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Marylouise Serrato, Executive Director

marylouise-serrato-2.jpgMarylouise Serrato was born and raised in San Francisco, California. After graduating from San Francisco State University, she began a career in communications management working for over ten years for three San Francisco-based advertising agencies: Allen & Dorward & Co, BBD&O and McCann-Erickson. Marylouise was responsible for the management of a variety of consumer goods and services accounts, new product development and test marketing. Prior to moving to Europe, Marylouise traveled regularly to Italy where much of her family still lives. In 1994, she moved to Brussels, Belgium and in 2001 to Geneva, Switzerland. In Geneva, Marylouise worked as a freelance marketing consultant and taught Business language and topics to corporate clients. Marylouise joined ACA in 2002 working as Managing Director and in 2010 became Executive Director. In 2012, ACA moved its headquarters and the office of the Executive Director to Washington, DC where Marylouise has been directing the management and operations of the organization. Marylouise is married with three children, she splits her time between Washington, DC, Italy and Switzerland. Marylouise is fluent in Italian and French.

 

Jonathan Lachowitz, ACA Chairman and Financial/Tax Team Director

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Jonathan Lachowitz is a Certified Financial PlannerTm Professional and an Independent Investment Advisor in both the United States and Switzerland. He is the founder of White Lighthouse Investment Management in Lexington, MA and Lausanne, Switzerland and is a former member of the board of directors of  the Swiss Financial Planning Organization. Jonathan was born and raised in Connecticut; has an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business and has spent about two decades living in Europe. Jonathan is specialized in working with international families, especially overseas Americans and has a comprehensive knowledge of the US tax code as it pertains to overseas Americans. Jonathan contributes to ACA mainly in financial and tax areas and helps to organize the ACA Town Hall events in Geneva and Zurich. Jonathan is married and has four young children.

 

Joan Fulton, Finance Director

Joan was born and raised in Mendham, New Jersey. She attended Smith College, Chapman College World Campus Afloat, and graduated from Stanford University with a BA in History in 1976. Following internships in Singapore and working around the USA, Joan received an MBA from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business in 1980. She completed the Chase Manhattan Bank training program and subsequently worked in New York City in the Italian Institutional Banking department and then moved to the Chemical team of the Corporate Banking Division. These experiences led to international project finance at Union Carbide in Connecticut. Union Carbide moved Joan to Geneva in 1988 as Head of Corporate Finance Europe, then to be European Treasurer for Praxair Europe SA, when Praxair spun off from Union Carbide. In 1995 Joan joined UBS Geneva as Vice President of the International Corporate team. In 2000 she joined Union Bancaire Privée's special lending division, working with companies of worldwide clients as well as hedge funds. In 2007 she was named Managing Director for credit risk of a new hedge fund platform based in Madrid, Proxima Alfa. Since 2010 Joan has dedicated herself to teaching a wide range of international business courses in Madrid, Spain and Geneva, Switzerland as well as assisting NGO's with organizational issues, primarily in Indonesia and some in Africa. She lives between Madrid and Geneva, is married to a Spanish national, and has three grown children.

 

Shelby Lyon, Chief Technology Officer

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Shelby is an IT professional with 18 years experience in business analysis, systems development, testing and partnership management. She was born and raised in Fresno, CA. After earning her BA at UC Berkeley, she worked for various technology and financial firms in the San Francisco area. Eleven years later, she relocated overseas to complete an MBA at Oxford University. She then worked in London as an IT Partnership Manager for British Telecom. In 2011 she relocated to Geneva, Switzerland where she began working with ACA. She is married with two young sons.

