Ralph Corasaniti.

• Date: 01 May 2019

Some budding corporate tax specialists have a five-year plan to become part of this fascinating profession, whereas others just sort of fall into it. That was the case for Ralph Corasaniti, who thought he would be more interested in finance positions because he didn't see himself as a general auditor. However, he found an opening at General Electric Credit Corporation (later GE Capital). "It was a tax position, but I thought it was worth the opportunity to get into a corporation with a great reputation as a training ground for financial people. After a few months doing basic sales and use tax returns, I was offered a position on the federal tax team that I found much more interesting. I decided to take a tax course or two in the Pace University MBA program," Corasaniti explains.

The bottom line for Corasaniti, now vice president of taxes and senior finance officer at Swisher International Inc. Island Management LLC: "I got hooked into the nuances of tax law, including mergers and acquisitions." His second position, at American Can Company, brought him into the mix on researching tax implications of disposing of and acquiring corporations. "When I first started working there, the company embarked on a wholesale change in corporate structure, and over the course of four years every subsidiary company in...