Presenters

The Institute of Chartered Accountants

• Adalene Pandeli
• Adrian Rowley
• Aletta Boshoff
• Allan Keith
• Allan Swan
• Andrew Archer
• Andrew Biviano
• Andrew Bloore
• Andrew Heard
• Andrew Hutt
• Andrew Mackenzie
• Andrew Stringer
• Anna Adamidis
• Arnie Narayan
• Basil Palassis CA
• Bastian Gasser
• Ben Travers
• Ben Watkinson
• Betsy-Ann Howe
• Bill Sfikas
• Boris Gontmakher
• Brendan Taylor
• Bruce Thomas
• Bryan Skipworth
• Campbell Simpson
• Chris Balalovski
• Christin Schaller FCA
• Claire Locke FCA
• Colin Jones CA
• Craig Dangar
• Craig Jackson CA
• Daniel Smedley
• Darren Clarke
• Darren Wynen CA
• David Fincher
• David Holland, CA
• David Lilja
• David Smith FCA
• Debbie Crowther FCA
• Denis Barlin
• Dorothy Crosby
• Dr Philip Bender
• Dr Sven Hansen
• Duncan Baxter
• Elizabeth Lucas FCA
• Emma Spiers
• Frank Sanitate
• Gareth Newport
• Gary Martin
• Gemma Dale
• Geoff Mann
• Geoffrey Harris
• Gordon Mackenzie
• Grant Ellis
• Hamish Blair
• Helen Gilfedder
• Hugh Gyton
• James McPhedran
• James Macky
• Jane Mead
• Jason Hadassin
• John Allen
• John King
• John McAlister
• Jonathan Rintoul CA
• Josh Chye
• Jule Fuller
• Justin Siew
• Kai-Chen Chang
• Kathryn Breden
• Keat Chew
• Kel Fitzalan
• Ken Mansell
• Kerry Hicks
• Kevin Marlow
• Kim Heng
• Kirstin Hazell
• Kirstin Schirmer
• Kylie Rusten CA
• Kym Bailey
• Langdon Patrick
• Lee Holland
• Leila Golchin
• Lily Li
• Linda Chander
• Liz Westover
• Louise Biti
• Louise Ikeda
• Mardi Heinrich
• Marisa Batsiokis
• Mark Poole
• Mark Wilkinson
• Martin Caplice
• Martin Morrow
• Matt Osmond
• Matthew Curnow
• Matthew Hall
• Merv Lobb
• Michael Cain
• Michael Charles
• Michael Cox
• Michael David
• Michael Fitzpatrick
• Michael Talevich
• Michelle Bennett
• Michelle Gamble
• Moira Merrick
• Natalie
• Neil Ward
• Nicholas Clifton
• Nick Gangemi
• Nigel Smith
• Noelene Robertson
• Patricia Stebbens
• Paul Carr CA
• Peter Bembrick
• Peter Berg
• Peter Carlson
• Peter McGinty
• Peter Murray
• Peter Townsend BA, LLB, FAICD,FCLA
• Peter Whitehead
• Phil Lindsay
• Philip Joe-Low
• Philip Lindsay
• Rachel Cook
• Richard Buchanan
• Richard Day
• Rob Jeremiah
• Rob Nixon
• Rob Parker
• Rob Warnock
• Rod Henderson
• Roger Montgomery
• Ron Jorgensen
• Ron Jorgensen
• Ross Philpott
• Sharon Burke
• Silvia Damiano
• Simon Dalgarno
• Simone Connolly
• Simone Lunny
• Soulla McFall
• Steven Forgione
• Stuart Dall
• Susan Orchard
• Suzanne Kneen
• Suzi Russell
• Tao de Haas
• Thea Foster
• Tony Negline
• Tony Pearson
• Tony van der Westhuysen
• Tracey Ward
• Verne Ordman
• Yasser El-Ansary

Presenter Profiles

Adalene Pandeli

Adalene is a Director in KPMG's Corporate Tax Group. Adalene joined KPMG in 1998. Adalene has experience in assisting both in-bound and out-bound multi-national corporate groups with a broad range of corporate and international tax issues.

Adalene is responsible to present and coordinate the Institute's KPMG Monthly Corporate Tax Update. This series will see KPMG partners, directors and managers present an up to the minute tax update as part of the Chartered Accountants Live Online Training program.

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Adrian Rowley

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Aletta Boshoff

Aletta is the Audit & Accounting Technical Director at Nexia Australia & New Zealand. Her main responsibilities are quality control, audit methodology, training, presentations and publications to clients, technical advice, review of financial statements and IFRS consulting.

Aletta commenced her career in the Audit Division at Coopers and Lybrand in Johannesburg. Aletta lectured Financial Accounting and Reporting at the University of Pretoria (1993 to 1996), the Rand Afrikaans University (1997 to 2002) and Monash University (2003 to 2004).

Aletta worked as a Project Manager at the AASB from 2005 to June 2008. Aletta was an associate director in the Professional Services Group at BDO from July 2008 to December 2009.

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Allan Keith

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Allan Swan

Allan Swan is a principal of MOORESLEGAL. He holds degrees in law and economics and a diploma in financial services. Allan’s background in taxation and trusts law gives him a practical perspective in providing legal advice and consulting services to financial advisors, accountants, lawyers, and their clients, in respect of:

• Estate planning and testamentary trusts.
• Superannuation death benefits
• Self managed superannuation funds.
• Family, unit, hybrid, protective and specific purpose trusts.
• Asset protection planning.
• Intra business agreements and business succession.
• Taxation and duty issues arising from the above areas.

Most of Allan’s working week is spent as a legal practitioner, the balance is taken up with presenting seminars, workshops and conference papers and with writing.

Examples of Allan’s extensive writing include the books Estate Planning Documents (published by MOORESLEGAL) and Master Estate Planning Guide (to be published by CCH in the 2nd half of 2009).

Allan is accredited by SPAA as an SMSF Specialist Advisor and is a fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia.


 

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Andrew Archer

Andrew has been with Grant Thornton since 1987, including a two-year secondment to the London office. Andrew has also spent 6 months managing an Australian subsidiary of a US Group. He has been a partner since 1999. He is responsible for co-ordinating audit and other services to a diverse portfolio of clients, including listed companies, international groups, large proprietary companies and not-for-profit organisations.

In addition to his client service role, Andrew is involved in technical matters including financial reporting, accounting standards, and assurance. Andrew was an alternate member of the Urgent Issues Group and is also a member of the Grant Thornton IFRS Interpretations Group, an international committee responsible for the implementation and consistent application of IFRS globally. He also participates in various technical discussion groups and is a regular presenter of technical materials for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.

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Andrew Biviano

Andrew has over 10 years experience covering a broad range of areas within Financial Planning, with particular experience in the area of superannuation. He has completed a Bachelor of Mathematics and a Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning and is a member of the FPA, SPAA and a Fellow of FINSIA.

Currently, Andrew is the Technical and Paraplanning Manager at Fiducian Portfolio Services which includes providing strategic support and technical advice to a national team of financial advisers. He is also a contributor to a number of industry related publications.

