He is admitted as a legal practitioner in New South Wales and has completed postgraduate study in taxation.

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Michael Cain FCA

Michael provides technical support to the audit and accounting teams throughout Nexia’s nine offices in two countries. His current projects include the review and implementation of revised practices of quality control systems and processes to ensure compliance with prescribed regulatory and professional standards and development of a complying audit methodology. Michael brings over 27 years experience as a registered company auditor and also tutors in accounting and audit at the University of Melbourne.

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Michael Talevich

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Michelle Bennett

Michelle Bennett is a Director in the Indirect Tax Team of KPMG in Melbourne, specialising in GST and stamp duty.

Following the completion of degrees in commerce and law, Michelle joined a national law firm in 1997 and was admitted to legal practice in New South Wales in 1998. Joining the tax team during the beginning of the GST implementation in 1999 meant rapidly gaining a depth and breadth of experience both in the technical application and practical implementation of a new tax in a diverse range of business.

Michelle relocated to Melbourne in 2001 and completed a Masters of Taxation in 2002. A secondment to the internal tax team at a major bank for over 12 months cemented her understanding of the practical issues of tax compliance in a commercial environment.

This practical understanding complements her extensive experience in relation to the application of GST across a broad range of commercial transactions. Michelle has been involved in providing advice on the GST implementation and review programs of financial institutions, insurers, retailers, health care providers, managed investment schemes, property developers, corporate and government bodies.

Michelle’s practice involves a particular focus on the financial services and property industries and she has presented, written and co-authored numerous articles and papers for professional conferences and industry journals. She has also assisted clients in successful negotiations with the Australian Taxation Office on a broad range of engagements, including private ruling applications and refund claims as well as specific issues arising from ATO reviews and audits.

Michelle is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria and a fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia.

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Nicholas Clifton

Nicholas is a Senior Associate in the Melbourne Office of Blake Dawson. His practice covers most areas of indirect tax law with particular emphasis on:

• goods and services tax;
• stamp duty (including land rich duty, property trust structuring, mortgage duty and the corporate reconstruction exemptions);
• land tax; and
• human resources taxes (including fringe benefits tax and payroll tax).

Nicholas' broad practice enables him to consult in relation to overall tax structuring of large transactions as well as due diligence exercises.

Nicholas has practiced in Tax for 10 years, both in the Australian Taxation Office and for a number of Australia's top-tier law and accounting firms. He has a wide range of experience in stamp duty covering all areas of practice and all States and Territories and has advised a number of large property and financial clients.

Nicholas' GST expertise dates back to 2000 when he was part of a large law firm's GST implementation team where he assisted in setting up implementation and compliance regimes for a number of large clients. He has specialised in the application of GST to large property clients.

Nicholas holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours in Mathematics) and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours). He also taught in the Taxation Law programme for a number of years at the University of Queensland.

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Peter McGinty

Peter is a Chartered Accountant with a degree in Commerce and Law from the University of Melbourne.

Peter has had over 20 years experience in income tax. This experience has been focused on domestic Australian tax issues affecting family businesses, SME’s and high wealth individuals.

Peter has worked for mid-tier accounting firms and is familiar with their in-house training needs. Peter has spent a number of years advising tax agents on tax matters.

Peter has extensive tax training experience having previously worked for the NTAA. During this time Peter also specialised in managing the ATO liaison functions and represented the association on various ATO committees

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Philip Broderick

Philip Broderick is a senior associate at the Harwood Andrews Lawyers Melbourne in the Business Law Department.

Philip provides trusted advice, primarily to businesses and medium to high-net-worth individuals regarding the use and regulation of superannuation funds, trusts and other entities as investment or business structures while ensuring such structures protect and enhance their commercial and personal interests.

Philip's areas of practice are:

• Superannuation advice
• Taxation advice for superannuation funds and members
• Trust advice
• Business and investment structures and restructuring
• Asset protection and wealth preservation
• Business and personal estate and succession planning

Philip applies his knowledge of superannuation, trusts and business and investment structuring matters to assist businesses and individuals make sound decisions taking into account superannuation and taxation considerations.

Philip commenced his career in law with Price Higgins in 2002 and joined Harwood Andrews Lawyers in 2004 when Price Higgins and Harwood Andrews Lawyers merged. He became a senior associate in 2007. Prior to 2002, he worked for the Australian Taxation Office during the implementation of the goods and services tax and for the ANZ Investment Bank. Philip has written numerous articles for Taxation in Australia and newsletters produced by the Small Independent Superannuation Funds Association and Harwood Andrews Lawyers.

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Philip Joe-Low

Philip’s primary focus is to further develop and support the content and capabilty of Deloitte AMLcheck™. His other focus is providing Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF/ETS) consulting and advisory services.

Prior to joining Deloitte in September 2007, Philip was responsible for AML/CTF Operations at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia including enforcement of Economic and Trade Sanctions (ETS) and the interdiction of Terrorist Financing in the RTGS and SWIFT payment streams. He also monitored the Bank’s outbound retail cross border payment flows for money laundering. His previous roles at the Commonwealth Bank include Acting Country Head - Vietnam, Regional Manager – Banks, Sovereigns and Supranationals with the Financial Institutions Group and Associate Vice President - Corporate and Structured Finance, specialising in aircraft, trade and sovereign credit risks. Prior to joining the Commonwealth Bank, Philip was part of the Academic Faculty at a number of institutions in Australasia specialising in Banking and International Finance.

