Amy Merletti is the Senior Manager for the Academic & Student Engagement team at the AICPA. Amy joined the AICPA in 2015 and oversees the Academic Champion program, Accounting Pilot & Bridge Project along with other key influencer initiatives. Prior to joining the AICPA, Amy worked in the marketing industry for a top accounting firm in Miami, FL. Her experience includes marketing strategy, brand management, event execution, and public and media relations. Amy received her bachelor’s degree from Florida Atlantic University in public communications with a minor in business hospitality and tourism management.

April Walker serves AICPA and Tax Section members by developing and promoting timely and useful tax resources. She is the staff liaison for the Tax Practice Management Committee where she assists in creating tools for tax practitioners to manage their practices more efficiently. She is also the host of the Tax Section Odyssey podcast and the moderator for the popular Reimagining Your Tax Practice Series. Before joining the Association, she worked in public accounting for twenty years, specializing in individual tax, closely held businesses and their respective owners, and not-for-profit taxation. April practiced at Blackman & Sloop, CPAs, a local firm in Chapel Hill, NC, for the past 14 years, and before joining that firm, she worked for almost 5 years at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP in Raleigh, NC. April is a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the North Carolina Association of CPAs.

Michael Bernard is the VP Tax Content & Chief Tax Officer of Transaction Tax at Vertex, Inc. In his role, he provides insight and thought leadership around tax department operations, U.S. indirect tax, tax risk management, tax policy, and emerging tax trends. He is an executive-level tax attorney with a diverse portfolio of experience in corporate tax, administration, and finance, including a substantive knowledge of U.S. and international tax laws.

Before joining Vertex, Michael was in various tax leadership roles at Microsoft Corporation for 28 years, the most recent being General Manager and United States Tax Counsel. Michael led teams in the following functional areas: direct and indirect tax controversy, sales and use, business license, property, tax IT, SOX, and telecommunications. He also co-led a corporate taxpayer advocacy group with the Washington Department of Revenue and was a Director on the Board of the Washington Research Council. Michael has also testified before administrative and lawmakers at both the federal and state levels.

Michael earned both a J.D. and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Creighton University. He is a part-time lecturer of Law in the LLM program at the University of Washington School of Law. Michael also served on the board of directors, and executive committee, and chaired committees for The Tax Executives Institute (TEI) for nearly 25 years.

Mo has provided sales and use tax consulting services since 1997. He leads our sales and use tax compliance services. Mo routinely assists clients in various industries with a focus on sales and use tax compliance, tax technology-related initiatives, sales tax implications on mergers and acquisitions, voluntary disclosure programs, nexus, and taxability studies. He has also represented many Fortune 1000 companies in refund recovery and audit defense projects resulting in multi-million dollars in sales and use tax savings.

Prior to joining Moss Adams, Mo worked for a Big Four firm, and a national, and a regional firm. His roles included leading national and regional sales and use tax service lines with an emphasis on sales tax compliance, refund recovery, and consulting. Mo also worked for a Fortune 500 consumer electronics retailer where he was responsible for all indirect tax-related matters.