Throughout his career he has developed and delivered a range of superannuation and general financial planning seminars for advisers, trustees and employees of a number of large corporate employers.

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Andrew Bloore

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Andrew Heard

Andrew Heard is a Chartered Accountant and Official Liquidator and is the joint founder of Heard Phillips; a boutique chartered accounting practice based in Adelaide focused on providing value for money business improvement, restructuring and corporate insolvency services.

Andrew has worked exclusively in the field of restructuring and corporate insolvency since 1990. In that time he has worked in specialist practices, second tier firms and the big 4.

In the past Andrew has conducted many high profile matters including being appointed the Receiver & Manager of Andrew Garret’s vineyard and viticultural assets and Torbrek Vintners Limited, the restructuring manager for the recovery of a $45 million portfolio of impaired assets for a major Australian trading bank, the restructuring adviser to a family owned group with interests in civil engineering, mining and transport and he prepared investigative accountants reviews of a large plastics and brushware manufacturer and a professional services practice with offices in 6 countries.

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Andrew Hutt

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Andrew Mackenzie

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Andrew Stringer

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Anna Adamidis

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Arnie Narayan

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Basil Palassis CA

Basil Palassis is a Chartered Accountant and CA Financial Planning Specialist with over 17 years experience in the superannuation and financial services industry. He was founding committee member of the Financial Planning chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, spokesperson on superannuation and financial planning for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and on the ASIC Financial Services Consultative Committee in Western Australia.

He has worked for and been a partner with accounting and taxation firms that offer financial planning services as an authorised representative and responsible officer. In 2005 he established Fusion Planning Group in Perth to specialise in providing financial planning services to a select client base working with accountants in public practice.  

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Bastian Gasser

Bastian has over 8 years experience in consulting and advising Australian and foreign corporates, government departments, statutory authorities, charitable entities and superannuation and infrastructure funds on GST law. Bastian started his career in Indirect Taxes at PricewaterhouseCoopers, focussing on GST, Customs and Pricing and Competition Policy and has since specialised exclusively in GST

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Ben Travers

Ben Travers is a director in KPMG's Equity Based Compensation team. Ben has over 10 years experience advising public and private companies on all aspects of the design and implementation of employee share schemes.

Ben's experience includes the implementation of option and rights plans, restricted share plans, $1,000 tax exempt plans, stock appreciation right plans, loan plans and phantom plans.

Ben has been actively involved in the consultation process in respect of the recent legislative changes to the taxation of employee share schemes as well as broader executive remuneration matters such as the Productivity Review into Executive Remuneration

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Ben Watkinson

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Betsy-Ann Howe

Betsy is a Taxation partner in the Mallesons Stephen Jaques Sydney office, where she specialises in tax-effective structured finance transactions and cross-border aircraft and ship leasing. She has extensive experience in M&A transactions, particularly the establishment and structuring of funds in Australia, Europe and the United States. Betsy also has Australian and international property trust experience, including advising on the acquisition of property assets utilising the REIT regimes in the US, Europe and Singapore.

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Bill Sfikas

Bill is a Tax Director with KPMG’s Sydney office and has over 12 years experience in advising Australian and foreign multinationals on a range of corporate taxation matters.

Bill has extensive industry experience, having acted for numerous clients in the Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) and industrial markets segments and is a member of KPMG’s ENR Tax Group in Australia. This experience includes advising on cross-border transactions, mergers and acquisitions and debt/equity raising transactions.

More recently, Bill has been assisting clients in the ENR sector understand and assess the impacts of the proposed resource rent tax regimes announced by the Australian Government, including the Resource Super Profits Tax, which is to be replaced with the Minerals Resource Rent Tax.

Bill has a Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Laws from Macquarie University, and a Master of Laws from the University of Sydney. He is an associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.

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Boris Gontmakher

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Brendan Taylor

Brendan Taylor specialises in the interpretation of awards, negotiation of employment contracts (including executive bonus schemes), negotiation of enterprise agreements and advising businesses engaged in industrial disputes. He also specialises in superannuation legislation, OH&S legislation, Workers Compensation legislation and advising on the termination of employees, employee redundancy and performance management of employees. Before working at Swaab Attorneys, Brendan worked for a large English law firm in the Middle East and also as in house counsel to a major Australian bank.

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Bruce Thomas

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Bryan Skipworth

- Bryan has over eight years experience in accounting and taxation matters, including income tax, fringe benefits tax (FBT) and petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT).

- His recent FBT experience includes:
* assisting clients in FBT matters who range from diverse industries including government, mining, oil & gas, and agribusiness
* providing advice to clients on a variety of FBT matters
* assisting in FBT return preparation and other compliance activities
* being part of the tax technical review team for KPMG’s FBTSimplifier® software, recently acquired by the Thomson Reuters Group (prior to the sale of the FBTSimplifier® software, Bryan was also KPMG Perth’s resident product champion and external client software trainer)
* facilitating FBT training sessions for KPMG’s in-house training for the CA Program

- Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Taxation)

- Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia
 

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Campbell Simpson

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Chris Balalovski

Chris Balalovski is the Senior Manager in Perpetual Private Wealth's Strategic Advice unit. Chris is responsible for the creation, delivery and maintenance of all material surrounding non-investment advice provided by Perpetual Private Wealth, such as taxation, superannuation, asset-protection and estate-planning.

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Christin Schaller FCA

Christin runs a successful consulting practice specialising in providing audit and assurance training to small to medium Chartered Accounting firms and has assisted a number of firms in meeting the documentation requirements of the ‘force of law’ auditing standards. She is a regular presenter for the Institute, presenting at various conferences over a number of years.

Christin is also a technical consultant to the Institute’s Quality Review Program, specialising in audit and assurance matters she has acted as a sessional lecturer in assurance services for Macquarie University’s postgraduate conversion course.

Prior to establishing her own practice, Christin held dual roles at Pannell Kerr Forster, managing the national training function as well as a select portfolio of audit clients. She gained her pre-qualification experience at KPMG.

Christin has completed postgraduate studies in Adult Education at the University of Technology.

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Claire Locke FCA

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Colin Jones CA

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Craig Dangar

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Craig Jackson CA

Craig is a partner with over 22 years’ experience in advising leading domestic and multinational corporations on the management and resolution of complex tax risk reviews, tax audits and disputes. Craig specializes in corporate tax, Part IVA, partnership and service trusts and has a wide client base across the entertainment and media; information technology; food manufacture and gaming industries. Craig has recently been involved in resolving complex ATO corporate tax audits with a range of clients, in manufacturing and media industries. He is also providing strategic support to clients in litigation with the ATO.

Craig is both a Chartered Accountant and Solicitor, with qualifications including a master of laws (obtained with a tax focus).

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Daniel Smedley

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Darren Clarke

Darren joined the NAB in 2004 and has been involved in strategic development activities across the Business Bank, Retail Bank, Wealth Management and Asian businesses. Darren is also responsible for the NAB’s approach to Climate Change and was lucky enough to be selected as one of Al Gore’s ambassadors to deliver “An Inconvenient Truth” slide show.

