CRA recruits 8 senior Transfer Pricing Consultants
Charles River Associates, a worldwide leader in providing management, economic, and financial consulting services, has announced that it has strengthened its Transfer Pricing practice globally with the addition of eight new senior-level consultants during the past nine months.
These new hires include: Vice Presidents Richard V.L. Cooper and Debashis Ghosh in Chicago; Vice President Kathrine Kimball and Principal Aaron Bone in California; Vice President Brad Rolph in Toronto; Principal Nicole Bordeleau in Boston; Principal Alberto Pluviano in Paris; and Principal Paul Wilmshurst in London. In addition, Guy A. Kersch and Gregor Bruggelambert have become senior consultants to the Transfer Pricing practice in London and Frankfurt respectively.
“The global economy requires that international businesses address a range of transfer pricing concerns, and Charles River Associates offers comprehensive transfer pricing services to assist companies around the world,” said CRA’s President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Maleh. “The consultants we have hired in our Transfer Pricing practice bring exceptional expertise in their field and deep knowledge about the unique transfer pricing issues facing many industries. It is our pleasure to welcome them to CRA.” “We view transfer pricing as an excellent long-term growth opportunity for CRA,” Maleh said. “These new consultants greatly expand our practice’s global capabilities in both North America and Europe.”
The senior-level consultants who have joined the Transfer Pricing practice since September 2009 include:
Vice President Richard V.L. Cooper has more than 30 years of transfer pricing experience. Dr. Cooper has testified as an expert witness before such bodies as the US Tax Court, the US International Trade Commission, and the US Congress. He was named “one of the world’s leading transfer pricing advisors” by The International Tax Review/Legal Media Group. Dr. Cooper has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in such areas as international business, international tax, econometrics, and price theory at Georgetown University, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the Rand Graduate Institute, among others. He lectures regularly on such topics as international business strategy, transfer pricing, international finance, countertrade, doing business in China, and export trading companies. Prior to joining CRA, he was a managing director with Houlihan Lokey. He holds BA and MA degrees in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a PhD degree in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Vice President Debashis Ghosh has 14 years of experience providing business advisory services in transfer pricing and business analytics, using analytical approaches to leverage internal and external data, and developing customized tools to assist in strategic decision making. Dr. Ghosh has started and led economic consulting and business analytics practices, and he has participated in projects involving transfer pricing, business process improvement, strategic costing, business process outsourcing, and litigation support/expert testimony. Prior to joining CRA, Dr. Ghosh was a director with Houlihan Lokey. He holds a BA degree in Economics from Presidency College in Calcutta, India, and MA and PhD degrees in Economics from Rice University.
Vice President Kathrine Kimball has 16 years of experience in international and domestic transfer pricing, including documentation, planning, and controversy defense as well as supply-chain-based tax planning. She has served multinational clients in a range of industries and managed a multitude of global, pan-European, pan-Asian, and North American international supply chain projects. Prior to joining CRA, Ms. Kimball was a partner with Ernst & Young, where she was responsible for building the Global Transfer Pricing and Tax Effective Supply Chain Management (TESCM) Practice in San Francisco, which earned the 2008 International Tax Review Best Transfer Pricing Practice in North America during her tenure. She was also the founding practice leader of the Global Transfer Pricing and TESCM Group as well as the US Transfer Pricing Desk in Belgium. Ms. Kimball holds a BBA degree from Loyola Marymount University, and a MBA degree from the College of William and Mary.
Vice President Brad Rolph has over 20 years of experience as an economist, including 15 years as a transfer pricing specialist. Mr. Rolph is one of Canada’s leading transfer pricing advisors; he has helped numerous multinational companies prepare for and defend a variety of intercompany transactions across diverse industries. In addition to preparing transfer pricing studies for documentation and audit purposes, Mr. Rolph has led planning, implementation, taxpayer-initiated adjustments, voluntary disclosure, litigation, competent authority, and advance pricing arrangement (APA) assignments. Prior to joining CRA, Mr. Rolph was a partner and the chief economist of the National Transfer Pricing Group at Deloitte & Touche in Canada. Before that, he was an economist with the tax policy and fiscal policy branches of the Ontario Ministry of Finance. He holds a BA degree in Economics from Wilfrid Laurier University, and a MA degree in Economics from Queen’s University. Mr. Rolph has also completed the course work and theory comprehensive exams in Economics at the PhD level.
