Speaker Bios      (back to Event Summary)

Ludwig De Winter is responsible for the VAT e-Commerce package, derogation requests, optional reverse charge mechanisms and VAT obligations. As deputy HoU  he follows all other files within the competence of the unit, including relationswith the customs colleagues. Before joining the Commission he had worked as a tax inspector with the Belgian Ministry of Finance and when he joined the Commission 25 years ago, he was active in the anti-dumping policy (1996-1997). Subsequently he moved to DG TAXUD, where he was responsible for VAT and administrative cooperation and the fight against VAT fraud. Ludwig De Winter was also responsible for the different enlargement processes where he had to verify that the candidate countries had adapted their VAT legislation and administrative capacity in order to be allowed to join the EU. He also takes part in the meetings at IOTA and OECD and bilateral negotiations such as for the Agreement on Administrative cooperation with Norway, recently concluded.

Stefanie graduated from the University of Antwerp with a Master in Laws and an additional Master in Tax Laws. She started her career as VAT advisor in PwC and spent another two years at Deloitte before moving to the transport and logistics industry in March 2004. Stefanie is the head of VAT for the UPS group in Europe, Middle-East and Africa and as such responsible for all UPS, UPS Supply Chain Solutions entities and acquisitions in the EMEA region

Phoebe is an experienced Global Indirect Tax Director with a demonstrated history of working in the financial and information services industries. She is currently a Global Indirect Tax Director at S&P Global and has previously worked in a Big Four company as well as Barclays and VISA. She is a holder of CIMA and CTA qualifications, and has attended London School of Economics and Political Science.

Ksenija Cipek works since 25 years ago for the Ministry of Finance, Tax Administration of the Republic of Croatia. She is a highly respected and recognised international tax expert who was heavily involved in lawmaking and was responsible for several tax reforms in Croatia. As a Project Leader, she established Compliance Risk Analysis System (CRMS) and provided an idea solution for automatic VAT refund based on Risk Analysis System in Croatian Tax Administration. She is currently involved as a Head for Tax Risk Analysis, in a future development of CRM System, connection of tax legislation and CRM System through risk analysis, especially in an analysys of solutions for applying new technologies. She is Board Advisor of European Network for Economic Cooperation and Development (EUCED A.E.I.E. – E.E.I.G), Contributor Member of the Blockchain Chamber of Commerce (USA), Member of a Government Blockchain Association (GBA), Lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb. She is an author and book writer.

Lisette has a Master Degree in Communication Sciences, and joined Cisco more than 20 years ago. Originally in finance, after having being involved in countless projects, amongst others two company-wide Oracle migration projects and a Finance wide outsource project she moved to Tax. For the last 9 years she has been a strategic partner for the International Indirect Tax team and is responsible for all systems, processes and reports related to Indirect Tax. She is working closely with the different tax business and IT teams as well as cross-functional teams to ensure that newly introduced systems, processes, functionalities and business models are aligned with Indirect Tax rules and regulations internationally. Since 3 years her focus has been on digitization, ensuring that Cisco can comply with the ever increasing tax digitization requirements.

Sybille joined Cisco 18 years ago and has been working in different departments. With her team of 6 people, she is responsible of the indirect tax compliance of Cisco’s group for the EMEA and APJ regions. The team has deep insight on indirect tax fillings and audits especially for their main buy-sells entities. In her day-to-day job, she is partnering closely with Cisco’s accounting, PMO and indirect tax advisory team as well as with the big 4. Recently her focus is on the recent Digitization requirements as well as the application of e-services legislation to Cisco’s entities with a review of its business model.  

Jason has over 20 years of IT experience with 10 years as a global ERP and indirect tax subject matter expert. He has extensive experience leveraging innovative methods and industry-leading tools to improve the efficiency and quality of tax strategies, program functionalities, and product features. In his current role, he ensures that all indirect taxes are calculated and reported correctly to Finance and various tax authorities.   

Previously, he was a business systems analysis manager responsible for global indirect tax functionality at Cisco.  Prior to Cisco, he was with Microsoft where he managed a team responsible for country-specific functionality in the Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions.