Prior to working at NAB, Darren spent 6 years as a Project Manager and consultant, including 4 years at Boral developing real time logistics optimisation technologies and processes. Darren started his working life as a Naval Officer in the Royal Australian Navy.

Darren has an MBA and a Bachelor of Science degree.

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Darren Wynen CA

Darren holds a B.Bus (Accountancy) and has over 18 years experience in accounting. For the last 12 years, Darren has focused heavily on taxation law for SMSFs, with 10 of those years gained working as a tax researcher, writer and presenter at the National Tax and Accountants Association (NTAA). His time at the NTAA gained him an extremely practical insight into the ever-changing complexities of SMSFs, as he was responsible for answering over 25,000 calls on their adviser hotline.

 His strong interest in SMSFs saw him found Insyt Pty Ltd, a company specialising in providing SMSF information and training for advisers. Darren is well known in the SMSF field having participated in numerous ATO superannuation forums and tax discussion groups.

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David Fincher

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David Holland, CA

David is a senior manager in the Audit and Assurance Group. David has 15 years experience in a variety of positions including, providing technical advice and training, corporate development and strategic planning. This experience also includes six years within BHP in strategic planning and development, and management/cost accounting.

David is responsible for providing PKF clients with in-house technical training and technical advice on specific accounting issues. He also carries out bi-annual and annual Financial Report Technical Reviews for listed entities as well as client Australian International Financial Reporting Standards (A-IFRS) work.

David is a member of the regulatory discussion group of major accounting firms, and as a specialist in his field David has prepared and delivered a variety of IFRS seminars for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.

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David Lilja

Professional Qualifications and Memberships
• Bachelor of Business Accounting, Victoria University
• Master of Taxation, Monash University
• Currently completing the Master of Business Administration, Monash University
• Fellow Member of The Taxation Institute of Australia

Employment Experience
David is a Senior Manager specialising in Employment Taxes with over 11 years experience in the area.

David has had extensive experience with a broad range of clients from multi-national public companies to government entities advising primarily on FBT and reportable fringe benefits, salary packaging, PAYG Withholding, Payroll Tax, WorkCover, and Superannuation Guarantee.

He regularly provides advice in respect of a broad range of FBT and other employment tax related issues including:
• Strategic and commercial taxes consulting advice
• Identifying, and planning for, tax issues associated with a broad range of clients in a variety of industries and
• Structuring and tax minimisation techniques.

Other functions include:
• Assisting clients with the preparation and review of FBT and payroll returns. This includes compliance and process reviews
• Preparing and assisting clients in the preparation of policy and procedure manuals in respect of employment taxes, in particular providing assurance on tax effectiveness and guidance on better practices.

David is also a frequent speaker at seminars conducted by Ernst & Young and other professional bodies. He also facilitates on behalf of the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance their annual series of FBT and PAYG seminars.

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David Smith FCA

Smithink focuses on professional firm management, strategy and process innovation. We also assist a number of major suppliers to professional firms in formulating their product and marketing strategies. Our managing director, David Smith is the strategic advisor to the national board of a mid-tier firm and assists many firms in their strategic planning and to create breakthoughs in processes, client service and profitability.

Smithink’s Managing Director, David Smith, was for over 16 years a partner at Pannell Kerr Forster Sydney where he created a significant software business which was sold to Solution 6 (now part of MYOB), staying with them for 2 years. He is a regular speaker on topics relating to the future of the accounting profession, business strategy, process improvement and innovation. He has more than 25 years experience in professional firm management

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Debbie Crowther FCA

Debbie Crowther FCA, Founder / CEO of the Stratacore Group commenced in the industry 28 years ago and left practice to focus on business growth, will deliver this session which is part of the Stratacore Business Growth Program developed for the accounting profession to help their clients in a cost effective and structured way.

Career highlights include:

• By age 26, obtaining qualifications of Bachelor of Business Degree, Chartered Accountant, Practicing Certificate as a Chartered Accountant, Registered Auditor, Registered Tax Agent, Qualified Trainer, Partner in an Accounting Firm, and subsequently being short-listed as Australian Young Accountant of the Year.
• In January 1986, being sent to the Gold Coast at just 21 years of age to start an accounting firm for a second tier Sydney firm to complete work for Japanese companies and, within a few years, securing clients with Australian assets in excess of $1billion paying in excess of $1million fee base.
• In 2000, engaged by a multi-national and flown to the UK frequently to develop their international strategic plans.
• Achieving significant Government recognition, including a $325,400 Federal Government grant to conduct training programs for small businesses and appointment as the Convenor of the Gold Coast Mentoring for Growth program for the Queensland Government.

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Denis Barlin

Denis practices in all areas of revenue law, including income tax, capital gains tax, goods and services tax and state taxes (including stamp duties, land tax and payroll tax). Denis also practices in general commercial law and financial services law and advises on trust law, superannuation, succession and asset protection.

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Dorothy Crosby

Dorothy Crosby is a founding Director of Business Aptitude and Training Beyond Accounting. She has over 20 years experience working with businesses and professional service practices. After graduating from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Economics Degree, Dorothy worked for Price Waterhouse before starting her own business. She has had over 10 year’s experience as an external consultant on best practice for accounting firms, including many of the BRW Top 100 Group of firms. Today, she is responsible for non-technical training programs for accounting firms in the areas of leadership, communications and practice management.

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Dr Philip Bender

Dr Philip Bender is a Manager at KPMG and has significant experience in corporate and international tax. Philip also has wide ranging industry experience in the financial services, funds management, superannuation and insurance sectors. Philip has worked on a number of large acquisitions and cross-border transactions, including major inbound and outbound transactions involving India, China and South-East Asia. He has published extensively in professional and academic journals in the fields of taxation and international law. In particular, he has written many articles in the diverse fields of international tax, trusts, capital gains tax, income tax, employment taxes, GST, and stamp duty. He was also recently a visiting scholar at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and worked at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in 2007.

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Dr Sven Hansen

Dr Sven Hansen is well known to Australasian professionals having run a series of personal development and leadership programmes over the last decade. Sven is a medical practitioner with an MBA. His Resilience programmes included physical wellbeing, stress mastery, emotional intelligence and brain training. He has worked with some of the leading professional firms in New Zealand, Australia and Asia. Sven is married to Susan (an Accountant!) with two children and lives in Auckland.

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Duncan Baxter

Duncan leads the national tax practice. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and legal practitioner who was a senior partner at a global accounting firm before joining Blake Dawson in December 2004. He has been ranked among Australia's top ten tax advisers, and is highly regarded for his ability to provide high level, innovative tax advice on intricate, and often demanding, transactions.

Duncan specialises in corporate and international tax, where he assists clients to achieve the best possible tax outcomes from mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructures. He also has substantial experience in the related areas of structured asset and project finance with a particular focus on public/private partnerships and infrastructure financing, commencing with the State of Victoria’s privatisation of the Loy Yang B Power Station in the early 1990s.

