EMEA Chapter awards scholarship to Leiden LL.M. graduate.

• Author: Schapira, Carol
• Position: Chapter News

The sixteenth century Academiegebouw (Academy Building) at Leiden University was the setting for the graduation ceremonies for international students receiving their Master of Advanced Studies in International Tax Law degrees on August 28, 2012. This advanced Master's degree is awarded after 12 months of intensive study of international taxation at the International Tax Center of Leiden University. The program, whose director is Professor Kees van Raad, is now in its fifteenth year in the Netherlands. It attracts the very top tax students from around the world, and its graduates are recruited internationally for positions in multinational corporations and in accounting and law firms. For more information,

please visit www.itc-leiden.nl.

Graduation Day started at nine o'clock in the morning with individual diploma ceremonies in the historic Senaatskamer of the Academy Building, with family and friends in attendance. Afterwards, graduates, guests, and the incoming students of the Class of 2012-2013 were seated in the Great Hall for the Graduation Lecture and awards presentation. This year's lecture was delivered by Joseph L. Andrus, a prominent transfer pricing specialist and the Head of the Transfer Pricing Unit at the OECD's Centre for Tax Policy & Administration in Paris. His topic was "Improving the Transfer Pricing System: Simpler, Clearer, and Faster." The lecture was followed by a debating contribution by Stig Sollund, Director General of the Tax Treaties and International Tax Section, Tax Law Department at the Ministry of Finance in Norway, and by the awards ceremony in which several graduates were honored for outstanding achievements.

TEI's EMEA Chapter presented an award to a graduating student selected by the International Tax Center of Leiden University on the basis of exceptional performance in the program. This year's winner was Diana Tapia from Mexico, who she received her award from Rudolf van Ooijen, Group Direct Tax Manager of IKEA and Second Vice President of the TEI EMEA Chapter.

Ms. Tapia is a transfer pricing and international tax specialist who came to the International Tax Center...