Industry Influencers

Michael Bernard is the Chief Tax Officer of Transaction Tax. In his role, he provides insight and thought leadership around tax department operations, U.S. indirect tax, tax risk management, and tax policy, as well as emerging tax trends. He is an executive-level tax attorney with a diverse portfolio of experience in corporate tax, administration, and finance, including a substantive knowledge of U.S. and international tax laws.

Prior to joining Vertex, Michael was in various tax leadership roles at Microsoft Corporation for 28 years, the most recent being Senior Director – Tax Counsel. Michael led teams in the following functional areas: direct and indirect tax controversy, sales and use, business license, property, tax IT, SOX, and telecommunications. He also co-led a corporate taxpayer advocacy group with the Washington Department of Revenue and was a Director on the Board of the Washington Research Council. Michael has also testified before administrative and lawmakers at both the federal and state level.

Michael earned both a J.D. and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Creighton University. He is a part-time lecturer of Law in the LLM program at the University of Washington School of Law. Michael also served on the board of directors, executive committee, and chaired committees for The Tax Executives Institute (TEI) for nearly 25 years.

Chris Hall is the Senior Tax Officer in the Chief Strategy Office at Vertex, with a focus is on global taxes and compliance. Prior to Vertex, Chris served as Managing Director for Global Indirect Tax Strategy at Ford Motor Company from 2017 and served in multiple leadership roles in North America and Europe since joining Ford in 2001. Between 1988 and 2001, Chris worked for General Electric Company, running GE’s shared services tax organization in his last role there.

Chris has been responsible for all aspects of indirect tax including compliance, audits, controversy, planning, legislation and leading systems automation projects for centralized tax determination and reporting processes using Vertex and other platforms.

He holds a B.S. in Finance from Florida Tech and an MBA from University of South Florida, is a Certified Member of the Institute or Professionals in Taxation (IPT) and was a Certified Management Accountant and a member in good standing with the Institute of Management Accountants from 1993 to 2013. 

Larry Mellon is a Tax Director in the Chief Tax Office, where he is responsible for providing insights, thought leadership and customer-centric direction to Vertex functional groups, supporting the continued expansion of Vertex indirect tax solutions and overall enterprise strategy. He has over 30 years of experience in sales and use tax compliance, risk assessment, jurisdictional audits, administration and management, as well as VAT compliance. Larry joined Vertex in 2005 as a Sales and Income Tax Supervisor and has served as Tax Manager since 2012, where he has played a pivotal role in elevating and advancing the company’s tax management offerings.

Prior to joining Vertex, Larry served as a Senior Tax Accountant and Property Tax Manager at Foamex International, Inc., a polyurethane and advanced polymer foam product manufacturer and marketer. Mellon also held multiple roles at The Franklin Mint and is a member of the Institute of Professionals in Taxation (IPT) and Tax Executives Institute (TEI).

George L. Salis is Chief Economist and Senior Tax Policy Director. He is an economist, lawyer, and tax professional with 29+ years’ experience in international taxation and trade compliance, tax planning and controversy, fiscal regulation, and tax economics consulting. He is responsible for analysis of economic, fiscal, legal, trade, and development issues in countries, as well as tracking and analyzing the rapid change in tax policies and regulations, and inter-governmental organizations, and tax administrations around the world.

George is the recipient of the Advanced Certificate in EU Law from the Academy of European Law, European University Institute in Florence, and the Executive Certificate in Economic Development from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

George received his BSc in economics and political science, an LLB (Honours), an MA in legal and ethical studies, and an LLM (Honours) in international tax law. He also holds the PhD in international law and economic policy, and the SJD in Taxation from The University of Florida, Levin College of Law. George is a Certified Business Economist (CBE- NABE).

Robin is Senior Director at Vertex Inc. and holds both the leadership and management roles in the Corporate Information Technology organization, responsible for supporting and enabling agile technology projects across the organization. Previously, she was the Senior Director of Commercial Software Development and Cloud Program Management respectively at Vertex. She is an accomplished information technology executive with over 20 years of experience. Her wide range of experiences includes strategically leveraging technology for key business initiatives. She is creative, adaptable, and skilled in cross-cultural communication and critical thinking. Before joining Vertex, Robin was a virtual Chief Information Officer at Contigex. As the Chief Information Officer, she provided oversight of people, processes, and technologies within the company’s IT organization to ensure they delivered outcomes that supported the goals of the business. She actively participated in key client committees, cabinet, and Board-level meetings, ad-hoc advisory groups, institutional/community activities, and planning committees, as well as advising the status of technologies as they pertained to strategic goals and objectives. Robin has a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) with a concentration in Management Information Systems and a minor in Psychology from Iona College and a Master’s in Business Administration from Villanova’s Executive MBA program.