Duncan regularly consults on the design and drafting of new tax legislation, which places him at the cutting edge of tax policy design and implementation. In 2008 he was one of the three private sector representatives on the Federal Government's Tax Design Review Panel. He also spent a year on secondment to the internal tax function of one of Australia's largest telecommunications companies earlier in his career, providing him with a unique understanding and appreciation of the issues faced by in-house tax and legal teams.

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Elizabeth Lucas FCA

Elizabeth has extensive experience in providing Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) and salary packaging advice to non-profit organisations, corporate clients and government organisations. She specialises in the various aspects of remuneration planning and has experience in the areas of other employment taxes and GST. In particular, Elizabeth’s areas of expertise are: 

• Salary packaging advice and implementation
• Consulting advice regarding FBT technical issues, systems and compliance procedures
• Expatriate tax matters and remuneration structuring
• Employee share and option schemes

 Elizabeth is a speaker at various professional body functions and is a regular media commentator. She has also served as a member of the FBT Subcommittee of the National Tax Liaison Group for many years.

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Emma Spiers

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Frank Sanitate

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Gareth Newport

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Gary Martin

Gary’s tax career commenced with the ATO, where he worked for 10 years in Adelaide and Canberra. The last 4 years of this period was spent in ‘policy and legislation’ including 12 months working on the Ralph Review of Business Taxation, based in the Department of the Treasury.

Gary then worked for Deloitte for five years in Melbourne and Adelaide, specialising in corporate tax issues such as mergers and acquisitions and due diligence for business purchases and sales.

Gary subsequently joined BDO Kendalls in Adelaide where he was a partner for three years and was subsequently appointed National Tax Technical Director.
During his career, Gary has presented at numerous tax seminars for the Taxation Institute of Australia and has been a consulting tax trainer with the Institute of Chartered Accountants for the past two years.

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Gemma Dale

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Geoff Mann

Geoff is a partner in the Blake Dawson Tax Team. His practice covers most areas of revenue law with particular emphasis on:

• goods and services tax
• stamp duty
• land tax
• human resources taxes (including fringe benefits tax, payroll tax, workers' compensation premiums, superannuation guarantee charge and PAYG)and
• research and development income tax concession

A contributor to a number of well known and respected publications and a regular seminar presenter, Geoff's expert commentary is regularly sought on matters relating to his principal areas of practice. Geoff was also the founding General Editor of the LexisNexis Stamp Duties in Practice newsletter.

Geoff's GST experience dates back to 1991 as a senior member of a major chartered accounting firm's team responsible for preparations for a GST during the period 1991-1993 in relation to the Hewson Fightback! proposal.

Geoff has practised in stamp duty for over fifteen years, advising on a wide range of transactions and issues across all states and territories duties legislation.

Geoff's multi skilling across tax areas, his dual legal and accounting qualifications, as well as his practical exposure to legal drafting put him in a unique position to address the issues arising in his areas of practise.

Geoff has worked extensively in the property industry, having acted on a number of large real property developments, acquisitions and leasings. Geoff currently acts for a number of listed and large private property developers and owners.

Geoff acted in the establishment of Grand Hotel Group and acquisitions of Grand Hyatt Melbourne and Perth Hyatt, as well as providing ongoing GST advice to GHG.

Geoff has chaired the Property Council of Australia's Victorian Taxes Committee for 2 years and was a member of the Victorian State Taxes Consultative Council (representing the Property Council).

Geoff has been heavily involved in the Property Council's successful efforts to have land tax rates reduced in Victoria and in representing the Property Council in relation to ongoing reform of land tax and stamp duty in Victoria.

Geoff is admitted to practice as a lawyer in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia, was a Certified Practising Accountant for over 10 years and is a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia.

Geoff holds a Bachelor of Economics (Honours in Accounting and Finance), a Bachelor of Laws and a Masters of Tax. Geoff also taught Accounting and Business Finance for 3 years at Monash University and more recently has taught Masters Program courses on stamp duty at both Monash University and the University of Melbourne.

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Geoffrey Harris

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Gordon Mackenzie

Gordon has over 30 years experience in the taxation of financial services, superannuation, funds management and corporate taxation. He has taxation experience in the UK, USA, New Zealand and a number of South East Asian countries.

In addition, he was previously Group Taxation Manager for AMP Ltd and before that headed their technical retirement planning area. He was also a member of the tax committee of several organisations,including Property Council of Australia and Business Council of Australia.

Gordon has prepared and presented submissions to Government on behalf of many industry bodies and corporates in the financial services sector on superannuation, corporate and international taxation. He has also presented to a number of Senate standing committees, the most recent being on taxing overseas superannuation on repatriation to Australia.

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Grant Ellis

Grant has been working in the Corporate & International Tax division of BDO since January 2004. Grant also obtained four years’ experience in the corporate tax consulting division of Ernst & Young, and two-and-a-half years’ experience working for the ATO prior to this. Grant has extensive experience in providing income tax advice, tax planning solutions and tax compliance services to a wide range of clients and industries. Grant has a Bachelor of Economics and a Masters in Taxation.

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Hamish Blair

Hamish joined Leadenhall VRG Pty Ltd in 2009 after 13 years corporate finance experience with KPMG’s and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu’s corporate finance practices. He has experience in the preparation of valuations, the provision of corporate advice and rendering of Independent Expert Reports for public stock market transactions.

Hamish’s industry experience includes energy and natural resources, industrial and consumer markets, manufacturing, financial services, telecommunications and infrastructure. He has worked with ANZ, BHP Billiton, Bluescope, Crown, Futuris, NAB, RACV, Sigma Pharmaceuticals, SP AusNet, TABCORP and Toll. His industry experience includes broadcasting and media, financial services, wagering and gaming, industrial and consumer markets, biotechnology, telecommunications, energy and resources, infrastructure, forestry and logistics.

Hamish regularly lectures for Kaplan to FINSIA students in the areas of valuations, mergers and acquisitions and corporate structured finance.
 

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Helen Gilfedder

Helen is a R&D Incentives Senior Manager within KPMG’s Melbourne office. Helen has extensive experience in the identification of R&D activities and the implementation of systems for the capture of both R&D expenditure and activities for the Australian R&D tax concession.

Helen has both science and accounting qualifications, and this, coupled with her 13 years experience in the R&D and taxation field in both consulting and industry, enables her to provide comprehensive and practical advice to a range of companies from pharmaceutical and IT companies to manufacturing and engineering companies. Helen has experience providing advice to large companies in relation to R&D tax incentives and government grants for R&D and innovation and the preparation and review of R&D tax incentive claims.
 

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Hugh Gyton

Hugh has been involved in conversations that matter for over 25 years in diverse cultural backgrounds around the globe for products and services that have had a price range from
$2,000 to over $30million. His success in the field has been built on the premise that we are all selling all the time - whether it is:

• our ideas
• our product or service
• how we want our children to behave, or
• our own choices as to how we live our lives.

