ISLP is delighted to announce the establishment of our Tax Advisory Board. The advisory board will provide strategic guidance to our tax practice area – an important and highly specialized component of ISLP’s efforts to support inclusive, accountable, and sustainable development. We are honored and thrilled to work with this group of noted experts, who bring diverse perspectives, areas of expertise, and deep experience of tax and fiscal matters. ISLP will continue to work with our ever-expanding volunteer network in the implementation of discrete tax projects.

We extend special thanks to ISLP’s longtime advisors and volunteers Joe Bell, Joe Guttentag, and Steve Shay, who were central to the development of ISLP’s tax program area and who have continued to provide essential guidance to our work over the years.

Members of the ISLP Tax Advisory Board

  1. Philip Daniel: Honorary Professor at the University of Dundee. He is a specialist on resource-rich economies notably for oil, gas and mining taxation. Former Deputy Head of the Tax Policy Division, IMF. Philip previously served on the Advisory Board for the Oxford Centre for the Analysis of the Resource Rich Economies at the Department of Economics, University of Oxford, including four (4) years as Chair from 2015-2019. He also serves on the Advisory Council of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI).
  2. Babatunde Fowler: Board Member of the Pan-African Parliament of the African Union (AU), former Vice-chairman of the UN Committee of Experts on International Corporation in Tax Matters, former Chair of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF); former Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) of Nigeria; former Chairman of the Joint Tax Board of Nigeria; and former Executive Chairman, Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS). A seasoned tax administrator responsible for reforming the LIRS, Babatunde led it to achieve an increase in internally generated revenue (the highest by any State in Nigeria). Prior to joining the public service, Babatunde had a distinguished banking career of over 20 years, first with Commercial Bank (Credit Lyonnais Nigeria Limited) and thereafter with Chartered Bank, where he rose to the position of General Manager.
  3. Michael Lebovitz: Partner in the Tax Transactions and Consulting Practice with the law firm of Mayer Brown. He advises on the tax aspects of international joint ventures, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, post-transaction integration, international corporate finance, capital market transactions and general international tax planning matters across multiple industries including life sciences, media and entertainment, telecom, technology, oil and gas, and industrial and consumer products. He has successfully led teams advising multinationals and also led global transfer pricing teams in connection with planning and documenting transfer pricing strategies, and has written several articles on tax topics.
  4. Eric Mensah: Partner-in-charge of tax with Sam Okudzeto & Associate, Accra, Ghana. Former Assistant Commissioner at the Ghana Revenue Authority; consultant on international Tax and taxation of natural resources and a former member of the UN Committee of Experts on International Corporation in Tax Matters.
  5. Victoria J. Perry: Former Deputy Director Fiscal Affairs Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF); former Deputy Director Harvard University International Tax Program. During her time with the IMF, she provided technical advice in tax policy and revenue administration to more than 50 countries across all regions. She previously practiced tax law with the Boston law firm of WilmerHale. She is a past president of the National Tax Association, a past president of the American Tax Policy Institute, past Chair of the Value Added Tax Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation, and presently vice president and member of the Board of the International Institute of Public Finance.
  6. Dr. Zach Pouga: Recognized by the American Bar Association and the National Bar Association as among the Nation’s Best Advocates and Top 40 Under 40. Zach is an international tax Partner at Ernst & Young based in New York City. His practice focuses on the international aspects of United States taxation, regularly advising large multinational companies on the tax aspects of their cross-border transactions. He has extensive experience assisting developing countries in their tax policy design and implementation. Zach holds a Doctorate in international tax policy from the University of Michigan; an international tax LL.M. from Michigan law school; a LL.M. in corporate and finance law from Wayne State University; and a LL.B. and Master of laws from the University of Douala. He is a regular public speaker and has published several works on tax matters.
  7. Alexandra Readhead: Lead, Tax and Extractives with the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Economic Law and Policy Program and lead on the IGF Secretariat’s work on tax base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) in mining. Alexandra has directly advised numerous tax authorities in Africa and Latin America on strengthening legal frameworks against corporate tax avoidance in the mining sector. She was named in the global tax top 50 for 2017.
  8. Stephen Shay: Boston College Law School – Senior Tax Fellow; Former US Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs; retired partner of Ropes & Gray LLP; he has taught US law tax courses at Harvard Law School, Boston College Law School, Yale Law School, Oxford University and at the Leiden International Tax Institute. He previously served as an expert consultant to the IMF on tax policy; also consults for international organizations and private parties.
  9. Iain Steel: Experienced economist specializing in tax and the taxation of natural resources. He has advised governments in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America on investment projects, tax policy, tax audits, and financial modeling. He is currently the director of Econias, a company he founded to advise governments on contract negotiations for investment projects. Prior to becoming a consultant, he was a senior policy advisor on taxation at HM Treasury in the UK, where he was responsible for coordinating tax policy during the global financial crisis.
  10. Afton Titus: Associate Professor in the commercial law dept and a member of the core team at the UCT Tax Unit for Fiscal Research in partnership with the International Bureau for Financial Documentation (IBFD). She was awarded her PhD from the Amsterdam Center for Tax Law at the University of Amsterdam, with her thesis focused on designing corporate tax policies for the East Africa Community and its envisages federation. She has published several works on taxation and fiscal matters.
  11. Perrine Toledano: Head, Mining and Energy, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI). She leads CCSI’s research, training, and advisory projects on the impact of the energy transition on extractive industry investments and resource-rich countries as well as the deployment of large-scale investments in renewable energy, zero-carbon industrialization, and economy-wide decarbonization. She also leads CCSI’s work on the governance of extractive industries including on fiscal regimes, financial modeling, shared use of mining infrastructure, climate resilience, local content, revenue management, amongst others. She previously worked as a consultant with the World Bank, DFID, Revenue Watch Institute (now NRGI), and Ernst and Young, to name a few.

For more information on ISLP’s Tax practice area, please contact Eniye Ogbebor, Senior Legal Program Officer.