Principal Aaron Bone has 10 years of experience participating in global transfer pricing remediation for Fortune 500 companies and coordinating global transfer pricing engagements including documentation, planning, headquarters cost allocation, IP migration, FIN 48 analyses, and provision review. Prior to joining CRA, Mr. Bone was with Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he assisted with various international tax planning projects as well as transfer pricing and international tax services. Mr. Bone is also a licensed attorney with the State Bar of California. He holds a BA degree in English and Political Science from Drew University, and a JD degree from the University of California Davis School of Law.
Principal Nicole Bordeleau has 10 years of experience as a transfer pricing expert specializing in strategizing, managing, and implementing corporate transfer pricing policies that help clients mitigate risk, optimize efficiency, and support business operations. She has provided transfer pricing consulting services for national and multinational companies in an array of industries, including industrial equipment, consumer products, medical equipment, pharmaceutical, financial services, computer software, management services, and retail grocery. Prior to joining CRA, Ms. Bordeleau was the director of transfer pricing at Covidien, a multi-national healthcare products company, and before that, she was with KPMG’s economic consulting services group. She holds a BA degree in Economics from Dalhousie University, and a MBA degree from Loyola University.
Principal Alberto Pluviano has over 18 years of transfer pricing experience with extensive international experience in the development and implementation of transfer pricing policies. Mr. Pluviano has dealt with challenging transfer pricing issues in many countries, including developing new methodologies, supporting business restructurings, and managing large transfer pricing audits to successful conclusions. He has led centralized transfer pricing teams, directed country teams, and liaised regularly with tax authorities in many countries. Prior to joining CRA, Mr. Pluviano was head of transfer pricing in Europe for IBM. He holds a degree in Business Administration, specialization in Finance from Universita’ Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
Principal Paul Wilmshurst has over 10 years’ experience helping multinational groups in a variety of industries with many different transfer pricing issues. His experience ranges from designing practical documentation solutions to efficiently mitigate risk, to helping companies defend contentious transfer pricing arrangements. Mr. Wilmshurst’s tax efficient supply chain work has included identifying and valuing different types of intangibles, assessing and modeling economic risks, and designing commercial transfer pricing policies. Prior to joining CRA, Mr. Wilmshurst was a senior transfer pricing economist at KMPG and Deloitte. He holds a BSc degree in Economics from Manchester University, and a MSc degree in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from London School of Economics.
Senior Consultant Gregor Bruggelambert is professor of economics and international business relations at the Dortmund University of Applied Science and Arts. Dr. Bruggelambert is a transfer pricing expert and economist with more than a decade of experience. He has authored many articles on topics in the field of transfer pricing and is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars. Dr. Bruggelambert is highly experienced in all aspects of transfer pricing, from cost allocation over the design of controlling based transfer pricing systems to the remuneration of intangibles. His work has been prepared in the context of documentation studies, planning assignments, and in the audit defense of transfer pricing systems. In addition, he has extensive experience dealing with the German tax authorities, including in relation to APA negotiations. Previously, Dr. Bruggelambert held positions at Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, including as head of global transfer pricing and head of supply controlling. At KPMG, Dr. Bruggelambert co-led the creation of the transfer pricing team in Dusseldorf. He holds a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Essen.
Senior Consultant Guy A. Kersch is a tax and transfer pricing professional with more than 25 years of experience. As a current member and former vice-chair (business) of the European Joint Transfer Pricing Forum, he is actively involved in developing pragmatic, non-legislative solutions to transfer pricing issues within the EU. Mr. Kersch has applied his transfer pricing expertise in many areas such as mergers and acquisitions, tax optimization planning, and tax audit in various industries, including chemicals, agricultural products, construction, engineering, and pharmaceuticals. He is a member of the Tax Policy Group of BusinessEurope, the Tax Committee of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Working Group Ecofin and the Tax Committee of the Business Federation Luxembourg, and the International Bar Association. He is also a founding member and former president of the European Chapter of the Tax Executive Institute. Mr. Kersch is a former senior transfer pricing counsel at Grant Thornton. He is fluent in English, German, French, and Luxembourgeois.
About Charles River Associates (CRA)
Charles River Associates(R) is a global consulting firm specializing in litigation, regulatory, and financial consulting, and management consulting. CRA advises clients on economic and financial matters pertaining to litigation and regulatory proceedings, and guides corporations through critical business strategy and performance-related issues.