Core to Hugh’s philosophy is that “people buy people first, not companies or products” after all..... ‘Selling is Just a conversation™’ and business performance is literally defined by the conversations employees choose to have.

Having now coached and assisted hundreds of individuals across a wide-range of industries for both large and small organisations, Hugh has found his purpose. To get people comfortable in, and consciously managing conversations that matter, building trust, and ultimately experiencing more out of life.

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James McPhedran

James McPhedran is a Tax Training Specialist at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.

His extensive experience branches across a wide range of industries from Mining and Energy, to Entertainment and professional tax bodies. He has acquired advanced knowledge in tax and superannuation through his work in a variety of tax advisory roles, from international acquisitions and business structuring, to individual and small business taxation matters.

Prior to his training role at the Institute, James was a Tax and Superannuation Advisor at the Knowledge Shop (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hayes Knight). The role required the drafting of technical papers and presenting professional development sessions in tax for professional bodies such as the Institute and the Tax Institute of Australia.

James holds a Bachelor of Laws and Economics from the University of Queensland and a Master of Taxation from the University of Sydney.

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James Macky

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Jane Mead

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Jason Hadassin

Jason provides strategic advice to Australian companies on all aspects of their corporate legal needs. His expertise includes Corporations Act compliance, corporate governance and directors duties, advising on a broad range of commercial agreements and providing company secretarial services for companies.

Jason has Graduate Diplomas of In-House Legal Practice and Applied Corporate Governance. As a member of both the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and Chartered Secretaries Australia, Jason has internationally recognised qualifications as a Chartered Company Secretary.

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John Allen

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John King

Business strategy which drives profit improvement is the focus of John’s 15 year consulting practice.

Working with Australian and international businesses, John has assisted in improving performance across a wide range of industries.

He has been Chief Financial Officer at Perth Building Society, State Government Insurance Commission of WA, SGIO Insurance, JeansWest and was Chief Accounting Officer of CRA Ltd (now Rio Tinto). With a strong consulting background, and international training experience, John is able to apply extensive practical experience and knowledge to client projects.

A Fellow of CPA Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors, John holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from one of the world’s leading business schools - the University of Chicago, as well as a commerce degree from the University of Western Australia.

John presents various specialist sessions for the Institute in areas of business strategy and financial performance improvement.

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John McAlister

John McAlister is currently a Team Leader in the Standard Business Reporting Program.  Leading the General Ledger Reporting Team, John is reponsible for the delivery of SBR’s financial reporting Taxonomy as well as assuring each of the 12 participating agencies is ready for SBR implementation.

John is a recognised leader and strategic thinker with an attitude and enthusiasm for achievement. In both the public and private sectors John has lead strategy, design and the implementation of change, particularly from ‘old’ to new technology, delivering credibility and confidence in business and administrative systems and programs at low risk.

This is demonstrated through his current role in the Standard Business Reporting Program, and his previous leadership of major projects such as e-tax, the Tax Office flagship online product for Individuals and positioning of e-tax as the major tool for developing and delivering pre-filling initiatives.

John’s interpersonal skills have enabled him to build strong relationships with key stakeholders across government, with software developers and tax agents, while promoting a strong user-centred, co-design perspective.

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Jonathan Rintoul CA

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Josh Chye

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Jule Fuller

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Justin Siew

Justin Siew is a senior tax consultant at KPMG Melbourne in the Corporate Tax Group. Justin has worked within KPMG Tax for three years and has gained experience with a broad range of corporate tax issues across a wide range of clients. Justin holds degrees in Engineering and Law from the University of Melbourne.

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Kai-Chen Chang

Kai-Chen Chang in a Solicitor at Mallesons Stephen Jaques based in the Melbourne office. 

Kai-Chen specialises in income tax with an emphasis on the taxation of trusts, cross-border investment and other corporate issues and transactions. She has had significant experience in advising clients in the funds management industry on the establishment, operation and restructure of funds and on reviewing and drafting the associated documentation.

Kai-Chen also has extensive experience in relation to both the tax and legal issues associated with establishing and operating employee share schemes, the application of the consolidation regime and other corporate tax and legal issues.

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Kathryn Breden

Kathryn has over 10 years of experience in advising a wide range of clients on all aspects of fringe benefits tax (FBT). Kathryn has advised clients in relation to designing and reviewing FBT processes, salary packaging policies and expatriate policies to ensure maximum benefits for employers and employees.

Kathryn has been involved in obtaining private binding rulings from the ATO in respect of a number of FBT matters and is a presenter at FBT sessions.

Qualifications and memberships

• Bachelor of Economics, Bachelor of Law
• CA, Member of Institute of Chartered Accountants

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Keat Chew

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Kel Fitzalan

Kel is a Corporate Tax Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has 20 years experience advising clients in a wide range of industries, including the agriculture, financial services and property industries. Kel’s specialist tax knowledge includes international tax, capital gains tax legislation, trusts and general and specific anti-avoidance legislation (45B and Division 7A).

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Ken Mansell

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Kerry Hicks

Kerry Hicks was appointed as the Head of Reporting for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia in 2007. With more than 20 years of experience in the accounting profession, Kerry provides strong leadership, technical competence and support in the area of reporting for the Institute.

Prior to her current role, Kerry was the Executive Director of the Technical Consulting Group with Ernst & Young. Kerry has developed expertise in the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) both in Australia and internationally, and more recently has focused on providing technical accounting support to small and medium sized entities.

Kerry is a results orientated strategic thinker who is focused on raising the profile of the Institute on financial and non-financial reporting issues. She plays a vital role in enabling the Institute to provide expert advice to assist members in dealing with the new regulatory environment.

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Kevin Marlow

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Kim Heng

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Kirstin Hazell

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Kirstin Schirmer

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Kylie Rusten CA

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Kym Bailey

Kym Bailey has 15 years experience within the field of superannuation, working at the ISC for the implementation of the SIS Act and being integral to the development of an audit template to be used for small superannuation funds, followed by several years as a technical consultant to practitioners and their clients.

More recently, Kym has moved into the financial services arena providing technical advice in respect of superannuation and taxation as well as pre retirement and retirement structuring aimed at tax efficiency and estate planning.

As a professional accountant, Kym has worked with practitioners and clients on the full range of superannuation matters from compliance through to high level structuring and tax planning.

Specialising in self managed superannuation funds has ensured that Kym remains at the 'coal face' of superannuation consulting.

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Langdon Patrick

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Lee Holland

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Leila Golchin

Leila specialises in corporate acquisitions and disposals, as well as equity investments across diverse industries. Her key areas of legal expertise include business succession planning and preparation of stakeholder agreements, including shareholder, unitholder agreements and family constitutions, and drafting agreements for company and asset acquisitions/sales.

Leila has a Master of Laws Degree from the University of Sydney, having specialised in Corporations and Securities Law.

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Lily Li

Lily Li is a senior tax consultant at KPMG and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. She has worked in the industry for five years and is currently pursuing her Master of Taxation at the University of Melbourne. Lily also holds a Master of Professional Accounting at Queensland University of Technology.

