LMSB's Debbie Nolan receives TEI's Distinguished Service Award.

• Position: IRS's Large and Mid-Size Division, Tax Executives Institute - Speech

Imagine that one day you received a call from the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Charles Rossotti, saying, "I want to consider the opportunity of a lifetime, a business proposition to transform tax administration for corporate America." You can:

* Build your own leadership team

* Set the strategic direction and plans for execution

* Restructure the organization to meet business needs

* Establish new performance metrics and balanced measures to reflect business results, customer satisfaction AND employee satisfaction

* Reengineer business processes AND IT systems to modernize tax administration

Your job--should you choose to accept it--will be to create a customer-focused organization in a way that reinforces all of the principles of sound tax administration for all of America, integrity, fairness, efficiency and effectiveness, an organization that institutionalizes the change and uses both service and enforcement to improve compliance.

And if THAT wasn't enough ... you get to work with Larry Langdon, who was a past president of TEI and a good person, and as I quickly came to find out, a great leader. There were a number of extraordinary LMSB leaders, many of whom are here today, and I share this with you, my colleagues in public service, I applaud you. [Special note needs be made of Linda Burke, another past TEI president, who is here today and who served as LMSB's first Division Counsel.]

However, that is only part of the equation. You can best serve the public when the public knows that they have a voice. You can only be successful in creating a customer-focused organization when you truly focus on the unique needs and behaviors and business models of the customer. One of the strongest voices was the Tax Executive Institute at the chapter, regional and national level. TEI opened doors to allow for two-way communication around the nation. Groups were formed to work issues collaboratively, people within the Service and taxpayers took risks to try new ways of working together to find the win-win or know quickly when they could not. While we did not always agree on every issue, TEI had influence, if not on what was done, then on the how. TEI members always knew that their interests would be shared through their leadership and that LMSB would listen. A relationship of trust was built over time and I know that Frank [Ng, current LMSB Commissioner,] and his team will ensure that that relationship will continue to [be part of] the...