rnewman@altusecon.com
Dr. Newman is the CEO of Altus Economics and oversees the transfer pricing practice. His areas of specialization are transfer pricing, inventory valuation and the economics of accountancy. He was previously a National Director with Arthur Andersen, the Director of Transfer Pricing for the Pacific Region and a member of the firm's transfer pricing oversight committee. Prior to this, he was 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; these include a number of high tech firms in Silicon Valley, several large manufacturing clients, and a number of financial service and banking clients. He has extensive experience performing studies for both US and foreign companies, including worldwide reviews under the OECD transfer pricing guidelines.
These studies have been used to successfully defend clients against intercompany allocations proposed by federal and state tax authorities and to assist clients in evaluating, establishing, or modifying their current intercompany pricing policies for planning purposes. Many of these studies focused on establishing or defending the pricing of tangible goods and services.
Many studies have focused on establishing arm's-length royalty rates for the use of intangible assets. He has also worked as the lead economist on a number of APAs and developed innovative transfer pricing methodologies.
Prior to joining Arthur Andersen, he 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. This work included a number of cases in the consumer electronics, semiconductor, chemical and steel industries. 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 College where he taught in the undergraduate and MBA program. Prior to Bentley, he taught at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) in the doctoral program of the Claremont Graduate School.
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. His dissertation examined the valuation of inventories for tax purposes. 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.
jmitchel@altusecon.com
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.
He 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 Baca is Director of Research for Altus, where she oversees the firm’s economic research and analysis. Lori 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 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 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.
