Brian Carey

Advisory

Summary of experience

Brian has more than 18 years of experience leading projects in operations transformation and strategy, supply chain, product innovation, customer operations, and engineering project management. He specializes in the solar, wind, smart grid, semiconductor, and electronic equipment industries. Brian joined PwC through their acquisition of PRTM, a leader in operational strategy, supply chain, product development, and customer value management.

At PRTM he built their Global Renewables practice and became a renowned solar and cleantech subject matter expert. As PwC’s US Cleantech Advisory Leader in the Technology Sector, Brian is collaborating with the sectors impacted by cleantech, related advisory service offerings (which include Transaction Services, Capital Projects & Infrastructure, and Sustainability), and PwC’s robust cleantech assurance and tax networks to make PwC the “go-to firm” in global cleantech advisory services.

Brian is a graduate of Cornell University with BS and ME degrees in Mechanical Engineering. He received an MBA degree with high distinction from the University of Michigan’s Ross Business School, where he was a fellow of the Tauber Manufacturing Institute. Brian, his wife and their two children live in Menlo Park.

Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it:
If you don’t aggressively set/manage your priorities in life, others will set them for you; I learned the hard way.

Goal yet to be achieved:
Run a marathon and live abroad with my family.

If you could have dinner with anyone - who would it be and why: Alton Brown - he’s a great entertainer and I’m sure he would share all kinds of really cool scientific facts about food and wine.

Michael Chinn

Tax

Summary of experience

Michael joined PwC in 1999 and has over 13 years experience working with technology clients. He works in the Industry Tax practice specializing in the semiconductor industry. Michael leads the Tax Function Effectiveness services in the Silicon Valley Market, and led and co-authored a Tax Function Benchmarking Report for the technology sector.

Michael received his BS and MST from the University of Washington and is a California CPA. Michael was born and raised in Bellevue, Washington and remains faithful to his hometown Seattle Seahawks and Mariners as well as his alma mater - UW Huskies! In January, Michael and his wife became proud parents for the first time with the birth of their son.

Why people like working for you:
I am invested in my staff.

Goal yet to be achieved:
Retirement.

Favorite way to spend free time:
With my new son, Nathaniel William.

Romit Dey

Advisory

Summary of experience

With 15 years of consulting experience, Romit focuses on customer strategy and operations for high-tech clients. Leveraging his significant experience leading global business transformation programs, he has advised clients on customer experience and customer operations, supply chain strategy, business architecture and systems enablement.

Throughout all engagements, he has led efforts to realize tangible business value for clients through a combination of throughput analysis, business policy and process change, offshoring, outsourcing, and innovative technology enablement. He has presented and published several papers in different forums including Gartner & Forrester events, CES and the Stanford Shorenstein APAC Research Center, focusing on Globalization of Services.

Romit has an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi and a BS in Physics from St. Stephen’s College, India. He has a wide range of interests in the arts, and is a supporting member of the San Francisco Symphony and the de Young Museum in San Francisco. He recently completed writing his first book, and lives in Mountain View.

Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it:
The quality and relevance of new ideas is often not enough to ensure their survival and adoption. There’s a lot more that needs to be done to ensure they thrive.

Goal yet to be achieved:
Publish a couple of books (fiction and business).

If you could have dinner with anyone - who would it be and why:
Richard Feynman and the Dalai Lama. It would make for amazing conversation about human life, spirituality and the physical universe.

Stig Haavardtun

Assurance

Summary of experience

Stig has 16 years of experience serving technology clients in Norway and the US. He has served both large multinational and small to mid-size technology companies. His experience spans the software, internet and networking industries and he has expertise in EITF 08-1.

Stig grew up in Norway where he obtained a BS in Economics and Business Administration from the Norwegian School of Economics, as well as an MSc in accounting and auditing. When he is not working, Stig enjoys traveling (24 countries and counting), watching sports and reading books.

Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it:
That I cannot get absolutely everyone to like me. Too long a story but it was very frustrating.

Goal yet to be achieved:
Too many to mention.

If you could have dinner with anyone - who would it be and why:
Nelson Mandela - The most fascinating life story of anyone alive today.

Mark Holman

Advisory

Summary of experience

Mark has expertise in helping technology clients with their M&A strategy and integration, optimization of their global supply networks as well as working with software enterprises on evolving their SaaS business models.

