On April 29, 2021, WITA discussed the efforts to create a global minimum tax, and related international tax and trade issues.
PROGRAM AGENDA
Welcome: 10:00 AM (US/Eastern)
- Kenneth Levinson, Executive Director, WITA
Panelist Discussion: 10:05 AM
- Lilian V. Faulhaber, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
- Loren C. Ponds, Member, Miller & Chevalier Chartered – former Chief Tax Counsel, Ways & Means Republican
- Bob Stack, Managing Director, Washington National Tax | International Tax Group, Deloitte Tax LLP
- Moderator: Antonia Ferrier, Chief Strategic Communications Officer, CGCN Group
Followed by:
- Q & A with Audience – Webinar attendees are encouraged to use the Q&A function on the Zoom app to submit their questions in real time.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Lilian V. Faulhaber is a Professor of Law, teaching courses on federal income taxation, EU tax, international taxation, tax policy, and international business law at Georgetown University Law Center. Her writing focuses on tax competition, tax avoidance, international taxation, charitable giving, and European Union law.
Before joining the Georgetown faculty, Professor Faulhaber was an Advisor to the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Prior to her work at the OECD, she was an Associate Professor at Boston University School of Law. Professor Faulhaber clerked for Senior Judge Robert E. Keeton and Judge William G. Young, both on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and was an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York. She is a graduate of Harvard College, Cambridge University, and Harvard Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the Harvard International Law Journal.
In 2013, Professor Faulhaber received Boston University School of Law’s Michael W. Melton Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2018, she received Georgetown Law’s Frank F. Flegal Excellence in Teaching Award and Georgetown Law’s Faculty Member of the Year Award.
Loren Ponds is a Member of Miller & Chevalier Chartered and is a former Majority Tax Counsel on the House Ways & Means Committee. She centers her practice on providing strategic counsel to clients on legislative, regulatory, and other tax policy issues, as well as advising on technical tax matters related to transfer pricing and other international tax topics.
She advises clients on the impacts of tax policy, such as the implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), and issues related to technical corrections, administrative guidance, and legislative amendments to various provisions. In addition, Ms. Ponds advises clients on Advance Pricing Agreements, mutual agreement procedure (MAP) negotiations, and international tax controversy matters before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), intangible property transactions, and other transfer pricing and international tax issues.
Prior to joining Miller & Chevalier, Ms. Ponds served as Majority Tax Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, where she developed, analyzed, and refined the international tax provisions of the TCJA.
Previously, Ms. Ponds served in Ernst & Young LLP’s National Tax Department with a focus on transfer pricing and other international tax issues, where she counseled multinational companies on tax planning projects, including intellectual property planning, supply chain optimization, and restructurings.
Fluent in French and German, Ms. Ponds worked abroad as Ernst & Young’s Global Transfer Pricing Operations Manager in Düsseldorf, Germany. Ms. Ponds was also a German Chancellor Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Universität Hamburg-International Tax Institute in Germany, as well as a Trainee at the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development in Paris, France.
Bob Stack is the Managing Director of the Washington National Tax and is a part of the International Tax Group at Deloitte Tax LLP. Bob advises the US companies on a full range of international tax issues and collaborates with Deloitte’s global member firms on international tax developments and initiatives, including those from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).
Bob joined Deloitte Tax from the US Department of the Treasury (Treasury), where he was the deputy assistant secretary for international tax affairs in the Office of Tax Policy. While there, he worked directly with the assistant secretary of tax policy and the international tax counsel in developing and implementing all aspects of US international tax policy, including treaties, regulations, and legislative proposals.
He also was the official representative of the Obama administration for international tax policy and represented the US government at the OECD where he was involved in all aspects of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting initiative. Prior to joining Treasury, Bob had more than 25 years of experience in international tax matters, representing both corporations and individuals.
Bob is a member of the executive committee of the US Branch of the International Fiscal Association (IFA) and a frequent speaker at IFA events worldwide. He a member of the advisory committee for the Annual Institute on Current Issues in International Tax at The George Washington University School of Law. He is a frequent speaker at events sponsored by such organizations as the Tax Executives Institute, the International Bar Association, American Bar Association Tax Section, and Irish Tax Institute. He presented the Twenty-Second Tillinghast Lecture on International Taxation at the New York University School of Law.
Bob earned his Bachelor of Arts in English education from State University of New York at Albany and his Master of Arts in French language and literature from New York University. He went on to obtain his Master of Science in foreign service from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Law Journal. After graduating, he clerked for Judge Thomas A. Flannery of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and Justice Potter Stewart (Ret.) of the United States Supreme Court.
Antonia Ferrier is the Chief Strategic Communication Officer at CGCN Group. Ferrier has built a reputation as a well-respected communications professional having worked on the front lines of some of the most significant policy debates and legislative battles of the last two decades. The Washington Post described her as “one of the top Republican message gurus on Capitol Hill.”
Ferrier has spearheaded communications and strategic planning on a wide range of issues, including tax reform, health care, trade, national security, the financial crisis, and judicial nominations. She built her reputation working for some of the most high-profile members of the House and Senate, including then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, former House Speaker John Boehner, then-House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, and then-Senate Majority Leader Bill First.
Kenneth Levinson is the Executive Director of the Washington International Trade Association (WITA). WITA is Washington’s largest non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to providing a neutral forum in the U.S. capital for the open and robust discussion of international trade policy and economic issues. WITA has over 4,000 members, and more than 170 corporate sponsors and group memberships.
Previously, Ken served as Senior Director for Global Government Affairs for AstraZeneca. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Ken served as Senior Vice President and COO at the Washington, DC consulting firm of Fontheim International. Ken started his career on the staff of U.S. Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, where he served as the Senator’s chief advisor for international trade, tax, foreign policy, and national security.
Ken received a Master’s degree in European History from New York University after doing his undergraduate work at the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst. Ken also spent a year studying at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Ken and his wife, the Reverend Donna Marsh, live in Bethesda, MD, with their two daughters.