Alina is an experienced Global Indirect Tax Manager with 10 years of Indirect tax experience in Big 4 companies. She participated in the VAT implementation in Middle East, working for clients in both UAE and Saudi Arabia. After moving to UK, she joined her first in-house role with Pearson Education Limited. Her experience covers many industries as pharma, telecom, oil&gas, retail, real estate, hospitality, etc

Christo has been the Head of Indirect Tax at Boehringer since end of 2018. Prior to taking charge of BI’s VAT and excise duties, Christo had already dedicated 13 years to tax consulting in Big 4 Companies and an in-house position at DuPont always with strong focus on indirect tax and customs and significant experience gained in leading VAT dedicated teams in a shared service centre environment.

Ioan is currently the Global Indirect Tax Manager in Goodyear, while also retaining some regional direct tax responsibilities. He is a well-rounded tax professional with more than 17 years of comprehensive experience in both direct and indirect taxes. He spent the first 8 years of his career in EY and then PwC while in the past 8 years, since he joined Goodyear, he activates in the industry. He worked in 4 different European countries having the opportunity to experience very different local tax environments from up-close.

Ioan holds a bachelor degree in Accounting and Management Information Systems and two master degrees in Auditing concepts and practices at national and international level from the Academy of Economic Studies and in Security and National Defense from the National Defense University. He is also a certified Project Management Professional.

In 1995 Marcos joined the Spanish Tax Administration. Since then he has been working in different offices of tax administration in Barcelona and Madrid in the following areas: combating tax crimes, Tax auditing, Member of the regional administrative tax court in Madrid, Tax collection.

Since July 2006 he’s been working in the Deputy Direction for Legal Assistance in the Tax Auditing Central Department in Madrid. The main duties of this office are: establishing legal criteria in audits related to taxes (VAT, direct taxation) and procedures to the regional auditing offices, reporting the General Director of the Tax Administration about new laws and regulations before they are approved by the parliament or by the government, appealing decisions against the Tax administration issued by administrative and judicial courts.

Currently he is the head of the Office as a Deputy Director, reporting to the Head Director.

Samantha has enjoyed a career in Indirect Tax spanning more than 25 years.  Starting out in VAT with HM Revenue & Customs in the UK, she is now the Head of Indirect & Operational Taxes at GlaxoSmithKlein, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.  In her current role, Sam is responsible for all VAT, CIT and Statutory compliance, together with VAT advisory and Employment Taxes. She also oversees a tax global process owner function, which is tasked with continuously improving and streamlining all tax processes and evaluating and implementing technological solutions to facilitate that. Prior to joining GSK, Sam led Indirect Taxes for the global information company Thomson Reuters, and was previously the European Head of VAT at the infamously defunct US energy company Enron.  She has also spent time in practice with Deloitte and Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC).

Werner Engelen is a director at the LEGO Group, responsible for Tax Policy & Tax Controversy. He studied Tax Law with a specialization in Indirect Tax and more recently obtained a post-master’s degree in Indirect Tax and EU Customs Law at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

Jun is a Principal in Ryan’s Tax technology practice based in London.  He has responsibility for international deployment of technology-related VAT services, including the development of VAT functionality for ERP implementations and the deployment of dedicated tax applications that support international VAT determination, calculation and reporting. Prior to his career at Ryan, he spent 10 years as a VAT advisor in the UK and the US at several major public accounting firms.

Andrew has been a tax and finance transformation professional for more than 20 years, helping clients define and deliver the right operational improvements for their businesses.​

His clients have included large multinational businesses, fast growth organisations, and public sector organisations. He has led a range of projects covering all areas of tax and all regions.​

Andrew has extensive experience helping clients use their existing systems to drive transformations where possible and in applying technologies such as Robotic Process Automation, data analytics and machine learning to deliver additional value. He has also helped clients outsource microprocesses via cloud-based technologies

Geoff has been immersed in enterprise tax solutions at global majors for more than twenty years. With a solid academic background and experience of working across Europe, North America, Middle East and Africa, Geoff excels as thought leader and practitioner in the planning, architecture and governance of end-to-end corporate tax systems. Prior to third-party global tax engines, Geoff built three tax engines and later founded a boutique consultancy that briefly became the largest in the world dedicated to new-age tax technologies. Geoff is the principal author behind the unique Tax Technology Insight Series and a regular blogger, speaker and adviser to tax & tax technology leadership at major corporations.