Mark joined PwC through the acquisition of PRTM. He began his consulting career over 20 years ago with Booz & Co. where he focused on operations strategy for technology and manufacturing industries. Subsequently, he led marketing, M&A and Strategy for Solectron as they grew from $1B to $20B in the late 90’s; served as the founding CEO of E2open, a SaaS supply chain company; and SVP Operations for Arena Solutions, a SaaS PLM company.

Early in his career, he held engineering and manufacturing positions at General Motors. Mark is a graduate of Kettering University, formerly General Motors Institute, with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He also received his MBA with High Distinction from the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business. A recovering triathlete, Mark, his wife and their two daughters live in Menlo Park.

Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it:
There are many paths to success and happiness; don’t get wed to a single way.

Goal yet to be achieved:
Getting my kids through college.

If you could have dinner with anyone - who would it be and why:
Steve Jobs to see how a truly creative businessman and artist thinks.

Tina Knauss

Assurance

Summary of experience

Tina currently specializes in the software and internet industries and spent two years in the Firm’s National Office advising clients on revenue recognition and stockbased compensation issues. She is passionate about mentoring female managers and staff and has been instrumental in initiating mentorship programs and efforts around supporting working moms within the Silicon Valley office.

Tina grew up in Goleta, CA and obtained a BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Tina has two beautiful daughters who keep her and her husband very busy. She enjoys volunteering in her daughter’s classroom once a week, cooking forher family and watching House Hunters with her girls.

Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it:
Being a hard worker doesn’t bring you success - you need to also promote yourself; always look out for yourself because it isn’t someone else’s job to look out for you.

Goal yet to be achieved:
To be a successful full-time working female partner and be a role model to others who want to follow my path.

If you could have dinner with anyone - who would it be and why:
My husband...it isn’t often that we get to have a quiet dinner just the two of us!

Darren Lee

Advisory

Summary of experience

Darren joined PwC in 2004 and currently leads PWC’s Silicon Valley Customer Impact Consulting practice. Over the last three years, Darren has served as the lead director responsible for a Quote to Cash transformation engagement. Prior to joining PwC, Darren worked at the REL Consultancy Group, a UK based firm that specialized in working capital consulting engagements gaining experience working on various Order to Cash, Procure to Pay and Supply Chain improvement engagements.

Darren was born and raised in Chicago and graduated with a BA from Northwestern University. He and his wife are the proud parents of two girls.

Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it:
Treating success and failure with the same level of equanimity.

Goal yet to be achieved:
Learning Italian.

If you could have dinner with anyone - who would it be and why:
My wife - because we rarely get out of the house due to our focus on our two small girls.

Ken Lee

Tax

Summary of experience

Ken specializes in PwC’s State and Local Tax practice and has extensive experience in core income/franchise tax, salesand use tax, and other specialties including credits and incentives, payroll and escheat. Prior to joining PwC, he worked as a senior financial analyst for HMT Technology. Ken has been a featured speaker at the Committee on State Taxation, Institute for Professionals in Taxation, and the Tax Executives Institute. Ken was also a chair of the MentoringCommittee of Ascend, a non-profit professional organization dedicated to the development of Pan-Asian business leaders.

Ken was awarded BS degrees in both Biochemistry/Cell Biology and Economics from the University of California, San Diego. He is a CPA in his home state of California and a member of the AICPA. He and his wife live in Campbell with their two children.

Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it:
Patience and empathy. Those aren’t things you “learn” once and move on. It’s a matter of constantly reminding myself how to treat people around me with the utmost respect. It’s the consistency that’s the hardest part, but I’ve been learning through the many coaches and mentors I’ve had over my lifetime.

Goal yet to be achieved:
I’m a huge believer in setting short, medium and long term goals professionally, personally, and financially.

If you could have dinner with anyone - who would it be and why:
I think a dinner party with some combination of Dan Rooney, Oprah Winfrey, Tim Cook, Natalie Portman, Mario Batali, Arnold Palmer, John Madden, Chris Rock, Kina Grannis, and Michael Jordan would be a fantastic way to spend an evening. Smart people with unique experiences are so entertaining, don’t you think?

Arnold Nel

Advisory

Summary of experience

Arnold specializes in SAP business transformation projects for large technology companies. Prior to joining PwC, he was Cofounder and Chief Operating Officer of Metamor, an SAP Integrator.

