Board of Directors

Ameek Ashok Ponda is a partner with Sullivan & Worcester LLP in Boston and served as a member of the firm’s management committee.

Mr. Ponda’s practice includes domestic and international taxation, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions and real estate investment trust transactions. Mr. Ponda is also an adjunct professor in the Boston University School of Law graduate tax program, where he has taught courses in business tax planning, corporate reorganizations, international taxation, regulated investment companies and REITs, and financial products. He has also served as a lecturer on law with Harvard Law School, teaching partnership taxation. He is now on the board of regents of the American College of Tax Counsel and has also served on the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council.

Mr. Ponda is a charter member and former secretary of The Indus Entrepreneurs – Boston, and he is on the advisory board to the South Asian Bar Association of Greater Boston. In 2007 Boston Business Journal named Ameek one of its Boston “40 under 40.” He is also a member of the American Law Institute, the International Fiscal Association, and NAREIT.

Mr. Ponda holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, a JD from Harvard Law School, and an LLM in taxation from Boston University School of Law.

Sharda Cherwoo is a strategic global thinker, innovator and leader in digital transformation, M&A and integration, data analytics, technology, and business process improvement.

Sharda served as a senior partner at EY, where she worked for over 35 years across the audit, tax, management consulting, and transactions advisory practices. Sharda led the profit and loss, market growth strategy, and business transformation as director of tax operations for EY’s Americas region. As CEO of EY’s Global Shared Services and the architect of EY’s first offshoring strategy for client-facing operations, Sharda accelerated EY’s vision for the future of work and talent transformation.

Sharda also led EY’s efforts in intelligent automation, pushing the firm to become an early adopter of cutting-edge technologies in digital transformation and AI. She received the 2017 Gold Stevie® Award for Innovation of the Year for her leadership and implementation of robotics at EY. Sharda is a member of the board of World Fuel Services Corporation, a Fortune 100 company (NYSE:INT), which provides an integrated platform for energy, logistics and related advisory services. She is also a member of the nonprofit International House Board of Trustees, whose mission is to train and empower the next generation of global leaders and foster cross-cultural understanding.

Eli J. Dicker is managing director of national markets in tax services at Crowe LLP.

Prior to Crowe, Dicker spent 15 years with Tax Executives Institute, most recently as its executive director. TEI is the preeminent association of in-house tax professionals worldwide and comprises over 7,000 members from 3,000 of the largest companies in North America and South America, Europe, and Asia.

Eli’s professional experience also includes leading the tax accounting and reporting function at Capital One Financial Corp., overseeing federal and state tax accounting, reporting, and compliance; serving as a tax principal with KPMG LLP; and working as an attorney-adviser and trial attorney in the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (International) and the Miami district counsel office of the IRS. Eli has also served as an adjunct professor of law in Georgetown University Law Center’s graduate tax program, where he taught a cross-border tax controversy workshop.

Eli holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Queens College, City University of New York, a JD from Northeastern University School of Law, and an LLM in taxation from New York University School of Law.

Karen L. Hawkins is a former chair of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation.

Ms. Hawkins is also a past chair of the State Bar of California Section of Taxation, the ABA Taxation Subcommittee on Civil Penalties, and the IRS Liaison Meetings Committee. She served as a director on the council of the ABA tax section and as the section's vice chair of professional services. Ms. Hawkins also is a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.

Ms. Hawkins is the founder of the San Francisco Pro Se/Pro Bono Tax Court project, and she played a key role in the successful efforts to reform the innocent spouse statutes in both federal and California law. Her honors include the V. Judson Klein and Joanne Garvey awards from the State Bar of California Section of Taxation in 2002 and 2012, respectively; the National Pro Bono Award from the ABA tax section and the Judith McKelvey Distinguished Alumna Award from Golden Gate University, both in 2004; and the Jules Ritholz Memorial Merit Award from the ABA Tax Section’s Civil and Criminal Tax Penalties Committee in 2008. In 2012, Golden Gate University School of Law named its tax law library collection in Ms. Hawkins’ honor, and in May 2015 the school awarded her an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

Ms. Hawkins earned her JD and MBA from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. She also holds a master’s in education from the University of California, Davis, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Ms. Hawkins consults, speaks, and writes extensively on all aspects of ethics in tax practice.

Joe Huddleston is an executive director in EY’s National Tax Department serving the indirect and state and local tax practices.

Previously, Joe served for 10 years as executive director of the Multistate Tax Commission. In 2011 Tax Analysts named him one of the top 10 individuals who influence state tax policy and practice, and in 2012 he received the 11th annual Award for Outstanding Achievement in State and Local Taxation from New York University. In 2015 he received the Franklin C. Latcham Award for Distinguished Service in State and Local Taxation from Bloomberg BNA. In 2016 he received the Wade Anderson Medal for Leadership in Interstate Tax Cooperation.

