2023 NAEA Fly-In

Richard Rubin is the U.S. tax policy reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Washington, where he focuses on the intersection of taxes, legislation, politics and economics. He was the lead author on the Journal’s coverage of the 2017 tax law and now writes frequently about the challenges facing the Internal Revenue Service.

Before joining the Journal in 2015, Richard covered tax policy for Bloomberg News and Congressional Quarterly. Earlier in his career, he wrote about local government and transportation policy for the Charlotte Observer. Richard is a native of New Jersey and a graduate of Duke University.

Benjamin currently works at POLITICO reporting on IRS and tax policy on Capitol Hill. Before joining POLITICO, Ben worked as a Congress reporter at Tax Notes, where he wrote about everything from 401(k)s to the Inflation Reduction Act. Earlier, his beat was the U.S. Tax Court, where he broke stories on disputes involving celebrities, including Charlie Sheen’s fight with the IRS over his tax debt.

Before that, Benjamin was a coordinator on the award-winning Covid-19 tracking team at the New York Times. He investigated Covid cases in college sports, followed outbreaks at nursing homes and colleges and tracked shifting vaccine eligibility rules across states, often using public records requests to track down data that wasn’t being disclosed.

Benjamin has a degree in international relations from Brown and grew up in Los Angeles.

Naomi Jagoda is a senior reporter at Bloomberg Tax, where she covers the IRS and Treasury Department. Prior to joining Bloomberg Tax in January 2022, Jagoda covered tax policy at The Hill for six years, and she has also been a reporter at The Bond Buyer and the Washington Examiner. Jagoda is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Rossotti served from 1997 to 2002 as Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the federal agency that serves 175 million taxpayers and employs 100,000 people. As a result of his leadership, the public’s rating of the IRS increased greatly and relationships of trust with Congress, tax professionals and business groups were restored, and the agency’s effectiveness turned around. In 1970, Mr. Rossotti co-founded American Management Systems, Inc. and until 1997 served at various times as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman. AMS grew through his tenure, becoming a major international business systems consulting and systems integration firm with revenues of more than $1 billion. AMS clients include Fortune 500 companies and federal, state and local government agencies in North America and Europe. In 1979, AMS was one of the first technology services firms to go public.

Mr. Rossotti is on the Boards of Directors of Coalfire, ECi Software, LDiscovery and Novetta (all Carlyle portfolio companies), and Booz Allen Hamilton and Quorum Management Solutions (both former Carlyle portfolio companies). In addition, he currently serves on the Board of Directors of AES Corporation, a publicly owned global electric power company.

In addition to his business activities, Mr. Rossotti serves on the Boards of Capital Partners for Education and the Comptroller General’s Advisory Committee of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). In 2005, he served as a member of President Bush’s advisory panel on reform of the income tax.

Mr. Rossotti is the author of “Many Unhappy Returns” (Harvard Business School Press 2005), a book about his experience turning around the IRS.

Mr. Rossotti earned his A.B. in economics, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University and his M.B.A., with high distinction, from Harvard Business School. In 1970, he received the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal from the Department of Defense. In 2002, he received the Alexander Hamilton Medal from the Department of Treasury. In 2003, he received an Alumni Achievement Award from Harvard Business School.

Mr. Goldberg served as IRS Chief Counsel (1984-1986), IRS Commissioner (1989-1991) and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy (1992).  As a tax partner based in the Skadden Arps Washington, DC Office, he has at various times served as the Firm’s global co-chair of the Firm’s tax practice and as a member of the Firm’s global Diversity Committee and the Firm’s pro bono committee. He is currently Of Counsel in the Firm’s DC Office. In addition to his ongoing client work, one of his primary activities for the past several years has been working with Treasury, the IRS and others on efforts to secure and properly deploy the long-term funding that is essential for effective tax administration when it comes to both service and compliance.  He has worked closely with Commissioners Rossotti and Koskinen in these efforts.  Material on these efforts can be found at http://shrinkthetaxgap.com. 

John Koskinen was the 48th IRS Commissioner, serving from 2013 to 2017. As Commissioner, he worked to ensure that the agency maintained an appropriate balance between taxpayer service and tax enforcement and administered the tax code with fairness and integrity. 

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Koskinen served as the non-executive chairman of Freddie Mac from 2008 to 2012 and its acting chief executive officer in 2009. Previously, Mr. Koskinen served as President of the U.S. Soccer Foundation, Deputy Mayor and City Administrator of Washington D.C., Assistant to the President and Chair of the President’s Council on Year 2000 Conversion and Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget. Mr. Koskinen also spent 21 years in the private sector in various leadership positions with the Palmieri Company, including President and Chief Executive Officer, helping to turn around large, troubled organizations. He began his career clerking for Chief Judge David L. Bazelon of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in 1965, practiced law with the firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher and served as Assistant to the Deputy Executive Director of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, also known as the Kerner Commission. Mr. Koskinen also served as Legislative Assistant to New York Mayor John Lindsay and Administrative Assistant to Sen. Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut. Mr. Koskinen holds a Law Degree from Yale University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Duke University. He also studied International Law for one year in Cambridge, England. He and his wife Patricia have two grown children and live in Washington, DC.