Tax Virtual Conference

Rebecca Forter

Rebecca Forter is deputy commissioner for Tax Policy and chief of the Rulings and Regulations Bureau at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR). She is responsible for ensuring the state’s revenue statutes are supported by clear regulatory and other guidance, and that the department communicates effectively with media outlets, legislators, taxpayers and tax practitioners about the state’s tax laws. Prior to joining the DOR, she practiced at law firms in New York and Boston, where she advised clients on the federal and international tax consequences of a variety of transactions, including private investment fund formations and investments, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and restructurings.

Geoffrey Snyder

Geoffrey Snyder is the commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) where he is responsible for administering the tax, child support and municipal finance laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He has several decades of senior level leadership experience in the financial industry and previously served as the deputy commissioner of administrative affairs and acting CFO at the DOR from 2016 to 2019. In his role as deputy commissioner, Snyder provided oversight of finance, human resources, facilities management, the Office of Ethics and Employee Responsibility, internal audit, labor relations and risk management functions.

Sharen Brown

Sharen Brown is the senior deputy commissioner of tax at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR). Brown oversees end-to-end management of the tax administration process, including the tax, operations and resolution division. In her 19-year career with the DOR, she has served in various roles in the tax division including most recently as chief of the Business Income Tax Bureau.

Elizabeth Frazier

Elizabeth Frazier focuses her practice on government relations, lobbying, business advocacy, and environmental and land use policy. Elizabeth divides her time between Pierce Atwood’s Portland and Augusta, Maine offices.

Elizabeth grew up in and around her family’s Maine-based small business, which has given her unique insights into the challenges and opportunities of running a business in Maine.

Prior to moving back to Maine, Elizabeth served as a staffer for Congresswoman Chellie Pingree in her Washington, DC office. Her experience both in Washington and back home in Maine has given Elizabeth an understanding as to what resonates with Maine policy makers and how to shape a legislative strategy in the best interest of her clients. Specifically, Elizabeth’s professional and political experience have given her a nuanced understanding of Maine politics, and her pragmatic approach to policymaking allow Elizabeth to elevate her clients’ interests above the political fray.

Elizabeth has direct experience working with business, professional associations, and advocacy organizations to navigate complex legal, regulatory, and political issues. In this time of increased state-level policymaking, Elizabeth is intimately familiar with the interplay between multi-state business interests and local policymaking. Additionally, Elizabeth has been involved in the work of climate action and preparedness – an area rife with both risk and opportunity for Maine businesses.

Luke Tilley

Luke Tilley serves as chief economist and leads the Economics, Asset Allocation, and Quantitative Services teams at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors, Inc. (WTIA), the investment advisory arm of Wilmington Trust and M&T Bank. He is also a member of WTIA’s Investment Committee. Before joining Wilmington Trust in 2015, Tilley was an economic advisor with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Earlier in his career, he worked as a senior economist at IHS Global Insight (now IHS Markit) and as an economist for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Additionally, Tilley is currently chair of the American Bankers Association’s Economic Advisory Committee, is a former president of the Philadelphia Council for Business Economics and has taught as an adjunct faculty member at Temple University.

Kevin Kennedy

Kevin Kennedy, CPA, CFE, ABV, is a seasoned accounting professional with nearly three decades of experience, specializing in supporting small businesses and their owners. He has worked in both private and public sectors, applying his expertise as a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and in business valuation (ABV) to litigation and valuation engagements. Additionally, Kennedy is an active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the New Hampshire Society of Certified Public Accountants (NHSCPA) and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). He currently serves on the NHSCPA Board of Trustees, co-chairs its Tax and Legislative Committee and is a former vice president of the NH Chapter of the ACFE. He also holds the role of Justice of the Peace.

Teresa Rosenberger

Teresa is one of the most highly respected and well-known government affairs advisors in New Hampshire, with extensive experience in business and non-profit leadership, regulatory matters, economic development and developing strategies for business success and growth. Teresa works regularly with clients in the energy, education, telecom, healthcare and regulated industry spaces, lobbying and providing strategic consulting, communications, grassroots and coalition building services to help clients navigate issues at the Legislature and before executive agencies and regulatory bodies.

Prior to joining Bernstein Shur, Teresa held policy and communications positions in the executive branch of the federal government and a national weekly magazine and advocated on behalf of a national healthcare association. Teresa’s 30-year career in lobbying, public policy and communications combined with her nimble business acumen uniquely enable her to advise clients on a wide range of issues, helping to ideally position them to achieve their long-term goals and strategic vision.

Jamie Feehan

Jamie Feehan brings more than 15 years of experience working before the Vermont General Assembly to his work on behalf of clients. In that time, he has built a reputation for non-partisan, honest work, bolstered by a thorough understanding of the legislative process. Jamie is known for his ability to develop legislative and administrative action plans, then implement all aspects of those plans, including grass roots and grass tops mobilization.

Sharon Asay

Sharon Asay is the director of finance for the Vermont Department of Taxes. She joined the department in 2007, serving as director of the Division of Taxpayer Services before assuming her current role in 2009. With over 20 years of experience in public accounting, Asay previously managed her own CPA firm in New Jersey.

Mark DeFrancisco

Mark DeFrancisco, Esq., serves as chairman of the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board. He has nearly 40 years of experience in the area of state and local taxation, in both the public sector and in private practice as a state and local tax litigator. DeFrancisco is an adjunct professor at Boston University School of Law’s Graduate Tax Program and has spoken frequently on matters relating to Massachusetts taxation, including numerous conferences sponsored by the Massachusetts Association of Assessing Officers, county assessors associations, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE), MassCPAs and the tax committees of the Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations.