Arnold received his Bachelors in Commerce from the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He is a Chartered Accountant from South Africa. Arnold and his wife are avid wine enthusiasts — they grow grapes on their property they share with their daughter.

Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it:
Learning that you have to say good-bye eventually to everyone you love. My father passed away in 2007.

Goal yet to be achieved:
To produce a bottle of really good red wine.

If you could have dinner with anyone - who would it be and why:
Richard Branson - he is a self-made man with a creative mind that turns random ideas into great business success.

Joseph Olson

Tax

Summary of experience

Joseph has 13 years of experience serving technology, life science, and retail clients in the Firm’s Industry Tax practice. Joseph has worked in our Boston, NY Metro, and Silicon Valley offices and has recently relocated to our Portland office.

Joseph received his BA with an Accounting emphasis from Seattle University and is a California and Oregon CPA. Joseph and his wife are the parents of two young children. An avid cyclist, he leads a PwC team on the annual National Multiple Sclerosis Society fundraiser bike ride.

Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it:
The value of patience, it took raising my two children to gain a true appreciation for it.

Goal yet to be achieved: 
Since it doesn’t appear that I will meet my goal of hitting a playoff game winning 3 point buzzer beater in the NBA, I will go with being a better father, husband and friend.

If you could have dinner with anyone - who would it be and why:
Easiest question on the list...I would have dinner with my Dad who passed away two years ago.

Ashok Rao

Advisory

Summary of experience

Ashok specializes in enterprise profitability, assisting clients with addressing margin challenges, especially using supply chain levers and product cost improvement. His expertise also includes outsourced contract manufacturing of electronics, enterprise benchmarking, and supply chain modeling. Ashok joined PwC in 2011 through the acquisition of PRTM. Prior to joining PRTM in 2004, Ashok’s industry experience includes operations management and engineering roles at Sun Microsystems and Cypress Semiconductor.

Ashok received his BS in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India and an MS in Engineering from Purdue University. He also has an MBA from Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management. He lives in San Jose with his wife and son. When time allows, he enjoys gardening in his yard, practicing yoga, and solving extra-large jigsaw puzzles.

Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it:
Never do anything important half-distracted. I destroyed a couple million dollars of silicon wafers in my first job and thankfully did not get fired for it.

Goal yet to be achieved:
Build a large, scary Halloween set with Legos.

If you could have dinner with anyone - who would it be and why:
Albert Einstein - perhaps he can explain the theory of relativity to me in person and I will actually get it.

John Scacco

Tax

Summary of experience

John specializes in R&D tax credits and leads the market’s tax credit practice. Serving some of the largest technology clients in the Silicon Valley, he has extensive experience in identifying, claiming, and sustaining R&D credits upon tax authority examination. John regularly presents at high-technology, emerging client sector, and Tax Executives Institute seminars.

John received his BS degree in Accounting from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is a licensed CPA in both Illinois and California. John enjoys domestic and international travel, snow skiing, and scuba diving.

Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it:
Good intentions to help or be nice do not always end up how I envision. I was 5 years old and tried to help an injured dog who was tangled in his chain. I freed him and then he immediately attacked me and sent me to the emergency room and put a permanent scar on my face.

Goal yet to be achieved:
Help more people, and make a greater impact on the world.

If you could have dinner with anyone - who would it be and why:
Probably my grandfather. He died before I was born and I hear many good stories about him, and that we have many common characteristics. It would be interesting to visit with him and better understand my roots.

Jay Stewart

Tax

Summary of experience

Jay has 13 years of experience serving clients in the firm’s Industry Tax practice. He focuses on the life science industry and will be the Northern California Life Sciences Tax Leader. He also has strong semiconductor and software and internet industry experience, having served some of the Silicon Valley’s largest technology clients.

Jay received his BS degree in Accounting from Elon College in North Carolina and his MBT degree from the University of Southern California. Jay is a California CPA. He enjoys anything outdoors, but especially loves snowboarding and wake boarding.

Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it:
“Everything always gets done”. In this business we can be extremely deadline focused which often adds stress and ultimately takes focus from the goal at hand. By focusing on the task at hand and not the deadline, I learned that we can be more efficient and ultimately meet that deadline with days (or sometimes hours) to spare.

Goal yet to be achieved:
I would like to give more back to the community. I have (and still am) taking so much from this and other communities that I feel this will be a life-long goal.

If you could have dinner with anyone - who would it be and why:
Howard Stern. Who has learned more from so many?