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Linda Chander

As a Director of Enskills Learning & Development, Linda Chander develops and delivers training programmes in the areas of Business Communications, Management Effectiveness, Leadership and Personal Development. Enskills has provided training services to many significant organisations in Australia and overseas, including KPMG, Deutsche Bank , AOL Bangalore, India.

Linda trained and worked as a Journalist in the UK and then in Australia, where she was a contributor to several well-known titles before becoming the Editor of a specialist home design magazine. After re-training as a Teacher, she embarked on a career in education, which led her to finally adult Learning & Development.

Linda is an accomplished speaker on contemporary work/life topics, specialising in Communication and Influencing, and on Effective Business Writing.

Relevant qualifications and accreditations
• Bachelor of Arts Degree, Stirling University, Scotland
• Grad Dip Education, UNE, Armidale
• Cert IV Workplace Training & Assessment
• MBTI Practitioner, Institute for Type Development
 

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Liz Westover

Liz Westover joined the Institute in August 2009.

Ms Westover has extensive experience in the superannuation industry, having previously held the position of Senior Manager, Superannuation Division at KPMG, with responsibility for consulting on all aspects of superannuation including, corporate funds, companies, employers and individuals.

Prior to her role at KPMG, Ms Westover held the position of Superannuation Division Manager at Nexia Court & Co Chartered Accountants, where her primary focus was on self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs).

Ms Westover is responsible for all aspects of the superannuation industry, including SMSFs, and will contribute to the Institute's influence in the superannuation sphere.

Ms Westover holds a Master of Legal Studies from the University of New South Wales and a Bachelor of Business from the University of South Australia.

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Louise Biti

Louise Biti CFP, M Tax, B Ec, BA(AS), Dip FP has over 18 years experience in financial services, working for companies including RetireInvest ING and Asteron. Louise is a director on the FPA board and has received the FPA’s Distinguished Service award.

With a strong industry profile, Louise is regularly asked to develop content for technical manuals and educational programs. She regularly gives technical presentations at industry conferences and is a frequent contributor to industry and consumer media.

Strategy Steps is an independent, specialist consultancy delivering competitive and practical financial planning strategies to support business opportunities for professional advisers.

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Louise Ikeda

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Mardi Heinrich

Service Areas
• Fringe benefits tax
• PAYG withholding
• Superannuation
• Payroll tax
• Expatriate tax issues


Experience
• Mardi has approximately seven years of experience in advising clients on various aspects of employment taxes, particularly FBT.
• Mardi has assisted clients in preparing and reviewing FBT returns with a focus on ensuring the client’s treatment of benefits satisfies the legislative requirements and the most advantageous calculation methodology available is applied.
• Mardi regularly presents at FBT and salary packaging seminars and workshops, and has provided FBT compliance services to numerous clients in both New South Wales and Victoria.


Qualifications
• Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.
• Bachelor of Science (Psychology) & Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting & Human Resource Management/Industrial Relations), University of Sydney

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Marisa Batsiokis

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Mark Poole

Qualifications
• CA Australia
• Solicitor of Supreme Court of Victoria
• Fellow, Taxation Institute


Experience
Mark is a practising accountant and solicitor, and fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia. He has written numerous technical papers in the areas of corporate restructures and the taxation of debt and equity. He was educated at St John’s College Cambridge and has a honours degree in law from Monash University, Victoria.


Industry/specialist experience
Mark is a Partner in KPMG’s corporate tax division and Legal Practitioner Director of KPMG Tax Lawyers Pty. Limited. He joined KPMG after working for 15 years with PwC (10 as a partner) and 4 years as a solicitor.

Mark specialises in taxation of capital raisings and Mergers & Acquisitions

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Mark Wilkinson

Mark Wilkinson is a Partner within Deloitte Private where he specialises in superannuation, estate and succession planning. Mark has worked in every facet of the superannuation industry, has spent time specialising in self managed superannuation funds, public offer and employer sponsored superannuation. In recent years he has specialised exclusively in self managed superannuation funds.

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Martin Caplice

Martin is a partner and specialises in advising clients in relation to revenue disputes, tax office investigations, administrative law and taxpayers' rights under audit. Martin recently returned to Ernst & Young from the UK where he practised as a solicitor specialising in tax audit investigations and disputes conducted by HM Revenue & Customs and other pan-European tax authorities.

Martin has represented clients before the tax tribunals and courts in Australia in most areas of revenue law and tax administration with particular focus on corporate income tax, capital gains tax, Part IVA, transfer pricing and judicial review of ATO powers

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Martin Morrow

Martin Morrow is the partner in charge of Melbourne’s Employment Taxes practice and has more than 24 years experience advising some of Australia’s largest national and multinational companies on FBT matters.

Martin has been designing and presenting technical executive seminars and workshops since 1989 – delivering entertaining and enlightening FBT sessions to both senior executives and return preparers.

He has advised clients on all technical aspects of FBT and how they can achieve compliance without unnecessary administrative effort. Martin has carried out FBT systems and procedures reviews and identified process changes for many large clients.

He regularly consults with senior offices of the Treasury and Australian Taxation Office on many aspects of employment taxes including technical and administrative FBT matters

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Matt Osmond

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Matthew Curnow

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Matthew Hall

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Merv Lobb

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Michael Cain

Michael is the Principal of Cain Consulting, an independent consulting practice specialising in financial reporting, audit and assurance services support, quality control reviews, technical advice and training.

Many accountants know Michael through his training sessions with The Institute of Chartered Accountant in Australia. Michael was previously an audit partner at Lawler Partners (Sydney) and Coopers & Lybrand (Brisbane/PNG), and has in excess of 30 years experience as a registered company auditor and chartered accountant. He has an exceptional technical background in accounting and audit, having recently acted as the Australian and New Zealand Technical Director for Nexia.

Recently, Michael has also joined the GAAP Consulting Network. He will lead the assurance part of the Network, and will concentrate on: quality control reviews and implementation of systems and processes to be APES320/ASQC 1 compliant; audit methodology; audit training; ethics (inc. independence) and litigation support. He will also be part of financial reporting team that provides training and advice services.

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Michael Charles

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Michael Cox

Michael is a director in PricewaterhouseCoopers' financial services team and specialises in the taxation of real estate and financial institutions. Michael has advised on a number of IPOs for Australian listed property trusts and the acquisition of assets in various jurisdictions including the USA, Japan and Germany. Recently, Michael has been working closely with a number of financial institutions and real estate funds on the implementation of TOFA.

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Michael David

Michael is a Director in Assurance & Advisory, Financial Instruments Advisory Services with Deloitte. With 20 years’ experience Michael is practiced in performing and supervising valuations of financial instruments including derivatives (commodity and financial) for fair value (management reporting) purposes and for Australian, US and other International GAAP financial accounting and disclosure purposes.

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Michael Fitzpatrick

Michael Fitzpatrick (the founder of Clarendene Estate Planning Lawyers) heads a highly specialised team of lawyers providing sophisticated estate planning services. Michael’s 33 years of legal practice and 20 years of involvement in financial planning have provided him with broad financial and estate planning experience.

