Speakers

Professor Rick Krever is a leading taxation law and policy expert. He has been closely involved in modern Australian tax reform initiatives for many years, including as a member of the Commonwealth Government's Taxation Law Improvement Project Consultative Committee and the Review of Business Taxation (Ralph Review). Professor Krever has been a professor-in-residence at the Australian Taxation Office and the Australian Treasury and has twice been seconded to the International Monetary Fund. His international visiting professor positions include appointments at Osgoode Hall Law School, Erasmus University, and Harvard Law School. Professor Krever has worked with a variety of international organizations including the United Nations, European Union, Asian Development Bank, and World Bank as a post-conflict and development specialist, assisting in tax law design and drafting in regional and other jurisdictions including East Timor, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Argentina, Antigua and Barbuda, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Ghana, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kosovo, Tajikistan and Latvia.

Adrian Sawyeris a Professor in the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

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.

Agustin Redonda is a Senior Fellow with the Council on Economic Policies (CEP) where he focuses on fiscal policy, with a strong focus on tax expenditures and tax incentives. Prior to that, he has been a research and teaching assistant with the Economics Department (IdEP) of the University of Lugano (Switzerland). He also worked with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MTSS) in Argentina. Agustin holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Lugano (USI), a MSc in Economics from the University Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne, an MSc in Economics from the University Paris – Est Créteil, and a BA in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). He is also a trained TADAT Assessor - Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool (TADAT), and has worked as a consultant for different governments, and regional and international organizations.

During his tenure at ministry of commerce and industry Majid lead several strategic projects aimed at tackling economic issues in the fields of logistics, food and investment promotion. He led numerous projects including establishing and operationalizing 3 departments successfully at the newly established General tax authority in Qatar. Consulted for economic tax matters including economic assessments, analysis and impact studies. His experience includes market liberalization, economic sector enhancements and conducting economic and sectoral studies and analytics.

He is currently an economic advisor and a member of the transformation committee at General Tax Authority, heading vice chairman of quality board. He is also currently leading the development of tax policy division with over 200 deliverables and projects. His expertise in the field of economics includes legislations, policy and economic projects. Interested in monetary economics, economic policies and political economics.

Christine is a lecturer at Department of Accounting, Faculty of Economics, Universitas Indonesia. She is an Australian Development Scholarship (ADS) Awardee and received her Master’s in International Taxation from University of Sydney (NSW, Australia) in 2006, and Bachelor of Accounting from Faculty of Economics University of Indonesia in year 2000 with Cum Laude. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD at USM.

Flurim Aliu is a Fellow at CEP where he focuses on fiscal policy. He is co-leading the Global Tax Expenditures Database (GTED) project, a joint initiative between the CEP and the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS). He previously worked at the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department, where he contributed to research on special economic zones and participated in IMF country engagements. He also worked at the World Bank, where he contributed to policy research at the Infrastructure Chief Economist’s office. Flurim holds an MA in International Commerce from Seoul National University in Korea and a BA in Political Science from Georgia Gwinnett College in the United States.

Professor Hassan Aly served on the faculty of The Ohio State University, Department of Economics, and has gone through the ranks, from 1989 as an assistant professor of economics until he received his full professorship in 2007. He also served as an associate faculty member at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (1992-2015). As well as the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy (1999-2015); associate editor of the Middle East Business and Economic Review (2002-2010); and the Journal of African Development (2009-2012). Professor Aly has over 50 scientific papers published in national, regional, and international journals. Moreover, his Google (H-index and i-10 index) are 19 and 24 respectively, His lifetime citations are more than 2400 counts.

In May 2015, Professor Aly received the rank of Professor Emeritus of Economics from Ohio State University, and in 2017, he assumed the position of Professor of Economics and Dean of the School of Business Administration at Nile University, Giza, Egypt, after serving as the Founding Dean of the School of Public Administration and Development Economics at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in Qatar (2015- 2017). Starting September 1st 2014, Professor Aly declined his administrative positions at NU and was named a Distinguished Professor of Economics, Also, as of October 1, 2023, Prof. Aly is serving as a representative of the Egyptian Kuwait Holding Company on the Board of Directors of Delta Insurance Company - Egypt and Delta Life Insurance Company. 

In terms of international professional service, Prof. Aly enjoys a broad leadership role as exemplified in his service to Middle East Economists where he served as Treasurer, Executive Secretary General, and then President of the organization for two consecutive terms (ending in 2019). He currently serves as an x-official member of the board of directors of this organization. He also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Economic Research Forum (ERF), a well-known and leading economic research center in the region, for one term (2012-16), and in 2022 he was elected to lead this organization as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Forum for a five-year term (from 2022 to 2027).

