Biography:

Justine Riccomini is head of tax (employment & devolved), ICAS. She joined the ICAS tax department in November 2016. Prior to this, Justine specialised in employment taxation and strategic HR projects, with the last five years spent running her own consulting business in conjunction with two projects as a senior policy advisor at the Office of Tax Simplification. Her 19 years in practice was preceded by ten years at HMRC.

Email: jriccomini@icas.com.

Biography:

Stephen leads the Employee Incentives team at Mishcon de Reya. He has significant experience advising on the strategy, design, implementation and compliance of UK and global employee incentive arrangements, including long term incentive plans, all-employee share plans, HM Revenue and Customs tax-advantaged plans, management incentive plans and growth share and joint ownership plans. Stephen also advises on all related corporate, tax and trusts aspects, corporate governance issues, disclosure of directors' remuneration and share dealing regulations.

In addition, Stephen works with companies on the impact that corporate actions have on their incentive arrangements and has acted on many public takeovers, mergers and acquisition, public to private transactions, initial public offerings, capital raising activities and private equity deals.

Stephen also advises on contractual disputes and tax investigations relevant to incentives arrangements.

Stephen works with a wide range of businesses across several industry sectors, including financial services, natural resources, entertainment, aerospace and transport and for companies that are listed on the London Stock Exchange, AIM and overseas exchanges, together with private equity houses, private companies and owner-managed businesses.

Biography:

Katy is a qualified tax adviser and chartered accountant. Beginning her career with a Big Four firm and gaining experience across a range of auditing and tax roles, Katy has specialised in R&D tax relief since joining ForrestBrown in 2019.

During a time of unprecedented change, Katy has led ForrestBrown’s approach to key developments including restrictions on overseas R&D expenditure and HMRC’s introduction of the Additional Information Form. This has included liaising with HMRC, delivering internal training and providing insights to clients.

Clients working with Katy benefit from her commercial mindset and clear communication, helping to optimise their R&D tax relief claims. She works with a range of large and complex clients in sectors including software, manufacturing and sustainability. Katy co-authored the Tolley’s Tax Digest on R&D tax relief and has contributed articles to publications including Taxation and The CFO. Katy also contributes to TolleyGuidance Corporate module.

Biography:

Giovanny Téllez Cano is a tax professional with more than 10 years’ experience in the sector. A lawyer and graduate from the University of Antioquia, Giovanny also holds a masters in financial and tax law from the Complutense University of Madrid and a specialist qualification in international tax management from EAFIT University in Colombia.

Giovanny is a business adviser on all issues related to international exchange regime, tax law, international taxation and customs law, and lectures as a university professor at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

He is the author of the Colombia country guide in Tolley’s Global Mobility / Employment Taxes.

Biography:

Muhammad Ali Larik is a seasoned compliance and risk management professional with over 17 years of multifaceted experience spanning regulatory compliance, anti-money laundering (AML), counter-terrorism financing (CTF), governance, and operations across the UAE and Pakistan. He has held leadership roles in prominent institutions such as A&A Associate LLC, AJMS Global Consulting, Creative Zone Group, and Al Brooge Securities. As Group Compliance Officer and MLRO, he has developed enterprise-wide compliance frameworks, led regulatory engagements, and implemented cutting-edge AI-based monitoring systems.

Mr. Larik is a DFSA, FSRA, and SCA-recognized compliance expert and an Approved MLRO with the UAE Central Bank. His core competencies include KYC/EDD, regulatory reporting (ESR, UBO, FATCA, CRS), transaction monitoring, internal audits, sanctions screening, and corporate governance. He has extensive experience collaborating with Free Zones, UAE Mainland authorities, and global financial regulators.

He holds an MBA in Banking & Finance and multiple prestigious international certifications, including GRCP, GRCA (GRC-USA), CAMI, CAMS, ICA (UK), CISI (UK), and Certified VAT Compliance from ATT (UK). He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Public Accountants (Australia) and the Institute of Financial Accountants (UK). His FinTech specialization from the University of Pennsylvania reflects his forward-thinking approach to digital compliance and regulatory tech integration.

