG and also worked for the Irish Tax Institute.  Mr. Crowley received his BCL from University College Dublin and his LLM from Trinity College Dublin.  He is also qualified as a Barrister, a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Tax Advisor. 

MATTHEW DAMONE J.D.  is a principal and practice leader of the transfer pricing group, a practice within Baker Tilly’s specialty tax team. As a seasoned transfer pricing professional, Matthew has served clients for over 20 years. He has extensive experience in leading large scale transfer pricing engagements including IP migration, the creation and defense of cost sharing arrangements, supply chain restructurings, and managing transfer pricing controversy with both the IRS and foreign tax authorities. In addition to serving Baker Tilly’s national client base, Matthew manages the operations of the transfer pricing group.

MELISSA GIERACH joined DLA Piper in 2017 and is the Managing Director for tax policy overseeing technical and political advisement in all aspects of tax policy spanning both federal legislative and regulatory action with tax implications. Prior to joining DLA Piper, she served as a senior advisor of tax and economic policy within the U.S. Congress for nearly ten years, having worked for multiple senior Members of Congress seated on top-tier committees of jurisdiction within the House of Representatives. Additionally, Melissa spent the latter years of her tenure on Capitol Hill advising the House Ways and Means Committee Tax Policy Subcommittee Chairman. While working on Capitol Hill, Melissa was focused on comprehensive tax reform efforts, with a more granular focus on the international tax space impacting multinational business. She developed, drafted and introduced more than a dozen pieces of stand-alone legislation in the tax space, as well as seeing through multiple pieces of tax legislation subsequently enacted into federal law. She further worked to develop bipartisan legislation known as Innovation Box highlighted early in the 114th Congress by the Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committee that turned into TCJA’s FDII provision.

KARINE HALIMI-GUEZ has been an in-house tax practitioner for 30 years, advising multinationals in all areas of international taxation. She has most recently joined Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) as their Group Head of Tax after leading the tax team at their largest subsidiary, Booking.com. She is also a frequent speaker at international conferences and a former lecturer to masters students at the University of Paris-Dauphine. She currently lives in the Netherlands.

BOB HAMILTON was appointed as the Commissioner of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) effective August 1, 2016. Prior to joining the Canada Revenue Agency, Bob served as Deputy Minister of Environment Canada, and Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Canada. Bob was appointed Senior Associate Secretary of the Treasury Board in March 2011 and named by the Prime Minister as the lead Canadian on the Canada-United States Regulatory Cooperation Council. Bob has held many senior positions in the Department of Finance, including Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Tax Policy, and Assistant Deputy Minister of Financial Sector Policy. He received his Honours BA and Master's degrees in Economics from the University of Western Ontario. He was appointed the Chair of the OECD's Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) in August 2020. The FTA brings together Commissioners from 54 advanced and emerging tax administrations from across the globe.

COLM KELLY is PwC's Global Leader for Corporate Sustainability. He is Chair of the Global Corporate Sustainability Leadership Team which oversees PwC's global sustainability strategy and priorities. He has held a number of leadership roles during his 30 years’ experience at PwC including Global Leader of the Tax and Legal Services business and Global Chief Operations Officer. Colm is a council member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a Commissioner for the Business Commission to Tackle Inequality, a Fellow of the Global Solutions Initiative, and chair of the Foundation for Fiscal Studies. He is a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) member of Irish Tax Institute.

WILLIAM MORRIS is PwC’s Global Tax Policy Leader. In this role, he advises companies how best to navigate today’s ever-evolving international business landscape. Prior to joining PwC, Will spent 17 years at General Electric directing GE’s Global Tax Policy Program. From 1995-97 Will worked at the IRS, and from 1997-2000 worked in the Office of Tax Policy at the U.S. Treasury. Will was appointed Chair of the AmCham EU Tax Committee (American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union) in Brussels and also Chair of the BIAC Tax Committee (Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD) in Paris. As BIAC Tax Committee Chair, Will has been closely involved in all aspects of the BEPS project, including follow-up and implementation, participating in public OECD consultations, coordinating and filing comments on behalf of business, and meeting with many formal and informal OECD groupings as well as national governments. Will has degrees in history, law, and theology from Trinity College Cambridge, the University of Virginia, and St Mellitus College, respectively.

