Eli Dicker becomes TEI's Chief Tax Counsel: Mary Lou Fahey appointed TEI General Counsel and Kate Dancy Joins TEI's Conference Planning Staff.

TEI President Judith P. Zelisko recently announced the appointment of Eli J. Dicker to be TEI's Chief Tax Counsel, a position in which he will lead the Institute's advocacy efforts. Mr. Dicker's appointment completes a realignment of TEI's legal staff, which also included the appointment earlier this year of Mary L. Fahey, formerly TEI's Tax Counsel, to be the Institute's General Counsel. Finally, Kate Dancy has joined the TEI staff as Assistant Director of Conference Planning. Ms. Dancy and Mr. Dicker joined TEI on March 21; Ms. Fahey's appointment became effective in mid-January.

"Eli will bring a broad range of expertise to TEI's advocacy efforts and we look forward to working with him for years to come," TEI President Zelisko stated. "We are also pleased to be able to recognize Mary Lou's almost two decades of work for TEI. And with the addition of Kate, the organization is now fully staffed."

Mr. Dicker, a former KPMG partner, was previously employed at Capital One in the Washington, D.C. area. After receiving his J.D. degree from Northeastern University and his LL.M. in Taxation from New York University, he began his tax career as an attorney-adviser in the IRS Office of the Associate Chief Counsel (International); he later became an IRS trial attorney.

A member of TEI's legal staff since 1988, Ms. Fahey was previously a tax associate in the law firm of Covington & Burling and a trial attorney with the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Ms. Fahey holds a B.S. degree from the University of Maryland and a J.D. from American University's Washington College of Law.

Ms. Dancy is a graduate of Longwood College and was formerly a manager of meetings at the National Wildlife Federation, where she had been employed since August 2001. Before joining NWF, Ms. Dancy worked in meeting planning positions at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives and the Association for Healthcare Philanthrophy.

In comments on the staffing changes, TEI Executive Director Timothy McCormally noted that the addition of Mr. Dicker to TEI's staff completed a restructuring of the Institute's advocacy department. "The business tax community faces a wide variety of challenges--from implementing the 2004 Tax Act to coping with section 404 reviews under Sarbanes-Oxley to ramped-up compliance efforts by the IRS, states, and their counterparts in other countries to the challenges of impending tax reform."

"The addition of Eli to our staff combined with the restructuring of our legal resources has well positioned TEI to respond to these challenges. I look forward to working with him, Mary Lou, and Tax Counsels Jeff Rasmussen and Greg Matson in helping define, refine, pursue, and achieve TEI advocacy priorities. We are also pleased to have someone with Kate's extensive experience and enthusiasm join our staff," Mr. McCormally stated.

Mr. McCormally also reported that the Institute had completed the move into adjoining office space on the third floor of 1200 G Street, N.W. in Washington. "We were fortunate to be able to enlarge our offices. In addition to space to accommodate our new employees, we have a new conference room and the flexibility to enlarge the staff in the future should that be in the Institute's best interests."