Global Tax 50 2015: Elise Bean

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.