Ingeborg has a background in VAT Advisory for 8 years, first with EY and after that with KPMG. During her time at EY, she also followed the (Post Master) EFS European Indirect Taxes (Erasmus University). She started as Country VAT manager (Netherlands) with Cargill in 2013, and she’s the EMEA Indirect Tax Lead as of summer 2016.

Her Current large projects: Change of business model & supply chain for our Food Ingredients Business, creation of a Data Warehouse for VAT & Intrastat, Implementation of 1 large new SAP and the implementation of a VAT Compliance Software for the wider EMEA region.

Lide is an experienced VAT specialist with a proven history of managing VAT compliance and advice in internationally present companies. Currently, as the VAT manager for EMEA and APAC at Ritchie Bros, she is focused on raising awareness on VAT related processes and systems, business models and risks. She works closely with cross functional teams, IT and Finance teams to ensure the growth of the organization is aligned with the Indirect Tax rules and reporting obligations. She is currently involved in upgrading tax technology knowledge to better contribute to the progress of the organization in this area.

Gunjan is an experienced Chartered Tax Advisor, specialising in European VAT. Gunjan started her career with EY’s tax advisory team. Since then, she has led VAT compliance and advisory team for an FMCG’s European Shared Service Centre. Gunjan has also managed global Indirect Taxes for a major media & sports company.

As the Senior Proposition Manager for Indirect Tax at Thomson Reuters, Gunjan helps shape the value proposition for ONESOURCE Indirect Tax solutions in the European markets.

Mandeep joined Thomson Reuters in July 2019 and is part of the Solution Consulting team in London. He specialises in the indirect tax products, with a particular focus on the ONESOURCE Determination product.

Having worked in indirect tax for 8 years, Mandeep has significant and varied indirect tax knowledge and experience. He began his indirect tax career working in international VAT compliance before moving into an advisory role and obtaining his professional tax qualifications.

Anita is a graduated economist and German syndic tax advisor. She started her career at KPMG where she spent 5 years in corporate tax advisory and M&A tax projects before moving to Springer Nature Group, the second largest scientific publisher worldwide.  During a period of 8 years she was with Springer Nature Group. she headed the global Indirect Tax function and successfully designed and implemented a digital transformation and automation strategy of global indirect tax related processes and business flows within the Group.

Anita is Vice President Tax Technology Innovation at eClear AG. As such she is responsible for business development and for new, innovative tax technology solutions. She is product owner of eClear`s full service solution “ClearVAT”

Peter Boerhof is the VAT Director for Vertex. In his role he provides insight and thought leadership regarding the impact of tax regulations, policy, enforcement and emerging technology trends in global tax. Peter has extensive experience in international transactions, business restructuring, tax process optimization and tax automation. Prior to joining Vertex, Peter was responsible for leading the indirect tax function at AkzoNobel.

Rick Verma leads Avalara’s marketplace business & team in EMEA. He is responsible for supporting global marketplaces with tax automation solutions and compliance requirements solving crucial tax pain points & barriers to growth faced by marketplaces. Rick has spent the last 10 years in the management consulting, tax and technology space helping businesses of all sizes with their international tax obligations.

Ridvan Yigit is Partner & CCO of SNI. Having over 15 years of experience in SAP and executive management, Ridvan Yigit mainly has been sharing his deep know-how in tax technology with global companies in key industries such as automotive, energy, manufacturing, electronics, FMCG, retail, construction, etc. By providing worldwide solutions for e-invoicing and tax reporting which are completely automated, as well as ongoing guidance for tax compliance, he contributes to the digital transformation of the business world.

His broad-based experience includes Tax and Regulatory Consultancy, SAP-Programming, Finance, ICT, Product Development, and complementing an exceptional track record in sales, marketing, and business development.

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