Meet Ben, Head of GM Tax Advisory and Strategic Alliances
I joined K2 in 2023 and have over 15 years’ experience in both expatriate and employment tax. I have held numerous mobility and tax positions, both in-house and in Professional Services firms, including EY, Société Générale, and AIG, giving me exposure to all aspects of the Global Mobility and Tax life cycle of an assignment.
As part of my role, I support the K2 Advisory Team whilst also having responsibility for Strategic Alliances and Global Partnerships at K2.
Ben's areas of expertise
Client Experience
Communication
Leadership
Client Relations
Teamwork
Change Management
Strategy
Languages spoken
English (average),
French and Spanish (very poor)
A more detailed description of my journey
Believe it or not, I didn’t dream of a career in expat tax as a child. After flip-flopping between wanting to be an artist, a dolphin trainer, and a publican, I figured I should get a “real” job.
After trying my hand at Accounts, I fell into expat tax by pure chance – a friend of mine had just been offered a job with an investment bank, I was jealous, and browsing job openings online saw an advert for an assistant expat tax advisor at EY in Bristol.
With very limited experience and no degree, I always figured it was a bit of a long shot, but by a stroke of luck, I just so happened to be interviewed by someone who’d taken a very similar career journey, and was willing to give me a shot. I didn’t know back then, but that speculative job application, fuelled by jealousy in the early hours of the morning, changed my life.
I just so happened to join an incredible team, and in the space of three short years was lucky enough to get exposure to almost every area of expat tax. We worked our asses off – every day was challenging, but I was exceptionally privileged to be given an opportunity to learn from the best.
Over the course of the next decade, I moved to London with EY, undertook two STAs to Bangalore in India, moved to an investment bank to do in house GM, before ending up at AIG, where I spent the last 8 years of my career as the EMEA Employment Tax Director.
I’ve been exceptionally lucky to work for and with some of the most talented people in our industry, who’ve taught me both the technical side of things, but also the reality of how decisions are made in board rooms, and how to navigate the inner workings of large corporate organisations.
For me, the thing I’ve always loved about this industry is the people. I’ve never taken for granted how fortunate I am to work for, and with, people who’d gone on to become some of my closest friends.
When the opportunity to join K2 arose, I knew it was fate. K2 embodies everything I’ve always loved and valued in the Global Mobility industry, from the people, the camaraderie, and the work ethic, right the way through to the way we do business – by taking accountability and priding ourselves of delivering exceptional service.
As for my role at K2, despite being working in expat tax for over 15 years, I’ve still not found an interesting way to explain to people what I do, so I usually just say I’m a Transpondster.
Here's a visual gallery of talking points
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