SYNERGY2020

A trusted advisor, Albert helps private enterprise leaders reach their goals. Albert makes it a point to get to know his clients well, to find solutions that benefit them and their families in the long term.

With two decades of experience, Albert serves a diverse group of clients, typically private corporations in a variety of industries, including logistics, real estate, manufacturing, aerospace and technology.

Albert brings expertise in both Canadian and international tax to his work. He possesses extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, and international tax structuring, both inbound and outbound. His areas of specialty include tax reorganization in the context of mergers and acquisitions, optimizing clients’ returns, and minimizing taxes related to transactions.

Albert graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Commerce (BComm) in 1998, and a Diploma in Public Accountancy in 2000. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (CA) in 2001. Albert completed the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants In-Depth Tax Course in 2004 and Advanced International Tax Course in 2007.

Manu has over 20 years of experience in taxation in both domestic and international, personal and corporate taxation as well as litigation support. He runs his own independent tax practice with offices in Montreal and Toronto with a team of professionals consisting of tax lawyers and tax accountants. His firm services a diverse client base which includes manufacturing, retail and distribution, construction, farming, real estate, athletes and artists, across Canada and the US. His firm acts as a counsel to over 100 professional firms in Canada and USA specializing in domestic and international reorganizations and transactions. Manu is known as one of the leading experts in Section 55 of the Act and butterfly reorganizations.

He is an award winning and prolific tax writer. His Master of Taxation thesis on butterfly reorganizations won 2 awards and was published in the Canadian Tax Journal. Manu has published and presented over 298 tax articles and presentations since 2001 across Canada. Manu is an authority in taxation as his name has been cited 31 times in the Income Tax Act.

Manu sits on the Steering Committees for the Canadian Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants’ National Conference on Income Taxes; the Canadian Tax Foundation Laval Program Committee; CPA Canada's Small and Medium Practitioner’s Tax Committee; and the Canadian Tax Foundation's Ontario Tax Conference. Manu served a three-year term from 2016-2019 on the Canadian Tax Foundation’s Board of Governors.

Jean-Guy Talbot is the founder and CEO of the accounting firm Talbot & Associates (T&A). He started his career in accounting in 1983 by working in public practice for Winnipeg firms as well as a few years in industry. He started T&A on a part-time basis in 1987 and grew his practice from a one-person operation to its current size of over 60 staff in six locations across Manitoba.

Nationwide, colleagues and clients refer to Jean-Guy as both a knowledgeable mentor and friend. He has devoted a tremendous amount of research, time and energy to discover the secrets of running a better practice. He has personally implemented all he’s learned and has determined which roads lead to a successful practice and which do not. He is passionate about sharing this knowledge with others and established RêveNew Practice Management on that basis. In order to bring this passion to the masses, Jean-Guy travels to across the country to speak and consult firms and also in 2015, built a 4,000-sq-ft training and event centre at T&A headquarters.

In 2016, Jean-Guy received the title of Fellow CPA on behalf of CPA Manitoba. FCPA recipients are recognized as members who have rendered exceptional services to the profession or whose achievements in their careers/community have earned them distinction and brought honour to the profession. Jean-Guy has written several books on public practice, the 1st expected to be published by fall of 2018.

Will has been with Thomson Reuters since 2001. Will has spent many years working with firms in a consultative capacity, and developing services for Thomson Reuters to aid in the growth and transformation of tax and accounting firms – including the Practice Forward program. Will has twice been recognized by the CPA Practice Advisor in the “Under 40” lists. In his present role Will continues to look for opportunities to help firms transition to being “Advisory Centric” in their client relationships as they grow their business. Will is a periodic blog contributor on the tax.tr.com website, and along with Paul Miller is also the co-host of the weekly podcast “Pulse of the Practice”.

He holds an MBA with a concentration in Leadership Studies from Baker College and a BA, majoring in both Business Administration and Economics, from Alma College.

Shortly after earning his BBA in Management and Entrepreneurship, Eric joined Dr Tax Software in 1997 as part of the Support group. His roles have included managing the Support team, building and managing the Quality Assurance function, and serving as head of Tax Research.

Dr Tax Software joined Thomson Reuters in January 2012. In June 2014, Eric was named General Manager of DT Tax & Accounting, the Canadian software division of Thomson Reuters, working in collaboration with other business leaders from the large (more than 20,000 employees) Canadian multinational mass media and information firm.

Eric serves as the Vice Chairman of Tax-Filer Empowerment Canada, which promotes a greater collaboration between government stakeholders such as the Canada Revenue Agency, the tax preparation and software industry, and Canadians.

Born and raised in the province of Quebec, Eric is fully bilingual. Proud father of three, he is also a devoted golfer and avid fisherman.

Emmy Valmé has been a DT Product Trainer at Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting (TRTA) for more than 5 years. Her work involves conducting webinars, workshops and individual training and prepare educational material for DT products. She is highly skilled in project management which lead her involvement in Digital Spearhead project which brought to life a streamlined Onvio digital experience for our customers.

Gerry Vittoratos has been working for Thomson Reuters for over 10 years as a trainer and tax support resource person. In his capacity as head trainer, Gerry has been providing training sessions to tax professionals all over Canada. He has also made several radio and TV appearances on BNN and Global TV as the UFile tax specialist discussing a multitude of tax topics.

Gerry obtained his Graduate Diploma (Gdip) in Taxation from the Université de Sherbrooke in 2018, and is in the process of obtaining a Master’s degree in Taxation.

Mohamed Bouanani has been working for Thomson Reuters for 7 years. His Thomson Reuters Canada journey started in consumer support where he provided support to our UFile program users during tax season as well as assisted in testing the DT Max program off season. After a few months, Mohamed took on the role of managing the DT Professional Suite support team with one main goal in mind: to provide an unparalleled customer service to our DT Professional Suite clients. Three years later, Mohamed was added the responsibility of working with the client services team to focus on providing new clients with an excellent onboarding experience as well as promptly assisting our existing clients with all non-support-related questions.

Mohamed obtained his graduate diploma in management and sustainable development from HEC Montréal in 2015, followed by an MBA degree from the Université de Sherbrooke in 2018.

Karl Boudjikanian started his career in User Experience Design 12 years ago in Armenia, at the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, where he applied his design and animation background to help create an online teaching interface for teens. He then worked for Nuance Communications where he designed AI and speech enabled user interfaces for Fortune 500 companies. He has been the UI/UX lead in Canada for Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting since October 2017. His mission is to understand the tasks and workflows of Tax and Accounting professionals and to tailor powerful technologies to their needs, while creating enjoyable and smooth experiences.

David Caron, technology evangelist. Has spent his professional career partnering with accountants and bookkeepers, helping them use technology to grow their business. His favorite thing is transferring his enthusiasm for business development and technology to others.