NINA E. OLSON is the Executive Director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights.  From March 2001 to July 2019, Nina served as the National Taxpayer Advocate of the United States, an independent organization within the Internal Revenue Service , dedicated to assisting taxpayers resolve their problems with the IRS and making administrative and legislative recommendations to mitigate those problems systemically. She has submitted 39 annual reports to Congress, and testified before congressional committees over 60 times. Before serving as the National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina founded and directed The Community Tax Law Project, the first independent Low Income Taxpayer Clinic in the US. She also maintained a private legal practice, representing taxpayers in disputes with the IRS. Nina has received many awards and recognitions, including the American Bar Association Section of Taxation’s Distinguished Service Award for Lifetime Service,  Pro Bono Award, and Jules Ritholz Memorial Merit Award for Outstanding Dedication, Achievement, and Integrity in the Field of Civil and Criminal Tax Controversies; the Tax Foundation’s Public Sector Distinguished Service Award; and Pro Bono Awards from the Virginia State Bar, the Virginia Bar Association, and the City of Richmond Bar Association.  In 2016 she was recognized by Tax Analysts as one of the Top 10 Outstanding Women in Tax (internationally). Nina received her LLM in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center, her JD from North Carolina Central University School of Law, and her AB (in fine arts) from Bryn Mawr College.

FEARGAL O'ROURKE is Chair of IDA Ireland, having been appointed by the Irish Government in January 2024, and Chair of the Institute of International and European Affairs. He is also a board member of a number of public and private companies. He was Managing Partner of PwC Ireland from 2015 to 2023 and prior to that led the firm's tax practice. In his 27 year partner career he worked primarily in the tax policy and foreign direct investment areas, advising many household names from the West Coast of the US. He was awarded an honorary fellowship of the Irish Taxation Institute in 2024. In 2024 he authored From Rags to Riches the definitive record of the Irish men's rugby team in the professional era since 1995.

CLODAGH POWER is a Senior Climate & G20/G7 Advisor to OECD Chief Economist and has more than a decade of experience analysing issues relating to public finance, international trade and the environment. Currently based in Paris at the OECD, Clodagh previously worked at the New York and Dublin offices of Arthur Cox solicitors, advising multinational companies on international tax laws, structuring business transactions and reorganisations, and dispute resolution. Prior to private practice, Clodagh worked at the European Parliament on issues before the Parliamentary Committees on the Environment and Transport the Delegation for Relations with the United States. In addition, Clodagh advised the chair of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland on Irish climate change policy. She has won several awards for her public speaking and debating abilities and for her work on the environment and democratic processes. Clodagh completed the International Comparative Tax Policy and Administration program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, earned her law degree with honours at University College Dublin and has a master’s degree in environmental law and policy from University College London.

TIM POWER is Director for Business and International Tax at HM Treasury. His teams have responsibility for International Tax and Corporation Tax including tax base design, base protection measures, transfer pricing, tax treaties, and tax transparency. Tim was elected Chair of the CFA in December 2023. As Chair of the CFA he also serves as Co-Chair of the OECD-G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS. Tim has significant experience representing the United Kingdom in multilateral discussions within the OECD, starting with the origins of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project in 2013. He has had long-standing involvement in the Steering Group of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS and since 2022 has served as Co-Chair of the Task Force for the Digital Economy that was tasked with developing a Multilateral Convention (MLC) to implement Amount A of Pillar One.

PROFESSOR JAY ROSENGARD, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, has fifty years of international experience designing, implementing, and evaluating development policies in public finance and fiscal strategy, tax and budget reform, municipal finance and management, intergovernmental fiscal relations, banking and financial institutions development, financial inclusion, micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) finance, mobile banking, and public administration. Rosengard is Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government's Financial Sector Program, which focuses on the development of bank and nonbank financial institutions and alternative financing instruments. He also serves as Senior Technical Expert for the Better Than Cash Alliance. In addition, Rosengard is a Faculty Affiliate of both the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Center for International Development. At the Ash Center, he is Academic Director of the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia and Faculty Chair of the HKS Indonesia Program. He is also Director of the Harvard University Thai Studies Program. At the Center for International Development, he teaches degree program courses in public finance. He is also a member of the Abu Dhabi Global Market Academy Research Centre Advisory Board. Rosengard has served as Faculty Chair of five executive programs: ComTax (Comparative Tax Policy and Administration), which addresses key strategic and tactical issues in tax design and implementation; FIPED (Financial Institutions for Private Enterprise Development), which focuses on sustainable and effective MSME finance; MigFin (Migrant Financial Services), devoted to improving the quality of, and access to, financial services for migrants; VELP (Vietnam Executive Leadership Program), a policy dialogue with very senior Vietnamese leaders; and Transformasi (Leadership Transformation in Indonesia), designed to assist Indonesia in its decentralization initiatives. Together with Noble laureate Joseph Stiglitz, he is co-author of Economics of the Public Sector, 4th ed.

