Senior Members

Ross B. Newman, Ph. D.
Chief Executive Officer

Ross Newman is the CEO of Altus Economics and heads the transfer pricing and valuation practice. He was previously a Partner with Arthur Andersen and head of the transfer pricing team covering the western U.S. region. He was member of the firm's transfer pricing oversight committee and also served as the chief economist in the firm's New York office.

Dr. Newman has conducted a number of studies for clients in a wide range of industries, including several large manufacturing clients, various financial service and banking clients and many high tech firms in operating in Silicon Valley and the West Coast. He has extensive experience performing studies for both US and foreign companies, including worldwide masterfile reviews under the OECD transfer pricing guidelines. He has also worked as the lead economist on a number of APAs.

Prior to joining Arthur Andersen, Dr. Newman served as an Industry Economist with the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C. At the IRS, he primarily worked as a specialist in the Examination Division, assisting with transfer pricing and valuation cases associated with mergers and acquisitions. In addition, he also provided assistance to Chief Counsel's office in the analysis of Advance Pricing Agreements and with Tax Court litigation support. He was the primary author of an IRS position paper on the role of the economist in the Coordinated Examination program (large case/team audits), and taught in the Continuing Professional Experience program of the Coordinated Examination and the general programs of the Examination Division of the IRS.

Before joining the IRS, Dr. Newman taught for ten years, most recently at Bentley University, where he taught in the undergraduate and MBA program. Prior to Bentley, he taught at Claremont Graduate School and Claremont McKenna College.

Dr. Newman holds a B.S. from the University of Utah, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.  Dr. Newman was a Presidential Fellow at Northwestern, where he also received a fellowship from the Social Science Research Council to examine the role of inventories in the propagation of business cycles. His dissertation examined the valuation of inventories for tax purposes.

Jeff Mitchel
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Mitchel serves as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Altus Economics. Mr. Mitchel is responsible for the firm's financial and administrative needs, as well as the logistical and infrastructure support and marketing in the U.S. He has extensive experience advising closely-held businesses in many industries and professions including construction, real estate, manufacturing, medical services, printing, consulting and law.

Prior to joining Altus Economics, Mr. Mitchel served as a Revenue Agent in the Examination Division of the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Mitchel performed audits of a broad range of taxpayers, including many large corporate taxpayers in the Coordinated Examination Program (CEP). He worked on cases involving extensive fraud and substantial unreported income.

Mr. Mitchel also performed audits of banks, savings and loans and other large financial institutions, as well as businesses in other industries before exiting government service as a GS-13 revenue agent. Mr. Mitchel headed two fraud task forces charged with investigating a massive real estate fraud and criminal activity at a public company. He investigated funds laundered through numerous shell entities located in the U.S. and in offshore tax haven countries.

Mr. Mitchel received his Bachelor of Arts from UCLA. He also participated in graduate studies in accounting and tax at California State University at Long Beach.

Lori K. Baca, M.A. - Economics
Practice Director

Lori Baca is Director of Research and Transfer Pricing Project Manager for Altus Economics, where she oversees the firm’s economic research and analysis team. Ms. Baca also provides consulting services in transfer pricing and related tax planning, including valuation of intellectual property and related economic research.

Prior to joining Altus, Lori Baca served as a Senior Associate in Arthur Andersen’s San Jose Transfer Pricing Practice. At Arthur Andersen, Ms. Baca worked on a wide range of transfer pricing engagements related to global tax minimization, documentation, and tax planning and restructuring.

Lori Baca has also worked as a Senior Research Associate for a San Diego-based energy-consulting firm, where her work included survey and sample design, data collection and validation, database management, statistical analysis, and reporting.

Ms. Baca earned her Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.