His previous positions include Lead and Chief Economist at the African Development Bank (two years), and Director of Graduate Studies at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates for a three-year term (2002-2005). In addition, he was a senior Fulbright scholar at the United Arab Emirates University in the Spring of 2000 (for one semester). Finally, he held several positions as a visiting professor for short periods at several Middle Eastern and US Universities such as Kuwait University, and Ain Shams, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

Katarina Kresal is a highly accomplished legal expert and business leader with extensive expertise in corporate and commercial law, transaction advisory, and capacity building. As an experienced attorney, she currently co-manages Law Firm Senica & Partners, a Slovenian member firm of Andersen Global and the parent company of Andersen Slovenia, Andersen Serbia, Andersen Montenegro, and Andersen North Macedonia.

With more than 18,000 professionals and over 2,200 global partners in 500+ locations across 179 countries, international firm Andersen Global combines deep expertise in tax, finance and legal with the global perspective to serve clients’ most critical needs seamlessly around the world.

Within Andersen Global, Katarina holds several key positions: she is a member of both the European and Global Management Committees, coordinates the Central East Europe region, and manages the Western Balkans region.

Katarina’s political background further equips her with in-depth expertise in the functioning of state structures and legislative processes. During her tenure as Minister of the Interior of Slovenia, Katarina led major reorganization and capacity-building initiatives, managed legislative projects, and coordinated the redrafting of critical legislative acts across multiple ministries.

With her expertise gained through her extensive career across judiciary, economy, legal practice, politics, and international advisory Katarina is frequently engaged as a high-level advisor for international projects and strategic guidance to ministries and state institutions.

Prof Dr Vikram Chand is a Professor of International Tax Law & Policy at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland. He currently also serves as the Program Director of the Executive Program in Transfer Pricing offered by UNIL and as a BEPS / Pillar 2 Advisor for the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

His main areas of research, teaching and consulting expertise relate to Pillar Two (Global Minimum Tax Rules), Corporate and Personal Tax Incentives, Transfer Pricing (including Amount B), Tax Treaties, Tax Controversy Management and the intersection between International tax law and other areas of International Law (e.g. International Trade Law or Bilateral Investment Treaties).

His expertise is evidenced by an extensive list of publications. For example, on the research front, he has published many articles in top peer-reviewed journals (such as the World Tax Journal, Intertax, British Tax Review and the International Tax Studies) or books (either monographs or edited books) with International Publishers (such as Kluwer Law, IBFD or Schulthess). His doctoral thesis - The Interaction of Domestic Anti-Avoidance Rules with Tax Treaties - was also shortlisted for the prestigious Frans Vanistendael Award that is conferred by the IBFD.

On the teaching front, Prof Chand teaches Swiss Tax Law (in French) at the Bachelor level and International Tax Law at the Master level (Tax Treaties, European Tax Law, Transfer Pricing, Pillar Two and Pillar I rules). Moreover, he teaches in several Executive Education Programs in these areas.

He has also trained senior tax / policy officials from several countries including officials from Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, China, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Turkey, Uganda and Ukraine. The trainings were done mostly on all BEPS related matters (e.g. minimum standards – such as Action 6, Actions 8-10 as well as Action 13 and Action 5 – and non-minimum standards such as Actions 3 and Action 4).

As a result of the above activities, Prof Dr Vikram Chand is regularly approached for consulting / capacity-building projects by Governments (or Government Entities), International Associations and International Organisations. For example, he was appointed thrice as an expert on Pillar Two matters for the Indonesian Government. He was also mandated by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to assess the impact of the Two Pillar Solution and ongoing International Tax Developments on the Airline Industry. Additionally, he was mandated by the UN as a consultant on Transfer Pricing matters to develop material that will be used by competent authorities of various developing countries in Mutual Agreement Procedures. Moreover, he is regularly invited to either participate in events / trainings organised by the OECD, UN and EU Commission or express his views on new proposals (e.g. he was approached by the EU Commission to provide his views on the Transfer Pricing Directive and now on Tax Incentives Post Global Minimum Tax Rules).

Prof Chand is also approached by Consulting firms, Large MNEs and Law Firms for independent expert opinions and professional support / training projects on his key areas of expertise. The expert opinions on Tax Treaties and Transfer Pricing are mainly used in complex international tax law cases (cases which are either in litigation, MAP or Arbitration). The opinions are also used in the context of mitigating international tax law risks (e.g. Advance Rulings or Bilateral APA applications).