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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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Michelle Gamble

Michelle is an entrepreneur who built Marketing Angels from the ground up after starting it with a partner over 8 years ago. Marketing Angels have worked with hundreds of small to medium businesses from almost every industry. Michelle is often invited to comment on the marketing challenges facing Australia's business sector in the national press and is a regular speaker at some of Australia's premier business events.

Michelle studied at Canberra University and has a Post-Graduate Certificate in Management from Macquarie Graduate School of Management and a certificate in Direct Marketing from the Australian Direct Marketing Association. Before starting Marketing Angels in 2001, Michelle was part of the Internet Marketing Revolution in Australia. She worked for Telstra in the marketing team for the initial Big Pond Internet service and as an online program manager. She was also a content manager, sourcing and managing content creation and business development for the Entertainment, Lifestyle and Technology content areas of the Telstra.com web site with Telstra. Michelle created and implemented the Marketing campaign for the launch of the Optus@Home Broadband Internet service.

In addition to this, Michelle is a contributing author in the book, The Secrets of , Retailer Magazine and Industry Update Manufacturing Magazine.

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Moira Merrick

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Natalie

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Neil Ward

Neil leads the Deloitte Australian Financial Services group. He has more than 30 years’ experience advising on tax. Prior to joining Deloitte in 2000, Neil spent 12 years with the ANZ Banking Group in Australia and the United Kingdom. He has experience with tax consulting to the banking and finance sector and is recognised as one of the leading tax advisors on financial arrangements, foreign exchange, capital management and infrastructure transactions.

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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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Nick Gangemi

Nick is a partner for Corporate and International Tax. He has been an employee of BDO since January 2005 as well as a member of the National Tax Counsel. Previous to working with BDO, Nick worked in law firms in both London and Sydney and with a Big 4 accounting firm in both its Sydney and its London office.

Nick has extensive experience in advertising on corporate tax, international tax and other tax areas. In particular, Nick has worked on inbound and outbound M&A transactions, and on cross-border structuring for individuals and corporates.

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Nigel Smith

Nigel holds a degree in Economics and Commercial Law from Melbourne University as well as various other certificates from the Securities Institute, the Australian Stock Exchange and is also qualified as a financial planner.

Most of his career has been in the finance industry working with both large (MLC) and small (own licence) businesses. His experience covers financial planning, superannuation and SMSFs, tax, stock broking, retirement and investments, Centrelink, trustee services and compliance.

He is currently with netwealth Investments Ltd providing technical services to dealers, planners, accountants and individuals across a whole range of these topics.

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Noelene Robertson

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Patricia Stebbens

As a KPMG technical accounting leader in the areas of financial instruments and complex transactions, Patricia Stebbens works with clients across all sectors. Patricia also has experience as a preparer of financial statements, having spent some time with a major bank.

Patricia also has vast experience in both international and domestic standard-setting.

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Paul Carr CA

Paul has over 8 years of experience in providing professional services to the funds management industry, following the introduction of the Manageed Investments Act in 1998.

Paul specialising in assisting his clients to meet statutory reporting requirements, whilst ensuring that they also meet industry best practice. His due diligence and cooperate advisory experience has provided him with a detailed understanding of, not just the statutory requirements, but the operational issues which confront industry participants.

This enables Paul to provide valuable advice to clients at each stage of the client life cycle, and accordingly, he works with clients ranging from new industry participants, to established funds with over one billion dollars in funds under management.

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Peter Bembrick

Peter joined the team at HLB Mann Judd Sydney in 1990 in the Business Services Division then joined the Tax Division in 1998. He became Partner in 2004. He advises clients and other accounting firms on all areas of taxation.His expertise also lies in Business Structures and Restructuring, Corporate Tax Compliance.

Tax Consolidation, Expatriate Taxation, Goods and Services Tax, Small Business CGT Concessions and Transfer Pricing. He has served on a number of advisory committees for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia including the National CPE Tax Advisory Panel and has written many articles for small and medium business publications.


Qualifications and Memberships

Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) - University of NSW
Master of Taxation – University of NSW
Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia
Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia

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Peter Berg

Peter leads the Taxation Services Group at Grant Thornton in Sydney. He has over 20 years taxation experience and brings together his client service, technical and commercial skills as a tax adviser to large privately held businesses and listed companies.

He is focused on adding value and delivering on a client's taxation needs as part of the overall Grant Thornton service.

Peter advises companies undertaking capital raisings and restructures on the taxation implications of those transactions advising on IPO's, share buy-backs, mergers and demergers.

Peter also advises vendors and purchasers on the taxation implications arising from the sale of businesses together with the providing a range of taxation due diligence services to the public.

Professional qualifications and memberships
Bachelor of Commerce - University of New South Wales
Master of Business Administration - MGSM
Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia
Registered Tax Agent

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Peter Carlson

Background

Peter Carlson is a Partner with KPMG in Australia. Prior to joining KPMG he was Head of Group Accounting Policy at the National Australia Bank, Peter was also responsible for the Global transition to IFRS of the NAB Group.

Industry Experience

Peter’s major role at KPMG is within the technical accounting and advisory area with specialist knowledge on financial services and business combinations. He is a member of KPMG’s International Business Combination Technical Team and a member of KPMG’s IFRS Panel.

Peter has provided advice to other large Australian corporations including ANZ, CBA, BHPB, Telstra, Macquarie Bank, Wesfarmers and BlueScope on a range of topics including financial instruments, loan loss provisioning, business combinations and impairment of non-financial assets.
He was also the technical director of the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board in 1998-2000.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Business (Accounting)
• Master of Economics
• Doctor of Philosophy
• Member Certified Practicing Accountant in Australia
• Affiliate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia

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Peter McGinty

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Peter Murray

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Peter Townsend BA, LLB, FAICD,FCLA

Peter Townsend is a Business and Corporate lawyer with almost 30 years experience in advising participants in the superannuation, accounting and financial services industries.

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Peter Whitehead

Peter's role is designed to lead the strategic direction and management of Perpetual Private Wealth's trust advice and estate planning operations. Peter joined Perpetual Private Wealth with extensive experience in the industry, having spent time as a solicitor and general counsel to the Public Trustee. Most recently he was the CEO of the Public Trustee. He is a respected leader within the legal profession and trustee industry.

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Phil Lindsay

Phil Lindsay is a Principal in Deloitte’s National Quality and Risk team. Immediately prior to this, Phil had been a senior adviser to the Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer in the former government. His current role is to assist in managing risk in client and engagement acceptance, and in the delivery of tax services nationally by Deloitte.

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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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Philip Lindsay

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Rachel Cook

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Richard Buchanan

Richard specialises in the tax aspects of major transactions, including particularly mergers and acquisitions and infrastructure and property projects. In these transactions, Richard regularly provides advice through the life cycle of the transaction, including structuring, due diligence, documentation negotiation and post acquisition integration.