Joe served as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Revenue for eight years. He served on the Tennessee State Board of Equalization for six years and was presiding officer for three years. During his tenure as DOR commissioner, he was president of both the Federation of Tax Administrators and the Southeast Association of Tax Administrators. After leaving the Tennessee DOR, Joe became chief financial officer for the metropolitan government of Nashville and Davidson County.

Joe is a founding trustee of both the Paul Hartman Tax Forum at Vanderbilt University Law School in Nashville and the New England State and Local Tax Forum in Boston. He has also served on the advisory boards at NYU and Georgetown Law. Joe is an internationally recognized speaker on state tax issues.

Joe received his bachelor’s in political science from the University of South Carolina, his JD from the Nashville School of Law in 1982, and a doctor of laws from the University of South Carolina in 2009. He was named to the University of South Carolina’s board of visitors in 2017.

Christian Kaeser has since 2009 been global head of tax and corporate vice president at Siemens, based in Munich. He is president of the German branch of the International Fiscal Association and a member of IFA’s executive committee. He is chair of the Tax Commission of the German Federation of Industries (BDI) and the supervisory board of the tax advisory company WTS AG. He is a member of the BRITACOM advisory board and is International Chamber of Commerce representative for BRITACOM. Kaeser also teaches at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Lausanne and is an honorary professor in tax law at WU Vienna. He frequently presents at German and international tax conferences and is the author and co-editor of several tax publications.

David Kautter is the Federal Tax Specialty Leader for RSM.

Prior to rejoining RSM, Dave served as the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy where he was the senior official in the federal government responsible for developing and recommending tax policy matters to the Treasury Secretary and the President. He also served as the commissioner of the IRS and is the only person to have ever served in both those roles simultaneously. He played an active role in the design and passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and was the senior federal official responsible for its implementation. Upon his departure from the Treasury, he was awarded their highest honor, the Alexander Hamilton award.

Before joining the Treasury Department, Dave was the leader of RSM’s Washington National Tax practice. Prior to joining RSM, Dave was the managing director and inaugural leader of the Kogod Tax Center at American University, in addition to serving as executive in residence in the business school’s department of accounting and taxation.

Prior to leading Kogod, Dave was with EY for over 30 years. During that time, he served as the director of national tax and was the firm’s lead specialist in the taxation of compensation and benefits. He has advised a wide range of clients on the structure and taxation of compensation arrangements and other tax matters. He also assisted clients with monitoring, interpreting, and participating in the federal legislative and regulatory process.

Dave also served as tax legislative counsel for former U.S. Senator John C. Danforth. He advised Senator Danforth, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, on matters affecting taxation, securities law, and banking regulation, and drafted the original version of the research and development tax credit.

Dave has published more than 50 articles on various areas of federal taxation and is frequently quoted in the national financial press. He holds a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law School and a Bachelor of Business Administration with high honors from the University of Notre Dame. Dave is both a CPA and an attorney and is a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the American Bar Association.

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.

Robert Risse is the director of both the tax law and digitalization LLM program at WU Vienna and the Tax Law Technology Center at WU Vienna. He is on the board of the Institute for Digitalization in Tax Law in Berlin, where he heads the distributed ledger technology (blockchain) committee.

Risse was previously a lawyer and financial adviser at Henkel AG & Co. He also headed the tax and risk management department of Deutsche Post AG and the corporate group management for national and international tax law of Mannesmann AG. He is a former member of the tax advisory examining board at the Ministry of Finance of North Rhine and is former board chair of the Transfer Pricing Center of the Institute for International and Austrian Tax Law at the University of Economics and Business at WU Vienna.

Danielle Rolfes is a partner and co-leads the international tax group within KPMG’s Washington National Tax office. She joined KPMG in 2017 following her tenure as international tax counsel at the Treasury Department.

Danielle advises clients on U.S. international tax matters, including tax planning and controversies concerning their structures, operations, and transactions. In particular, she has extensive experience advising on issues related to international tax policy, tax treaties, the character and source of income, subpart F, expense allocation, and foreign tax credits. More recently, she has focused on helping clients navigate U.S. tax reform, including the base erosion and antiabuse tax, the regimes for global intangible low-taxed income and foreign-derived intangible income, and the limitations on the foreign tax credit.

Before joining KPMG, Danielle served as an executive in the Treasury Office of Tax Policy, where she was international tax counsel, leading Treasury’s international tax legal staff and advising the assistant secretary for tax policy and deputy assistant secretary for international tax affairs on all aspects of international tax policy.