Philip has a MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW, a Master of Management Studies from the University of Waikato, a Post Graduate Diploma in Arts in Economics and Bachelor of Arts in Economics, both from the University of Otago.

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Rob Jeremiah

Rob Jeremiah is a principal of the Harwood Andrews Business Law department.

Rob is accredited by the Law Institute of Victoria as a specialist in both tax law and business law.

Rob is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria's Tax Law Specialisation Committee. He also chairs the Technical Committee of the Small Independent Superannuation Funds Association, a representative body of small independent superannuation fund services and suppliers, which was formed to provide a national voice to government.

Rob's principal areas of practice are:

• Business structuring
• Taxation advice
• Superannuation advice
• Business succession
• Family succession
• Trusts
• Business and commercial transaction advice

Rob is acknowledged as a leader in his field and is regularly asked to share his specialist knowledge on areas such as trusts and tax reform at national seminars and conferences organised by the Taxation Institute of Australia, the Institute of Chartered Accounts in Australia and the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants.

Rob was made a partner of Andrews & Backhouse in 1981. In 1992 he became a partner of the newly formed Harwood Andrews and has since been a principal of the firm.

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Rob Nixon

Rob Nixon is an award winning consultant who loves helping Accounting firms improve their financial position.

Since 1985 Rob has been managing other peoples businesses or operating his own successful businesses.

He is not an accountant by training or qualifications. In fact he finished school when he was 16 so he has no formal qualifications at all. Just street smarts business acumen.

In early 1994 he literally fell into the accounting profession after an accountant attended one of his customer service seminars and asked for his help.

Rob enjoys the company of accountants. His friends don’t understand the passion he has for them!

Since that fortunate meeting in 1994 he has travelled the world working directly with accountants and building businesses that provide resources, training and consulting services to them.

He has authored countless articles and publications on what works and what does not work in high performing accounting firms.

He has directly coached over 300 partners of firms to be more successful and has had over 40,000 people attend his popular workshops and seminars.

He has successfully franchised his unique coaching model and as recognition of Rob’s success he has been inducted into the elite ‘Million Dollar Consultant® Hall of Fame.’ He is the first Australian to be awarded this honour and only one of thirteen globally.

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Rob Warnock

Robert is a principal at Macpherson + Kelley lawyers and heads up M+K's tax and superannuation practice.

Rob advises accountants and their clients in tax matters. His 20 years experience in tax and related areas include:

• Income tax;
• Business tax issues;
• Capital Gains tax;
• Estate Planning;
• Tax Planning;
• Tax and Property issues;
• Tax structuring;
• Tax litigation;
• GST.

Rob has been a member of many Treasury and Tax Office tax consultation committees and appeared before parliamentary committees on tax reform issues. He has also published many articles on tax related matters and has been presenting practical tax seminars to accountants for more than 15 years.

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Ron Jorgensen

Ron Jorgensen is a principal in the Harwood Andrews Lawyers’ business law department.

Ron is accredited by the Law Institute of Victoria as a Specialist in Tax Law and has a Master of Laws (Taxation) from the University of Melbourne. He is also a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia.

Ron chairs the Taxation Institute of Australia State Taxes Sub-Committee and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia Discussion Group Number 2. He is a member of numerous technical and advisory taxation committees with the Taxation Institute of Australia, State Revenue Office (Victoria) and Law Institute of Victoria.

Ron delivers practical taxation outcomes in the area of federal and state revenue laws and revenue litigation. He also advises on business structuring, tax-sensitive commercial transactions, trust law and property developments.

Ron’s principal areas of practice are:-
• Taxation administration and litigation
• Capital gains tax consulting
• Taxation of trusts and trust variations
• Taxation of high-net-worth individuals
• Stamp duty and land tax
• Establishment and structuring of businesses and charitable trusts
• Structure and transfer of business entities

Ron applies his extensive knowledge of taxation matters to assist businesses and individuals make sound decisions taking into account taxation considerations.

Ron joined Harwood Andrews Lawyers in 2006 after having worked for a number of Melbourne legal firms. He regularly presents at Taxation Institute of Australia seminars and has written numerous articles for Taxation in Australia and leading legal information publisher Lexis Nexis.

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Simone Lunny

Qualifications

Bachelor of Commerce - Deakin University

ICAA Professional Year Program

Experience

Simone is a Director in KPMG’s GTPS practice, providing transfer pricing services to a multitude of multinational and ASX listed clients operating in various industries. Simone joined the GTPS practice in January 2006 after returning from a 12 month secondment to KPMG Cambodia where she was responsible for leading the tax practice in Phnom Penh. Prior to her secondment, Simone was a Senior Manager in Corporate Tax where she specialised in business acquisitions, divestments and restructures, thin capitalisation and dividend policy including franking account management.