Richard is a Chartered Accountant and a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria. He is a fellow of the Tax Institute of Australia and is a member of the National Tax Liaison Group Tax Consolidation and A-IFRS

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Richard Day

Richard Day is a dynamic Professional Speaker, Corporate Facilitator and a successful Life and Business Coach and has been working within the Leadership, Business Management and Personal Development industry for twenty five years, both nationally and internationally.

He is also a member of the National Speaker's Association of Australia.

Richard is the Managing Director of the “Life & Business Leadership Institute” a successful consultancy specialising in topics relating to People, Passion and Performance.

He specialises in the following areas: Life and Business Leadership, Leadership Coaching (Business and Life), Self Leadership, Team Building, Change Management, Communication, Stress Management, Assertiveness Skills, Life and Work Balance, Health Management, and Goal Setting.FCPA, MBA, B Co

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Rob Jeremiah

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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 Parker

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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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Rod Henderson

Rod, a Tax Partner with KPMG’s Sydney office, has over 23 years of taxation consulting experience servicing Australian listed companies, government organisations and global groups.

He is the national leader of KPMG’s Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Tax Group as well as the lead tax partner for KPMG’s Environmental Taxes Group. He is also a member of KPMG’s Global ENR Tax Steering group which meets regularly with global companies around the world.

Rod has extensive experience with clients in the resources, energy, infrastructure, power & utilities and processing and mining services industries. More recently, Rod has been advising clients on the impact of the proposed new resource rent tax regimes commencing with the Resource Super Profits Tax, which is to be replaced with the Minerals Resource Rent Tax and the expansion of the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax.

Rod has presented many tax papers at professional and industry seminars in Australia as well as speaking on tax and sustainability at global seminars.

As Chairman of the Institute’s Emissions Trading Tax Group, Rod has directly participated in consultation with the Federal Department of Climate Change and Treasury on the formulation of specific tax rules to complement Australia’s proposed ETS, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). Recently, Rod appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on Economics, on behalf of the Institute, to assist with the Senate’s enquiry into the CPRS Exposure Draft Bill.

He has a Bachelor of Economics and Masters of Laws (Hons) from the University of Sydney. He is an associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW.

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Roger Montgomery

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Ron Jorgensen

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Ron Jorgensen

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Ross Philpott

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Sharon Burke

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Silvia Damiano

Silvia Damiano has worked for a number of organizations in Australia, South America and South Africa. She brings an understanding of different cultures and industries. Silvia’s background is in organizational development, learning and science. Winner of the 2006 Australian Institute of Training and Development Excellence Awards, Silvia specializes in leadership, culture change, emotional intelligence and neuroscience. Her passion for people, knowledge and expertise are the key ingredients that makes her presentations and workshops a success among participants.

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Simon Dalgarno

Simon Dalgarno is a Director of Leadenhall VRG Pty Ltd. Since joining the Leadenhall consulting practice in 1998 he has specialised in the valuation of businesses and intellectual property.

Simon has extensive experience in the valuation of businesses and in the valuation of intangible assets. He regularly undertakes valuations as part of transactions and for purchase price allocation and impairment testing purposes. He has also provided structuring advice for an initial public offering, advised on the sale of businesses and has undertaken numerous evaluations to assist in capital expenditure and investment decisions for public and private sector clients.

Simon is a regular speaker at professional development seminars for legal and accounting professionals on valuation related topics. He is also a major contributor to the leading valuation text, Australian Valuation Handbook.

He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and an Associate Member of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia

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Simone Connolly

Simon Connolly is a Technical Services Manager at Perpetual Private Clients responsible for interpreting legislation to ensure Perpetual Private Clients are providing advanced and sound strategic advice to clients.

Simon holds a Bachelor of Commerce and an Advanced Diploma of Financial Services. Simon has previously worked at MLC in the Business Development & Consulting team, he has also worked as a financial adviser and a paraplanner.

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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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Soulla McFall

Soulla is a Transfer Pricing Partner with Deloitte. Soulla has been specialising in transfer pricing for the last 15 years, 10 of those in public practice with Deloitte.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Soulla was with Australian Taxation Office where she advised on complex transfer pricing audits and APAs and co-authored some of the key transfer pricing rulings. Soulla also coordinated and led the first transfer pricing review program undertaken by the ATO in 1998.

Soulla has extensive experience in assisting multinational clients implement transfer pricing strategies and successfully defend ATO transfer pricing reviews and audits.

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Steven Forgione

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Stuart Dall

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Susan Orchard

Susan Orchard is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree. She is a Sole Practitioner, with over 20 years experience in superannuation, operating a specialist superannuation practice since 1998. She acts as an auditor of approximately 400 Self Managed Superannuation Funds.

Susan’s firm provided superannuation technical services to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia from 1998 to 2008. This role included working with legislators and regulators on superannuation technical matters and providing information to members via journals and e-bulletins. Susan is currently a GAAP Consulting network member.

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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

Suzi Russell is a Partner in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Indirect Taxes Team.  Suzi specialises in advising on GST and fuel tax issues for government and not-for-profit organisations and has been consulting to these industry sectors for ten years.

Suzi has spent much of her career advising Victorian public sector entities and the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance.  She has an excellent working knowledge of the indirect tax issues facing government agencies and the public sector.  In particular, she has advised on a number of high-profile infrastructure projects in Victoria, involving GST on non-monetary supplies, complex property deals, barter transactions and grant funding arrangements.

Suzi has also provided regular training seminars on GST and fuel tax matters to government and not-for-profit clients since GST was introduced in 2000.

Suzi’s early GST years were spent on full-time secondment at Australia Post, where she learnt how to apply the GST legislation in a practical sense to day-to-day business transactions.

Qualifications
• BA (Hons) in Economics and Politics with European Studies
• Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
• Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia
 

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Tao de Haas

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Thea Foster

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Tony Negline

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Tony Pearson

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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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Tracey Ward

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Verne Ordman

Verne Ordman has worked for over 25 years in the corporate training industry in Australia, the USA and South Africa. She has designed numerous seminars and online programs, one of which won an Australian Institute of Training and Development – Training Design Award. She is a well-known and respected business writing coach, consultant and author. Her company is a preferred tenderer for the Australian Public Service Commission Leadership Learning and Development Panel. Her new book, the Business Writing Style Guide will be available in all bookshops in September.

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Yasser El-Ansary

Yasser El-Ansary is the Tax Counsel at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.
Yasser joined the Institute in January 2009 and has more than 14 years of experience in business and tax advisory roles.

Yasser is responsible for leading and developing the Institute’s taxation policy and is actively involved in lobbying the government and its agencies on tax issues. He also plays an active role in communicating important changes in the tax system to the Institute’s members as well as ensuring that the Institute is effectively participating in relevant consultation forums influencing the Australian tax system.

Prior to his current role, Yasser was the Group Tax Manager for Australand Holdings Ltd. He has also held positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Federal Department of the Treasury and Rio Tinto.

Yasser holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the Australian National University and a Master of Taxation Law from the University of New South Wales.

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