Before working at Treasury, Danielle was a partner at a law firm where she advised multinational corporations on international tax planning, controversy, and compliance matters, as well as on tax accounting methods.

Danielle is a frequent speaker and writer on a variety of international tax topics. She is the author of numerous articles and An Analysis of FIN 48 – Accounting for Uncertain Tax Positions, which was intended to make the accounting for uncertain tax positions accessible to lawyers.

Danielle received her bachelor’s degree from Wright State University; her JD from Harvard Law School, where she was an Editor of the Harvard Law Review; and her LLM in taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.

H. David Rosenbloom is a member of Caplin & Drysdale Chtd. in Washington and is the James S. Eustice Visiting Professor of Taxation and Director of the International Tax Program at New York University School of Law.

Mr. Rosenbloom was International Tax Counsel and Director of the Treasury Office of International Tax Affairs from 1978 to 1981. He has taught international taxation and related subjects at Stanford, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and New York University law schools. He has also taught at educational institutions in Taipei; Mexico City; Milan; Bergamo; Bologna; Bari; Neuchatel; Sydney; Melbourne; Mainz; Heidelberg; Rio de Janeiro; Leiden; Vienna; Lisbon; and Pretoria. He has served as a tax policy adviser for the U.S. Treasury, the OECD, USAID, and the World Bank in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Senegal, Malawi, and South Africa.

Mr. Rosenbloom attended Princeton University, the University of Florence in Italy, and Harvard Law School. He has served as president of the Harvard Law Review, assistant to Ambassador Arthur Goldberg at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas.

Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff is a former New York City finance commissioner, New York state tax and finance commissioner, and New Jersey state treasurer. He has also served on the New York City Council.

Earlier in his career, Sidamon-Eristoff was an associate at Webster and Sheffield, specializing in federal and state income tax planning and compliance. His consulting work in tax administration included a series of short-term assignments for Chemonics International, an international development consulting firm, executing a business climate reform project in the Republic of Georgia for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Sidamon-Eristoff serves on the boards of Phipps Houses, the Hudson Highlands Land Trust, and the Point O’Woods Foundation. He is a former trustee of Scenic Hudson, the St. Bernard's School, Phipps Community Development Corp., and the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund. He is a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on State and Local Taxation. He is a former president of the North Eastern States Tax Officials Association, a former board member of the Federation of Tax Administrators, and a former member of the IRS Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee.

Sidamon-Eristoff earned a bachelor's degree in politics from Princeton University and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center. He holds an LLM in taxation from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and an advanced professional certificate in information technology from New York University.

Sam Sim is a member of the Tax Analysts board and the International Association of Tax Judges. He is listed as an expert at the Foundation for International Tax Disputes and is a member of the New York University International Tax Program Practice Council. He served as senior adviser to the Global Tax Policy Centre at the University of Vienna (WU) and as Asia president and regional vice-president (Europe, Asia, and Latin America) at the Tax Executives Institute. He is a former consultant to the U.N. and the Asian Development Bank. Sim majored in economics at Cambridge University and has an LLM in taxation from New York University and a graduate degree in accounting from Singapore Management University. He was previously a tax attorney in New York and a regional tax leader at IBM.

Sam Thompson is the Arthur Weiss Distinguished Faculty Scholar and the director of the Center for the Study of Mergers and Acquisitions at Penn State Law. Sam teaches mergers and acquisitions, focusing on corporate, securities, tax, accounting, and antitrust aspects of these very complex transactions. He also periodically teaches basic federal income tax, international tax, corporate tax, and contracts.

Sam has been a tax policy adviser to the South African Ministry of Finance on behalf of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Tax Assistance Office. He has served as a consultant on merger and acquisition issues to the Federal Trade Commission, a professor in residence at the European Commission’s antitrust Merger Task Force in Brussels, and an attorney fellow in the Securities and Exchange Commission Office of Mergers and Acquisitions.

Sam has presented tax policy testimony before Treasury, the IRS, and the House of Representatives. He has been a full professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and the UCLA School of Law, and he was the dean of the University of Miami School of Law. He also served as the Jacquin D. Bierman Visiting Professor of Taxation at Yale Law School.

Before his academic career, Sam was the partner in charge of the tax division of Schiff Hardin, a Chicago-based law firm. He is the author of 20 books and more than 75 articles on corporate and international tax, and on corporate, antitrust, and securities issues related to mergers and acquisitions.

Sam received his bachelor’s degree from West Chester University, his JD and his master’s in business and applied economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and his LLM in taxation from New York University.