With a strong foundation in operations from his early years at BankIslami and a proven record in senior leadership roles, Mr. Larik combines analytical rigor, regulatory foresight, and technological fluency. He is well-versed in leading compliance trainings, enhancing audit readiness, and fostering a culture of integrity and risk-awareness across organizations.

Biography:

Helen Cuthbert is a Senior Tax Manager in the Private Client Team.

Helen specialises in International Private Client Tax matters. Helen assists international individuals moving to the UK; advising on residence, the remittance basis of taxation and remittance planning. In addition, Helen advises UK resident and domiciled individuals leaving to spend time outside the UK.

Helen joined James Cowper Kreston in 2013 and advises a varied portfolio of International and UK based clients. Helen gained extensive experience in Big 4 and Top 10 firms, together with a number of years spent as a tax tutor preparing candidates for the Institute professional exams. Helen is experienced in a wide range of taxation issues including; income tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, enveloped property and pre-arrival remittance planning. Helen has a particular interest in the UK taxation of offshore trusts including inheritance tax issues, capital gains tax deferral and the transfer of assets abroad.

Biography:

Radek is a team leader of APOGEO Indirect Tax team.

Radek specializes in VAT with five years’ experience of advising small and medium size companies on various VAT matters. His sector expertise includes cross-border VAT issues, real estate development, Healthcare Sector and nonprofit organizations.

Radek and his team are ensuring that APOGEO clients are always VAT compliant providing a wide range of related services such as tax memorandums, due diligence and internal audits, VAT registrations etc.

Biography:

Professional Experience:

Ruslan spent ten years in the commercial banking industry, after which he moved to the accounting and consulting sector where he has been working for the past 10 years.

He is passionate about supporting and guiding mid-market enterprise clients.

Ruslan holds a Master's Degree in Economics and obtained his CPA designation in Alberta.

He is a contributor to the Canada country guide in Tolley's Global VAT.

Expertise:

• Financial and Operating Analysis
• Corporate and Personal Taxation
• Full cycle of Corporate Accounting and Reporting
• Data Analysis and Business Intelligence
• CFO and Controller role for public and private clients
• Business Intelligence at University of Calgary
• Financial Counsellor at Institute of Canadian Bankers
• Fluent in English, Romanian, Russian

Biography:

Philip is an experienced Transfer Pricing director. He is a subject matter expert with experience in both industry and advisory. Having worked in financial services and the technology sector, he prides himself on providing pragmatic advice which is both easy to implement and provides suitable substantiation. He has experience advising clients across multiple sectors and has recently worked with a government to formulate transfer pricing policy. He has worked with multiple tax jurisdictions worldwide.

Biography:

John is a chartered accountant and independent training consultant, who lectures for the major trainers, professional bodies, accountancy practices and publishers. He speaks on auditing, financial reporting, ethics, company law and anti-money laundering. Previously, he has been the technical partner for a top thirty firm of accountants and Head of CharterGroup, the accountancy network.

He has spoken for ICAEW's, highly successful, Audit & Assurance Faculty and Financial Reporting Faculty roadshows, for many years.

As well as writing for Audit & Beyond and various other publications, John is author of Core Auditing Standards for Practitioners. John is also a member of the Audit & Assurance Faculty's Practitioner Services Panel.

John finds writing about himself in the third person unsettling.

Biography:

Nicolas Martins works for a “Big Four” firm, primarily advising on corporate tax matters.

His Master’s Thesis focused on Action XIV of the OECD’s BEPS initiative, and he has since published various other articles on subjects relating to international tax litigation.

Nicolas lives in Brussels and enjoys the gym and classical piano.

Biography:

Amanda has 13 years practical experience with KPMG and PWC and worked with tax counsel on tax planning. She also worked as part of a Corporate finance team as the tax advisor for sales and purchases of companies/groups including listed groups.