Industry/specialist experience

Simone’s client portfolio includes clients in the financial services, manufacturing, utilities, FMCG and service industries and her areas of experience include transfer pricing planning, audit defence and global documentation projects.

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Suzanne Kneen

Suzanne is a Senior Associate in the tax team of Blake Dawson, specialising in GST.

Suzanne has advised on all aspects of GST since its introduction, primarily in the area of financial services. She acts for major corporate clients, financial institutions, governments and financial packagers to provide GST advice on a wide range of transactions including mergers and acquisitions, securitisations and cross border transactions.

Prior to joining Blake Dawson, Suzanne spent two years in London specialising in VAT in the financial services industry where she worked closely with leading specialists in VAT & financial services.

Suzanne is admitted to practice as a lawyer in Victoria. She holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce from Deakin University. She is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia.

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Suzi Russell

• Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Economics and Politics with European Studies, University of Exeter (United Kingdom
• Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales

Fuel Tax Experience

Suzi has specialised in indirect taxation matters for eleven years. Suzi’s primary area of focus is GST and fuel tax in the public sector.

In relation to the fuel tax regime, Suzi assisted the ATO and Treasury in implementing the changes under the Fuel Tax Act. Suzi’s experience in assisting the ATO in the implementation of this new regime has given her a thorough understanding of the Act and the ATO’s administration of it. In early 2006, Suzi conducted fuel tax implementation training for the Victorian Public Sector on behalf of the Department of Treasury and Finance (Victoria).

In relation to the (previous) Energy Grants Credits Scheme, Suzi has previously liaised with the head of the ATO’s Fuel & Energy Group (Excise) on behalf of one of her clients in relation to a large EGCS voluntary disclosure. This work involved ongoing negotiations with the ATO in respect of the error and agreement concerning the methodology for calculating the error and substantiating the payments.

Suzi recently undertook a review of the fuel tax credit claims of a large mine in far North Queensland. This review involved testing of the on-site fuel management system used to capture fuel tax data on the mine site.

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Tony Negline

Tony Negline has been working in financial services for 20 years. He works with many organisations to help them understand how the superannuation, financial services, tax, life insurance, Centrelink and aged care rules work to directly impact client circumstances.

He writes the DIY Super column for The Australian newspaper.

He is part owner in the internet business AllThingsConsidered which provides newsletter and survey services and information to financial services organisations.

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Tony Pearson

Tony has extensive experience speaking on economic issues across Europe, Asia, US and Australia. After 17 years with the Reserve Bank of Australia, Tony spent seven years as Global Head of Economics in the Markets Division of the NAB. He joined ANZ as Head of Australian Economics in April 2005. He is widely quoted in the media and formerly had his own weekly TV slot on Channel 7 Sunrise appropriately titled “The Pearson Report”.

Tony is co author of a book on International Financial Markets which is recommended by the Australian Bankers Association.

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Tony van der Westhuysen

Tony is a qualified lawyer with postgraduate qualifications in Tax and Business Administration. He has had more than 25 years experience as a tax practitioner in South Africa, USA, New Zealand and Australia, and has been a tax partner in two of the "Big Four" accountancy firms.

Tony has been a Tax Lecturer at one of the "Group of Eight" Australian Universities for more than five years, during which time he designed and presented introductory, intermediate and advanced Tax Programs, and has taught in the Master of Taxation course.

He has been an accredited presenter of Tax Sessions for CPA Australia since 2003. During that time, he has presented over 20 technical tax workshops covering topics such as Corporate Income Tax, Quarterly Tax Updates, Tax Effective Structures, Fringe Benefits Tax and GST.

Tony has also had more than five years experience presenting technical tax seminars (both face-to-face and online) to Government, the Health Service and tertiary education sectors.

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Tristan Webb

Tristan worked in tax consulting in a mid-tier Chartered Accounting firm specialising in CGT and corporate tax issues prior to joining the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia as a Tax Trainer. He also previously worked for CCH Australia contributing to publications such as the Australian Master Tax Guide and the Australian Federal Tax Reporter. Prior to this he worked for a big four Chartered Accounting firm and has had several years experience in various areas within the Australian Taxation Office.

Tristan has prepared and presented tax seminars for the Taxation Institute of Australia and has considerable experience in all areas of taxation law. Tristan completed his Masters in Taxation from the UNSW Atax program in 2001 whilst working for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Sydney.

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Veronica Doody

With an extensive career and specialist tax experience covering a wide range of income tax and indirect taxes areas, Veronica has advised a cross-section of Australian enterprises and people.

From SME’s to large multinational companies as well as high net worth individuals and family businesses, Veronica has worked through a large range of tax issues and changes. Veronica’s career in tax commenced with the ATO where she held a number of senior and specialist roles including national technical training program development.

Veronica also has several years practical tax and business services managerial experience in chartered firms as well as tax consulting to industry and professional practitioners. In the past five years she has been a senior tax trainer with a training firm and has held previous training roles at tertiary institutions.

Veronica’s formal studies in Accounting, Law, Post Graduate Tax and Teaching compliment her wide practical knowledge and experience.

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