Conference Speakers

Mr. Grant Wardell-Johnson is KPMG Global Tax Policy Leader and Chair of the KPMG Global Tax Policy Leadership Group located in London. He has more than 30 years’ experience in international taxation and mergers and acquisitions at KPMG in Australia and the United Kingdom. He is an Adjunct Professor of Taxation Law at the University of New South Wales and has been Co-Chair of the National Taxation Liaison Group of the ATO and Chair of the Tax Technical Committee of the Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand.

Irma Mosquera Valderrama Full Professor Tax Governance at Leiden Law School (Leiden University), the Netherlands. She is also the EU Jean Monnet Chair Holder on the topic EU Tax Governance (EUTAXGOV), and Lead Researcher of the European Research Council (ERC) Funded Project that investigates Global Tax Governance (GLOBTAXGOV). She received her PhD (cum laude) in 2007 in the Netherlands. She was also a Fulbright Scholar (PhD research) at New York University, and the University of Florida (Gainesville), the United States. Before joining Leiden, she was working as tax adviser (PwC, Hamelink & Van den Tooren), lecturer (University of Utrecht, Erasmus University, the Hague University of Applied Sciences) and postdoctoral researcher (International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation IBFD), the Netherlands. Her areas of expertise are international tax law and comparative tax law in developed and developing countries and exchange of information and BEPS related issues in developed and developing countries.

James Aleksandrow is a Director with 15+ years tax experience, with 12+ years working in tax technology. He leads PwC UK's corporate tax reporting and compliance technology business. James is part of PwC’s Pillar Two working group for data and technology and supports the development and strategy of PwC’s proprietary technology, the Pillar Two Engine. He works with clients to tackle the Pillar Two data and technology challenge, assessing current data and technology ecosystems, understanding gaps and implementing the appropriate technology solutions to meet their needs both now and in the future. Before joining PwC, James has held roles both in industry and for a software vendor, focusing on the implementation of tax technology and the alignment of these programmes to finance and wider transformation agendas.

Prof. John Vella is Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Oxford, Assistant Director of the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation, and a Fellow of Harris Manchester College. John studied law at the University of Malta (BA and LLD) and the University of Cambridge (LLM and PhD). He has been a Convenor of the Tax Section of the UK Society of Legal Scholars, sits on the editorial board of the British Tax Review, and has given evidence on a range of tax issues to UK Parliamentary Committees and Committees of the European Parliament. John has been a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund, a Visiting Professor at Bocconi University, and has held visiting research positions at New York University, the University of Sydney, and Georgetown University.

Prof. Pascal Saint-Amans advises clients worldwide on policy and regulatory matters, including tax-related issues. Prior to joining Brunswick, Pascal was director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD where, working with G20 countries, he led the international tax policy reform, including ending bank secrecy or updating the rules for the taxation of Multinational Enterprises, known as the BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) project. Pascal supported countries in designing their tax policies and provided technical assistance to developing countries. He launched the Tax Inspectors Without Borders Initiative. Pascal graduated from the National School of Administration (ENA) in 1996, and was an official in the French Ministry for Finance for nearly a decade. He held various positions within the Treasury. He was also a member of the UN Group of Experts on International Co-operation in Tax Matters, becoming a “rapporteur” in 2006. Pascal also served as Financial Director of the Energy Regulation Committee between 1999 and 2002 and was responsible for the introduction of new electricity tariffs.

Sajid Khan is a partner with PwC Middle East and has 25+ years of experience in international taxation. During the last fifteen years in the Middle East, he has advised businesses from and outside the Middle East region on their international tax matters. He has extensively worked in the GCC and wider Middle East region developing a deep understanding of various corporate income tax regimes and their interaction with large businesses. Before moving to the Middle East, he was based in PwC London and advised on large cross-border transactions in Europe, US and Far East. He regularly speaks on public forums on international regional tax developments. Sajid holds a 1st Class (Hon) degree in Mechanical Engineering from Birmingham University. He is a qualified chartered accountant and member of Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.

Prof. Ken Devos BBus, Grad Dip Tax, MTax, PhD, CPA, is an Associate Professor of Accounting/Tax in the School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia. Ken has lectured in both undergraduate and graduate tax courses and is the Unit Chair for Taxation and Director of the Master of Professional Accounting. Dr Devos has also provided educational services for accounting firms, the ATO and CPA Australia. Ken has published a number of books and articles both national and international and presented numerous conference papers on taxation issues. Ken’s particular research areas include taxpayer compliance, administration, evasion, and tax policy. Ken's doctorate, "Factors Influencing Individual Taxpayer Compliance Behaviour," was supported by funding from Taxpayers Australia and was published by Springer in 2014. Ken is currently a member of the Australasian Tax Teachers Association, co-chair of the Chatham Tax Discussion group and is represented on the editorial board for The New Zealand Journal of Taxation Law and Policy and the Australian correspondent for the International Tax Law Review.

Prof. Marco Greggi is full professor of tax law and international tax law at the University of Ferrara where he is also a member of the doctoral board. Author of three monographs and over one hundred and fifty scientific contributions, he has permanent teaching positions at the University of Budapest and Beijing (Political Science and Law). He regularly teaches at masters and higher education courses in Italy, France and Liechtenstein, and has been a visiting professor in numerous universities around the world where he focused on agreements against double taxation and the application of VAT in relations with foreign countries: until 2022 he was a consultant at the Office of the Maximum of the Regional Tax Commission of Emilia Romagna (now the Court of Justice) and still collaborates on the maximum of sentences for the creation of the database of the Ministry of Economy. Since 2000 he has been a lawyer at the Forlì – Cesena Court.

