Take Indirect Tax to the Cloud

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.

Ben Askin is Chief Information Officer, responsible for enterprise technology strategy, security, data analytics, and digital transformation, using cognitive solutions and data insights across the organization to advance the delivery of value to customers.

Ben has more than 25 years of consulting and organizational management experience with small to large enterprise-sized clients in a variety of leading industries, primarily involving business innovation, strategy, and large-scale technology enablement.

Ben earned a B.S. in Business and Finance from the University of Maryland College Park and is also the founder of the Heroes Youth Baseball and Basketball Club, dedicated to the development of well-rounded youth through positive sports competition.

Peter Boerhof is the Senior VAT Director for Vertex. In his role, he provides insight and thought leadership regarding the impact of tax regulations, policy, enforcement, and emerging technology trends in global tax. Peter has extensive experience in international transactions, business restructuring, tax process optimization, and tax automation. Prior to joining Vertex, Peter was responsible for leading the indirect tax function at AkzoNobel, where he designed and implemented a tax control framework, optimized VAT, and managed the transition to a centralized tax operating model for global tax processes.

He was also responsible for indirect tax planning and compliance for merger and acquisition, supply chain, and ERP projects, as well as the implementation of tax automation initiatives like tax engines and robotics. Boerhof also worked at KPN Royal Dutch Telecom managing VAT, as well as Big Four accounting firms Deloitte and Ernst & Young (EY) advising on VAT compliance and optimization processes. Boerhof holds an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management and a master’s in tax law from the University of Groningen.

Venkatesh Jayaraman is the Vice President of Commercial Software Engineering responsible for providing strategic direction and technical leadership for the entire software engineering organization including user experience (UX). He is also responsible for the Agile product management organization (PMO), Cloud Operations, and Systems Automation areas of the company.

Venkatesh is a senior technology and software development executive with over two decades of industry experience and an extraordinary record of success in technical leadership, cross-functional product development, and software architecture. Prior to joining Vertex, Venkatesh was in various leadership roles at Citrix Systems and Motorola where he led Agile and cloud transformation across the core engineering and product development organizations. He is experienced in Lean-Agile practices and has a proven record of building business agility while managing large scale enterprise organizations across multiple geographies.

Venkatesh holds a Master's degree in Engineering Management from University of Florida, Gainesville, and a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from India’s National Institute of Technology.