Teaching and Curriculum Conference Speakers
Annette Nellen, CPA, CGMA, Esq.
Annette Nellen is a professor in and director of San José State University's graduate tax program (MST), teaching courses in tax research, accounting methods, individual tax, property transactions, employment tax, ethics, and tax policy. Annette is active in the tax sections of the AICPA (including former chair of the Tax Executive Committee and current chair of the Digital Assets Tax Task Force), ABA (vice chair of the Tax Policy & Simplification Committee), and California Lawyers Association (member of the Tax Executive Committee). Annette also serves on CalCPA’s Accounting Education Committee. In 2023 she was appointed to the IRS Advisory Council (IRSAC) and serves as chair for 2024.
Annette is the recipient of the 2013 Arthur J. Dixon Memorial Award given by the Tax Division of the AICPA, the highest award given by the accounting profession in the area of taxation, and the 2019 Benjamin F. Miller Award from the Taxation Section of the California Lawyers Association for achievement and contribution in the field of state and local taxation law. In June 2023, she was awarded the Sid Kess Award for Excellence in Continuing Education from the AICPA. Annette is a fellow with the American College of Tax Counsel. She is a research fellow with the Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies of Joint Venture Silicon Valley.
Annette authors Bloomberg Tax Portfolio #533, Amortization of Intangibles, and Tax Analysts’ Tax Notes State Moving Forward? column. She is co-author/co-editor of four tax textbooks from Cengage (the South-Western Federal Taxation series). Annette is a frequent speaker on tax developments, cryptocurrency, tax reform and tax policy. She was the lead author of the AICPA’s Guiding principles of good tax policy: A framework for evaluating tax proposals (still in use today). She has testified several times before various legislative committees and tax reform commissions on tax policy and reform. Annette runs the 21st Century Taxation website and blog (www.21stcenturytaxation.com). Prior to joining SJSU in 1990, Annette was with the IRS (Revenue Agent and lead instructor) and EY.
Joseph Maslott, CPA
Joseph Maslott, CPA, is the Associate Director – Content Management with the AICPA Examinations team since 2006. Mr. Maslott has over 20 years of accounting experience and began his career at PwC. As a lead CPA on the AICPA Examinations team, he has served in various roles including Staff Liaison for the AUD subcommittee and business owner of Simulation Development for all sections of the Exam. Currently, Mr. Maslott is the staff lead of the CPA Evolution practice analysis, a research project designed to document the scope of entry-level practice as well as serve as the foundation for the Exam's validity and legal defensibility.
Lindsay Miller
Lindsay Miller is a senior manager in Grant Thornton’s Tax Digital Consulting practice where she pairs her experience as a CPA with her passion for process, data and technology. Lindsay has been with Grant Thornton's Orange County practice for over fifteen years.
Lindsay helps clients tackle their tax modernization challenges through operating model design, process enhancement, data strategy and automation, and implementation of both custom and off the shelf solutions. Lindsay views tax technology as much broader than particular software tools – and views thoughtfully understanding the problem and objective as the key driver of success.
Kate Riemersma, CPA
Kate is a partner in Deloitte’s Tax Technology Consulting Group focusing on tax technologies and data architecture. She has 15 years of experience with full cycle software implementations, accounting, compliance, and project management.
She specializes in tax transformation projects leading initiatives on tax processes, data automation, tax accounting financial reporting, and internal controls. Areas of specialization include reporting and analytics, data management, and implementation of tax systems.
Tim Rupert
Tim Rupert is the Group Chair and a Professor in the Accounting Group of the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University. He also has an honorary appointment at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He previously served as an editor for The Journal of the American Taxation Association (2020-2023) and as the co-editor of Advances in Accounting Education (2011–2017). He currently serves on the editorial boards of Issues in Accounting Education, Accounting and the Public Interest, and Advances in Taxation. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Accounting Association as the Director Focusing on Segments and has previously served as president, vice president and secretary of the American Taxation Association.
Ashutosh Tiwari
Ashutosh is a lead Solution Architect with over 15 years of consulting experience. He works as a Managing Director in Tax Ignition – Data Analytics & Modeling team in KPMG US and manages the team responsible for tax process transformation and automation. He specializes in Asset management and Partnership compliance process transformation. Prior to joining Ignition team, he has worked within modelling team in KPMG in UK and India, working with clients across multiple different sectors. Ashutosh has been with KPMG since 2010.
Ashutosh has assisted multinational organizations with the following areas of tax:
- Ashutosh is one of the key model architects specialized in large scale Asset Management / Partnership compliance process transformation through innovative solution designing, and tax workpaper enhancements using modeling best practices and optimal combination of BI technology stacks like Microsoft Power Excel, Power BI, Alteryx and various Robotics Process Automation tools.
- Ashutosh is also working with different parts of the tax department in KPMG-Tax such as M&A PTG, SALT & International tax etc. to provide technical leadership for automation projects in areas related to passthroughs across different industries.
- Industry exposure – Alternative Investments, Private Equity, Hedge Funds, Real Estate, Financial Services, Power & Utilities, Energy, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Technology, Telecommunication, Chemical, Consumer Goods, Automobile and Manufacturing.
- Technical skills – Alteryx, MS Power Excel, Power Query, Power Pivot, MS Power BI, VBA, MS Visio and RPA Tools such as Power Automate, and WinAutomation etc.