Weatherford hires Parent for chief tax role

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Weatherford hires Parent for chief tax role

weatherfordsmall.jpg

Weatherford, the oilfield services and equipment company, which has been trying to rectify serious tax accounting problems for the last two years, has a new head of tax.

James Parent joined the company on July 1 from his previous role as vice president of tax reporting for Tyco International, where he had worked from 2006 until last month. Before that he was with PwC for 13 years. He is a certified public accountant and also has a law degree.

Weatherford announced in March 2011 that it would have to restate its earnings between 2007 and 2010 because of tax mistakes that would cost more than $500 million. The company blamed inadequate staffing, subpar tax advising within the company and poor internal review procedures.

A year later the company told investors that they should not rely on previous years’ results because the work to fix its financial reporting problems had not been completed. Then in March, it announced its chief financial officer and vice president for tax would be leaving.

more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

The climbdowns pave the way for a side-by-side deal to be concluded this week, as per the US Treasury secretary’s expectation; in other news, Taft added a 10-partner tax team
A vote to be held in 2026 could create Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, a $3.6bn giant with 3,100 lawyers across the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific
Foreign companies operating in Libya face source-based taxation even without a local presence. Multinationals must understand compliance obligations, withholding risks, and treaty relief to avoid costly surprises
Hotel La Tour had argued that VAT should be recoverable as a result of proceeds being used for a taxable business activity
Tax professionals are still going to be needed, but AI will make it easier than starting from zero, EY’s global tax disputes leader Luis Coronado tells ITR
AI and assisting clients with navigating global tax reform contributed to the uptick in turnover, the firm said
In a post on X, Scott Bessent urged dissenting countries to the US/OECD side-by-side arrangement to ‘join the consensus’ to get a deal over the line
A new transatlantic firm under the name of Winston Taylor is expected to go live in May 2026 with more than 1,400 lawyers and 20 offices
As ITR’s exclusive data uncovers in-house dissatisfaction with case management, advisers cite Italy’s arcane tax rules
The new guidance is not meant to reflect a substantial change to UK law, but the requirement that tax advice is ‘likely to be correct’ imposes unrealistic expectations
Gift this article