Thomas Stephens Jr

Tommy Stephens Jr., CPA, CGMA, CITP, is a shareholder at K2 Enterprises where he lectures internationally on subjects, such as internal controls for small businesses, technology strategies, computer hardware and software applications, tax strategies and compliance and financial accounting standards and applications. Stephens background also includes his work as an auditor and technology consultant for an Atlanta-based public accounting firm, leading an internal audit staff and managing a cost accounting team for a Fortune 500 company and serving as CFO for an international engineering organization. In the last 25 years, he has also presented over 2,700 educational sessions to over 70,000 participants throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Rita Ryan

Rita Ryan, LL.M., leads Wolf & Company, P.C.’s International Tax Practice, where she focuses on tax planning and compliance for international holdings. Ryan has extensive experience advising clients on the tax aspects of cross-border business activities, structuring international investments and U.S. compliance obligations relating to these activities and investments for both entities and individuals. Prior to joining Wolf & Company, P.C., she was in private practice as an associate attorney at the law firm of Vacovec, Mayotte & Singer, LLP where she focused on the areas of international and domestic taxation, estate planning and tax controversy. Ryan is an adjunct professor at the Graduate Tax Program at Boston University School of Law where she co-founded and co-teaches “Foreign Information Reporting and Withholding.”

Daniel Ryan

Dan Ryan’s practice at Sullivan focuses on representing taxpayers in federal and state tax litigation and controversies as well as transactional planning involving corporate, franchise, personal income and sales/use tax matters. Prior to his employment at Sullivan, Ryan was an attorney at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Office of Chief Counsel, where he represented the IRS in litigation before the U.S. Tax Court and served as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

Richard Jones

RICHARD JONES, ESQ. is a partner in the Tax Department of Sullivan & Worcester LLP, Boston. His practice focuses on state tax litigation and transactional planning involving corporate, franchise, personal income and sales/use tax matters. He represents taxpayers in disputes before the Appellate Tax Board, the Supreme Judicial Court, various state Departments of Revenue and the Internal Revenue Service on a range of issues, including corporate nexus, apportionment, manufacturing classifi cation, step transaction, unitary reporting and domicile.

Caroline Kupiec

Caroline Kupiec is a tax associate at Sullivan & Worcester, LLP, representing clients from a range of industries before state and federal authorities at all stages of the tax controversy process. She regularly represents technology and life science companies before the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) and in litigation at the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board (ATB). Previously, Kupiec clerked for the Honorable Joseph H. Gale of the U.S. Tax Court.

Richard Jones

Richard Jones, Esq., is a partner in the Tax Department in the Boston office of Sullivan & Worcester LLP. His concentration is on state tax litigation and transactional planning involving corporate, franchise, personal income and sales/ use tax matters. Jones has broad experience before the Appellate Tax Board (ATB), the Supreme Judicial Court, various state Departments of Revenue and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on a range of issues, including corporate nexus, domicile, apportionment, step transaction and unitary reporting.

Joseph Donovan

Joe Donovan joined the state and local tax practice of Sullivan & Worcester LLP in 2006 after having spent three years as Deputy General Counsel of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, where he was responsible for working with the General Counsel to manage the Department’s Legal Division — the group responsible for developing public written statements of departmental policy, litigating tax cases in the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board, and drafting and providing comments on proposed tax legislation. From 1984 to 2003, Mr. Donovan held various positions in the state tax consulting practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and its predecessor firm Coopers & Lybrand, including leader of its Northeast Region state tax practice. Mr. Donovan is the author of the Massachusetts Sales and Use Tax Manual and co-author, with J. Gary Dean, of the BNA Multistate Tax Portfolio on Formulary Apportionment Methods. He has been an adjunct faculty member in tax programs at Suffolk University, Northeastern University and New York University. In April of 2007, Mr. Donovan was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick to a special commission charged with studying Massachusetts corporate taxation. He earned his undergraduate degree in philosophy from Cornell University and also holds a J.D., with honors, from the University of Michigan Law School.

Adam DoVale

Adam DoVale is the director of State and Local Tax (SALT) at KLR, overseeing state and local tax services and providing strategic guidance to clients across industries such as manufacturing, software, SaaS, healthcare and professional services. With 15 years of experience, he specializes in compliance, planning and controversy, assisting with income/franchise taxes, sales/use taxes, property taxes, payroll filings, unclaimed property and tax planning to minimize impacts from events like business sales.

Doug Howgate

Doug Howgate is President at the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. Doug began as President in January of 2023, after two years as the Foundation’s Executive Vice President. This is Doug’s second stint at MTF, having served as Research Director between 2015 and 2018.

Prior to his time at the Foundation, Doug has held a number of prominent policy positions in Massachusetts. He served as Senior Policy Advisor to Senate President Karen Spilka between 2018 and 2020, and Budget Director at the Senate Committee on Ways and Means between 2010 and 2014. He has also served as Deputy Chief of Staff at the Massachusetts Port Authority and as a Senior Researcher at the Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center.

Doug has a B.A. in Political Science from Holy Cross and holds a Master’s degree from Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

Thomas Stephens Jr

Tommy Stephens Jr., CPA, CGMA, CITP, is a shareholder at K2 Enterprises where he lectures internationally on subjects, such as internal controls for small businesses, technology strategies, computer hardware and software applications, tax strategies and compliance and financial accounting standards and applications. Stephens background also includes his work as an auditor and technology consultant for an Atlanta-based public accounting firm, leading an internal audit staff and managing a cost accounting team for a Fortune 500 company and serving as CFO for an international engineering organization. In the last 25 years, he has also presented over 2,700 educational sessions to over 70,000 participants throughout the U.S. and Canada.