Ernst & Young has wrestled Jeff VanderWolk away from the Senate Finance Committee where he served as international tax counsel. He'll be an executive director in the National Tax and Americas Tax Center reporting to former assistant treasury secretary for tax policy, Michael Mundaca, according to The Hill.
E&Y has been building up its National Tax Practice quite prominently in the past year or so, announcing the addition of two treasury officials last year, in addition to Mundaca who joined the firm in 2011. You probably also noticed that many of these people have backgrounds similar to soon-to-be CEO Mark Weinberger, who has extensive experience working in the federal government on tax issue and building a legislative advisory firm.
It's not clear if there's an explicit strategy here — loading up for tax reform, perhaps? — but this kind of roster will definitely come in handy for negotiating with a very different arm of the federal government, should any past issues crop up again.
[The Hill]
