Dr. Ara Stepanyan Joins The Brattle Group’s Tax Controversy & Transfer Pricing Practice
The Brattle Group has welcomed Dr. Ara Stepanyan to its Boston office as a Principal in the firm’s Tax Controversy & Transfer Pricing practice. He brings nearly two decades of experience in combining economic analysis and causal data science methods to support clients in strategy, investigations, negotiations, and complex litigation.
“We know firsthand from past collaborations that Ara is a welcome addition to the Tax Controversy & Transfer Pricing practice and our firm more broadly,” said Brattle Interim President & Principal David J. Hutchings. “His creativeness, responsiveness, and depth of analytical rigor when answering difficult questions in transfer pricing and economics – which are becoming more commonplace – will be invaluable to Brattle’s team and our clients.”
Among his transfer pricing experience, Dr. Stepanyan has extensively worked on value chain design, valuation of intangible assets and financial instruments, documentation and audit support, M&A due diligence and transfer pricing risk assessment, advance pricing agreement negotiations, and disputes. He has served as a consulting expert for some of the US’s largest tax and transfer pricing matters, assisting attorneys in all phases of litigation. In addition, Dr. Stepanyan leads teams of economists and data scientists in developing performance improvement solutions rooted in causal inference.
“I am very excited to be joining Brattle’s world-class team during this pivotal time – as tax authorities in the US and around the world are strengthening their transfer pricing enforcement capabilities and investing in data analytics tools for monitoring and risk assessment, the number of transfer pricing audits is expected to continue to increase alongside litigation,” shared Dr. Stepanyan. “I look forward to collaborating with my new colleagues and providing consulting and litigation support services to clients.”
Dr. Stepanyan has taught economics at Rice University, and has written on transfer pricing, valuation, and other topics for leading industry publications such as Tax Notes Federal, Tax Notes International, and the Journal of the Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors.
Prior to joining Brattle, Dr. Stepanyan was a Principal at a consulting firm focused on economics, strategy, and technology. He previously worked at a global management consultancy and Big 4 accounting firms.
To learn more about Dr. Stepanyan, please see his full bio.
