Members honored during San Antonio conference: Bill Ramirez receives TEI's president's award; chapters and committees grant meritorious service awards.

During Tax Executives Institute's 2009 Annual Conference Pin San Antonio, TEI International President Nell Traubenberg presented the Institute's President's Award to William E. Ramirez of the Asia Chapter. Mr. Ramirez played a leading role in expanding the Institute's presence beyond North America. In presenting the award at the Tuesday night banquet, Mr. Traubenberg explained that Mr. Ramirez's membership with TEI coincided with the formation of the Institute's first chapter outside North America. "When the European Chapter was formed in 1999," he stated, "Bill was a charter member and served on the chapter's first board of directors.... By the time Bill's employer, Philip Morris International, transferred him from the company's Switzerland office to Hong Kong in 2003, the European Chapter had grown from 50 to 120 members and now exceeds 250.

"Not content to be a founder of one chapter," TEI's president said, "Bill set out to form a chapter in Asia." In 2006, the Institute's Board of Directors granted a chapter to the Asia Chapter, with Bill serving as its first president. That chapter now has more than 120 members. In 2006-2007, Mr. Ramirez became Vice-President-Region 9 and served on TEI's Executive Committee--the first non-North America based tax executive to do so. "Among other things, this position often required his participation in conference calls at 2:00 in the morning," Mr. Traubenberg added. The following year, he served as the Asia Chapter's representative to the Institute Board of Directors.

In accepting the award, Mr. Ramirez noted that it was an honor for him to receive it in his home state of Texas. "I don't consider myself a natural leader," he said, adding that his presence was the result of two factors: "First, need. Second, support." "In regard to need, when the efforts began to organize TEI in Europe," he explained, "I was based in Lausanne, Switzerland. While Lausanne is a marvelous city, it is not the center of the tax universe. As a result, I had a very limited network and the opportunity for quality continuing education was limited." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

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Mr. Ramirez said the two major reasons he joined TEI were to expand my network and to have access to quality continuing education. "Once I became a member of TEI, I focused my efforts on making other in-house tax professionals aware of these benefits. Therefore I spent two years as head of the European Chapter...