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| Elise
Bean is a new entry this year |
Elise Bean was the staff director and chief counsel of the
US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, overseeing
the tax avoidance investigations into the tax practices of
Apple, Caterpillar and Microsoft.
She was appointed by two-time (2012 and 2013) Global Tax 50
entrant, Senator Carl Levin, working with him on three
committees in total. During her time on the investigations
subcommittee, Bean was twice named one of Washington's 100 most
powerful women – in 2011 and 2013 – by the
Washingtonian magazine, as well as being recognised by
the National Law Journal as one of Washington's most
influential women lawyers.
Since leaving her position with the Subcommittee on
Investigations, Bean has been actively involved with the work
of the Independent Commission for Reform of International
Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) as head rapporteur, working
alongside fellow Global Tax 50 2015-ers, Allison Christians,
Eva Joly and Magdalena Sepulveda Carmona as well as taking up a
co-directorship with the Levin Centre at Wayne Law School in
Detroit.
The ICRICT describes itself as a group of leaders from
around the world who believe that there is an urgent need and
an unprecedented opportunity to bring about significant reform
of the international corporate tax system. The commission
– initiated by a coalition of civil society
organisations including Action Aid, Christian Aid, Global
Alliance for Tax Justice, Oxfam and the Tax Justice Network
– held its first meeting in New York in March and
threw its support behind a proposal for an intergovernmental
tax body within the UN during the Third International
Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa in
July.
Bean's background working with Levin on issues of corporate
profit shifting and offshore tax abuse has proved invaluable in
the formulation and presentation of ICRICT's ideas, and will
help to ensure the group gains even more traction in the year
ahead.