CHRIS SANGER is EY’s Tax Policy leader for the UK and Global Government Tax Leader. Chris has extensive experience in advising governments throughout the world, including the UK in his previous role at HM Treasury, where he was Head of Business Tax Policy. In addition to his role in EY, he is the founder of the Tax Policy committee of the Tax Faculty of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, as well as former Chair of the Tax Faculty and the Technical Committee.  He is also a member of the Technical, Policy and Operations Committee of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and a council member of the Institute of Fiscal Studies. Chris is the author of many of EY’s tax publications and chair of the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury’s Forum of Tax Professionals, from where he advises on the making of tax policy. Chris is also a member of United Nations’ Subcommittee on Extractive Industries Taxation Issues for Developing Countries and has given evidence to various Parliamentary and governmental committees, including in the European Parliament, South Africa and the UK.  He is a regular writer and commentator on tax in both print and broadcast media including the Today Programme and various TV appearances.

MARIA ELENA SCOPPIO is the Director of the Directorate “Indirect taxation and tax administration” in the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) in the European Commission, which aims to develop and implement tax policy across the EU on indirect taxation, and notably on environmental taxation. Before being appointed to this position, she was Member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Gentiloni and was responsible for all issues related to DG TAXUD at the Cabinet level. She was coordinating the legislative proposals in the field of direct and indirect taxation and customs. Previously, she was Head of Unit in DG TAXUD in charge of the elaboration and development of the EU policy in the field of VAT and of digital taxation.

GERASSIMOS THOMAS is Director-General in the Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union at the European Commission. Prior to his current assignment, G. Thomas had professional assignments as: Deputy Minister for Environment and Energy in Greece (2019-2020); Deputy Director-General in the Directorate-General for Energy and Chairman of the Steering Board of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) (2014-2019); Director Finance at DG ECFIN (2009-2014); member of the EIB and EIF Board of Directors (2009-2017); Head of cabinet of Joaquin Almunia, Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs (2005-2009); Deputy Spokesman for Commission President Romano Prodi; Spokesman for economic and monetary affairs for Commissioner Pedro Solbes (2000-2004). Prior to 2000 held various positions in the European Commission, the European Investment Fund and in investment banking in London.

MEKAR SATRIA UTAMA is Director of International Taxation with the Directorate General of Taxes, Indonesia.

DANNY WERFEL served as the 50th Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). As Commissioner, he presided over the nation's tax system, which collects approximately $5 trillion in tax revenue each year representing about 96% of the total gross receipts of the United States.  While Commissioner, he spearheaded a significant transformation of the IRS, achieving improvements across all dimensions of the operation, including an unprecedented hiring surge, the launch of more digital solutions in a two-year period than the previous 20 combined, and deploying targeted management interventions to reach historic high-watermarks on key performance indicators, such as customer service, transaction processing timelines, and increased receipts.   Danny has an extensive range of experience inside and outside of government. Prior to becoming Commissioner, he was the global leader of Boston Consulting Group's (BCG) Public Sector practice, where he worked with government agencies worldwide on finances, service delivery, transformation plans and risk-assessment initiatives. Before joining BCG in 2014, Danny served in the federal government for more than 15 years, including seven months as Acting Commissioner of the IRS from May to December 2013. Prior to his appointment as Acting Commissioner, he was Controller of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where he led efforts across the federal government to improve program integrity, including all areas of financial management, financial reporting, accounting standards, improper payments and financial systems, among others. During his time at OMB, he served under nine different directors in both Republican and Democratic administrations. He has also served as a Trial Attorney in the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. Danny holds a Master's Degree in Public Policy from Duke University, a Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor's Degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.