Donal Colbert leads Vertex Consulting’s European Centre of Excellence. Donal has more than 20 years of international experience in VAT compliance and process automation, both in consulting and in-house as a Global Indirect Tax Senior Manager for a large technology company.

Sheera Deepak has responsibility for managing global solutions for the Vertex/Oracle ecosystem and has been a part of the Oracle ecosystem for the last 16 years. Throughout his career, he has played key roles in global rollouts of Oracle ERP financials and tax technology solutions. Sheera has worked with Big 4 consulting firms to deliver innovative solutions to global market and has strong understanding of sales and consumer use tax and VAT.

David Deputy is Director of Strategic Development and Emerging Markets, managing the development of enterprise data management solutions. David brings 20+ years experience in ERP solutions, tax analytics and business intelligence software solutions. His background also includes work at Oracle, corporate finance and in bank regulation. David holds an MBA from Cornell and a Finance degree from the University of Florida.

Marc Duclos is the Oracle/NetSuite Partnership Director at Vertex. Marc has 20 years of product marketing and channel management experience developing and managing national partnerships and driving partner account activity. He also has experience in utilizing completely integrated marketing campaigns to directly influence revenue pipeline and overall regional goals. Marc is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Roger has over 30 years of experience working as an SAP VAT architect and senior consultant to large multinational companies including Philips NV, Essent Trading International, Shell NV and Meridian Global VAT Services. Roger has acquired strong experience in international VAT, SAP, understanding business requirements and working with VAT automation solutions to translate highly complex business requirements into sustainable, future proof tax technology solutions.

Ana Maciel is the director of tax research, responsible for new tax content that supports the Vertex Indirect Tax O Series solution in Brazil. Based in São Paulo, she has almost 30 years of experience in Brazilian indirect tax and has worked at Vertex for over 15 years. Previously, she worked as a tax advisor to multinational companies in Big 4 accounting firms. Ana holds a B.S. in law and a B.S. in business administration, as well as a post-graduate degree in international trade from Universidade Paulista.

Pete Olanday is Director, Retail Consulting, responsible for the integration of Vertex's Indirect Tax solutions in the retail space, specifically with Point-of-Sale systems and e-commerce platforms. Prior to joining Vertex, Pete worked for IKEA and EY. Pete has a B.S. in information and decision sciences from Carnegie Mellon University.

Mark Sieczkowski is senior product suite manager for Vertex Cloud, responsible for growing revenue and profitability, as well as ensuring customer success, through market-driven product definition, prioritization and realization.

Mark has over 20 years of IT product and project management experience. He previously served as vice president, solution delivery for Devon IT, where he was responsible for supply chain management and ensuring solution delivery of both hardware and software projects.

Fernando has more than 23 years of experience in the technology segment, managing strategy, sales, and operations areas at all levels. He had worked for some of the highest-profile technology companies in Brazil and over the last eleven years has been focused on the Tax & Accounting market in Brazil and Latin America. His experience includes work with companies such as Oracle, Mastersaf, TaxWeb, and NFe do Brasil. Fernando graduated with a degree in Business Administration and an MBA in IT Management from FGV and UCI California University.

Thomas Steppe is a Global Tax Leader with the Indirect Tax Research department. In his role, he is responsible for the global VAT research content for Vertex’s tax technology solutions. Thomas has more than 12 years of experience in VAT, both in consulting and as an in-house VAT manager, and holds a Master’s Degree in accountancy and applied economics.

Gunjan Tripathi is a Director of Solutions Marketing for Vertex. In her role, she helps shape the strategic messaging and course for Vertex's Indirect Tax offerings. She is an experienced Chartered Tax Advisor, specialising in European VAT. Her tax career experiences comprise of consulting with EY, leading compliance at European Shared Service Centre for SC Johnson, Global VAT manager for Endeavor and VAT proposition lead at Thomson Reuters. She holds a Bachelor of Honours in Economics from the University of Delhi, India and a Master of Science in Development Studies from School of Oriental & African Studies from the University of London. She is an Executive MBA scholar at the Warwick Business School and member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

Nicole van Wandeloo is Manager of Tax Research with the Vertex Indirect Tax Research department, where she is responsible for the EMEA VAT content for Vertex O Series. Nicole has more than 20 years of international experience in VAT advisory, VAT compliance, and process automation, both in consulting and as an in-house VAT manager. She also holds a master’s degree in Tax Law.

Brian Wilchusky leads our Global SAP partnership, responsible for growing the Vertex relationship across all areas of SAP’s business and developing innovative solutions for the SAP customer base. Brian has over 25 years of experience in partner and channel development, marketing, product management and software sales. He holds a B.S. from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.