Prof. Martin Wenz is a Professor of National and International Tax Law and holds the Chair for Business Taxation and the Laws of International and Liechtenstein Taxation at the University of Liechtenstein. He is also the Academic Head of the Liechtenstein Executive School and the Program Director of the Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Taxation. His main research interests are the international tax policy, the re-design of tax systems, international tax standards, the international Level-playing-field on taxation, the international tax treatment of individuals, companies, private and charitable asset and wealth structures and the various aspects of the Liechtenstein tax law. Professor Wenz gives also comprehensive advice to the Liechtenstein Government on national and international tax law including Double Tax Agreements and on the Implementation of International and European Tax Standards including Pillar 2.

Prof. Natalie Stoianoff is a Professor and Director of the Intellectual Property Program at the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney, since 2008. She is the Chair of the Indigenous Knowledge Forum Committee, member of the UTS Commercialisation Advisory Panel, and is currently Co-convenor of the Technology and Intellectual Property Research Cluster and past convenor of the China Law Research Group. Her international leadership both academically and professionally has resulted in her election in 2021 as President of the Asian Pacific Copyright Association.

Prof. Nolan Sharkey is Winthrop Professor of Taxation Law at the University of Western Australia where he developed and runs the Post Graduate program in International Taxation. He is a Barrister of the Court and a Chartered Accountant. He holds numerous qualifications including PhD, Law, Accounting, Chinese Studies, Linguistics and Theology. He has published widely on international and comparative taxation as well as tax in China and comparative societies. He has advised numerous private sector actors as well as governments and international bodies.

Prof. Sabina Hodzic is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rijeka, Croatia. She received a Ph.D. at the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rijeka with the dissertation thesis “Profit taxation and research and development tax incentives” in 2014. Her main fields of research are finance, public finance, digital economy, international taxation issues, local and regional government, digital economy and green finance. She lectures on public finance and international taxation and is the author of several papers published in scientific journals and book chapters. She has been involved in several scientific research projects (Horizon, Erasmus, Bilateral Agreements Croatia-Slovenia, QU Grants) and she was granted as Post-Doc scholarship from Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalization (OeAD) (2021-2022). As a part of professional training, she stayed at University of Indonesia, Faculty of Administrative Science (2023), Vienna University of Economics and Business (2018), University of New South Wales, Australia (2018), and University of Economics, Slovakia (2016). She is a member of the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee), a member of the Croatian Academic Association - Vienna, a member of the Croatian Statistical Association and many more. Except this, she is a member of editorial board of Tourism and Hospitality Management Journal and also Croatian Review of Economic, Business and Social Statistics. Recently, she received an award for the best scientific paper from Croatian Economic Association (2023).

Dr Satoru Araki is Director at Ernst & Young Tax Co. in Tōkyō. Satoru specialises in tax policy and controversy. Before joining EY, he was Assistant Regional Commissioner of the National Tax Agency in Japan. He also served at the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris and at the Asian Development Bank in Metro Manila. He has widely written books and articles on tax and financial services in English, French, Japanese and Spanish. For example he co-authored A Comparative Analysis of Tax Administration in Asia and the Pacific (ADB 2014). He holds a Doctor of Business Law from Hitotsubashi University in Tōkyō and a Magister Juris from the University of Oxford.

Dr. Sharon Ann Smulders is an award-winning researcher who has worked with the World Bank, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and other international bodies on numerous tax research, technical and policy matters. She is currently the Academic Director at the Tax Institute Higher Education (TTIHE) were she is responsible for providing academic leadership and guidance to the development and delivery of TTIHE’s higher education programs, particularly the programs accredited by TEQSA. Her other various leaderships roles included being primarily responsible for tax advocacy at the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) where she contributed to the development of tax policy and legislation in South Africa. She engaged with the media and various stakeholders in this regard including SARS, National Treasury, the Tax Ombud, Parliament and other international organisations such as the OECD. She was also responsible for the various tax technical committees at SAICA which included the Transfer Pricing, VAT, Employees’ Tax, Carbon Tax and the Exchange Control Committees. Previously, she was the Head of Tax Technical & Research at the South African Institute of Tax, an Associate Professor in the Financial Intelligence Department at the University of South Africa, an Associate Professor in Taxation at the University of Pretoria and a Tax Manager at Deloitte.

Prof. Yan Xu is Scientia Associate Professor of Tax Law in the Business School at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and Adjunct Associate Profession in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. Prior to joining UNSW in September 2019, she was a tenured Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has been a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at Columbia Law School and has held a number of international academic fellowships at, among others, the University of Cambridge, New York University, and the University of Melbourne. She has published in a range of international journals, presented papers at high-level international and regional conferences, made presentations on invitation from prominent bodies, including the Australian Commonwealth Treasury, International Fiscal Association and United Nations ESCAP, and is often invited to act as referee for highly-ranked law journals and academic books. She has successfully secured several highly competitive government grants including Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects and Hong Kong Research Grants Council General Research Fund grants (equivalent to ARC Discovery Projects). Her research interests include comparative tax law and policy, international taxation, and environmental taxation.

Barbara Henzen has over two decades of experience in international and national tax law. Currently, Barbara leads KPMG in Qatar's Tax and Corporate Services practice. Holding a Master of Law degree from the University of Berne in Switzerland, she is qualified as an Attorney-at-Law and a Certified Swiss Tax and International Tax expert. Specializing in indirect tax law, Barbara has successfully managed diverse tax projects for multinational clients, showcasing expertise in VAT implementation, structuring, registration, and compliance. As a key leader in KPMG in Qatar, Barbara leads a team with over 40 tax professionals specializing in the areas of Corporate Income Tax, Transfer Pricing, Value Added Tax and International Tax, all located here in Qatar. Barbara plays a pivotal role in shaping success, contributing to young talent development, and promoting inclusion, diversity, and equity.