Amanda has over 20 years’ experience in tax training and designs and writes the bespoke study manuals for the ADIT Energy Resources and Transfer Pricing papers as well as the classroom material for these papers.  She has also designed and written a lot of the classroom material for the ADIT paper 2.09 UK option and has reviewed the Paper 1 Principles of International Tax manual to ensure that it is syllabus focussed.

Amanda uses a lot of humour in her classroom courses and has a very practical approach to both the law and the exams.

Biography:

Kiran specialises in executive remuneration and incentives matters.

Kiran advises on the establishment and operation of a wide range of cash and share-based incentive arrangements for both listed and private clients in the UK and globally.  She also works with clients on the remuneration aspects of executive recruitments and terminations and advises on corporate governance issues and compliance.

In addition, Kiran advises clients on the incentive plan aspects of transactions, including takeovers, IPOs, schemes of arrangement, rights issues, demergers and schemes of arrangement.

Kiran is a member of the Share Plan Lawyers group and of ProShare focus groups.  She is also a contributor to Revenue Law – Principles and Practice on the taxation of share plans.

Biography:

Ian Maston is a Partner at Gabelle LLP. He is a non-practising Solicitor and a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. He has spent almost 20 years advising on all aspects of inheritance tax, trust taxation and estate planning. He is the author of Tolley's UK Taxation of Trusts and Hutton on Estate Planning, and provides specialist monthly tax updates to tax practitioners and lawyers through the Monthly Tax Review.

Biography:

Niall MacDonald is a Group Partner in the Dispute Resolution department in Appleby’s Jersey office.

He advises on all types of commercial dispute and has extensive advocacy experience ranging from representing clients regarding trusts and multi-jurisdictional issues (before the Royal Court of Jersey and Court of Appeal) to resolving local employment disputes (before the Jersey Employment and Discrimination Tribunal).

The cases which he has resolved over the last 15 years have involved a broad range of other areas of the law (including company, contract, criminal, data protection, insolvency, insurance, planning, professional negligence and regulatory); and in 2015 he was awarded the Junior Lawyer of the Year by the Law Society of Jersey with its President noting that Niall stands out having “represented clients in a wide range of litigation issues … achieving consistently good results.”

His practice now focuses on the following specialisms: commercial & contractual disputes; employment & regulatory matters; trust litigation; together with fraud, asset tracing & insolvency cases. The breadth of his experience equips him particularly well when such issues overlap, for example with misconduct investigations concerning regulatory matters.

His clients range from high net worth individuals and executives, to leading global and local corporate entities. They describe him as “charming, friendly and capable” (Legal 500) and “an absolute pleasure to work with... sensible, displays excellent judgement and is always calm... comes up with innovative ideas, is able to manage a significant workload and provides detailed and timely updates” (Chambers).

Biography:

With more than 20 years of experience in both industry and consultancy across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia, Rubeena specializes in cross-border taxation and transfer pricing in Africa and the Middle East.

She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and qualified in International Tax and Transfer Pricing at the Chartered Institute of Taxation UK.

Rubeena is the author of the Mauritius country guide in Tolley’s Global Mobility/Employment Taxes.

Biography:

Laura is a Tax Manager at ForrestBrown, where she supports a broad range of clients with R&D tax relief and Patent Box. Based in ForrestBrown's Bristol office, she is CTA qualified and passionate about helping innovative businesses access reliefs and incentives.

Laura contributes to Tolley's Taxwise.

Biography:

Craig Simpson is a Tax Partner and owner of Bates Weston Tax LLP and Bates Weston Tax Advisory Limited. He specialises in providing tax advice to privately owned companies and high net worth families.

Craig set up his own advisory practice back in 2016 having held a number of senior positions in the national accountancy firms, seeing a gap in the market for a high quality, service focused advisory business. Advising across the range of tax matters relevant to the owner managed business. Craig particularly enjoys advising on complex reorganisations and reconstructions and developed a specialism in this area.

Craig regularly writes in the tax press and presents to fellow professionals and clients. Craig is also the author of Tolley’s Tax Planning for OMBs and consultant editor for the OMB module on TolleyGuidance.