 

Karl Jauch, Citizenship Team Director and Webmaster

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Karl was born in New Jersey of a Swiss father and an American mother. He lived most of his early years in Iowa and Minnesota and then moved to Geneva Switzerland. After majoring in physics at the University of Geneva, Karl worked as a research physicist in various Swiss companies including Landis & Gyr and the Battelle Memorial Institute in Geneva. Karl, now retired, was also a professor of electrical engineering at the Geneva University of Applied Sciences for twenty years. Soon after ACA was founded in 1978 Karl became a director and the resident expert on citizenship questions after US citizenship was refused for his two daughters. Karl continues to be active as a director and webmaster for ACA and also enjoys choral singing in two choirs. Karl has lived and worked in England, France, Switzerland, and the USA (New Jersey, Iowa, Minnesota and Pennsylvania).  Karl and his wife Danielle now live in France, near Geneva, close to their two daughters and five grandchildren.

 

Michael Larsen, Director of New Business and Membership and United Kingdom Chapter Chair

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Born and raised in Los Angeles, Michael resides in London where he heads the UK Chapter of ACA, Inc. Michael has been involved with ACA for more than a dozen years, first in Geneva, where he served as an Executive Committee member and since 2005 initially as a UK Country Contact. Michael is a Senior Managing Director at Harbert Management Corporation, a privately-owned, US-based alternative investment firm. Prior to joining HMC in November 2004 he held a variety of senior management roles in Europe and the Middle East, including two years as Executive Director at a leading Swiss investment advisor. Prior to that Michael was a Business Manager for Citigroup Asset Management. Michael’s career with Citigroup and Citibank spanned 20 years, starting with positions in New York and in Bahrain. In 1989 he moved to London, where he lived and worked until 1995, relocating to Zurich and then eventually Geneva, returning to the UK in 2005. Michael received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Boston University, is registered with the UK Financial Conduct Authority and holds his FINRA/NASD Series 7 and 63 licenses. He and his wife Corinne have two children and when not doting on their six year old grandson enjoy taking extended breaks in Arizona and in Cornwall.

 

Roland Crim, Voting Team Director and Switzerland Chapter Chair

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Roland Crim has lived in Switzerland since 1987 when he joined a US Private Bank in Zurich to devise wealth structuring strategies for high net worth clients. He is a Principal with InterSource Sàrl, a Geneva-based provider of IT training and development solutions which he founded in 1995. Roland leads the voting issue team within ACA and represents ACA on the Advisory Board of the Munich-based Overseas Vote Foundation, the preeminent advocacy organization for the defense of overseas voter rights. A member of the New York Bar, he holds a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California and a J.D. from Harvard. He is married and has one daughter.

 

Charles M. Bruce, Legal Counsel

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Charles M. Bruce is an American attorney specializing in international tax planning, withholding tax regimes and compliance matters. Among other positions, he has served as Tax Counsel at the United States Senate Finance Committee, Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association, Section of Taxation, Committee on Foreign Activities of U.S. Taxpayers, Chair of the ABA Task Force on International Trusts of that Committee, Visiting Professor, Law Faculty, Institut für Ausländisches und Internationales Finanz- und Steuerwesen, Hamburg University, Hamburg, and Adjunct Professor of Law, Graduate Law Program, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC.  He is a member of the American Bar Association, International Bar Association, International Fiscal Association (US and UK branches), the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, and the International Tax Planning Association. He was formerly Of Counsel to Bonnard Lawson-Lausanne. He divides his time between Washington, DC and London. 

 

Glen Frost, Associate Legal Counsel

Mr. Frost is a managing partner of a Washington, DC metropolitan area based tax law firm. His firm focuses on Tax Controversy and Litigation, International Tax Matters, Tax Planning, Estate Planning, White-Collar Criminal Defense, and regulatory investigations by various government agencies including the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).  Mr. Frost manages a team of Attorneys, Certified Public Accountants, Enrolled Agents, Former IRS Employees, Certified Fraud Examiners, and other professionals. Mr. Frost is a graduate of University of Baltimore School of Law and holds an LL.M. in taxation.  He is a licensed attorney in Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and Washington, DC. He is also a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Financial Planner® in the United States. Mr. Frost focuses his national and international practices on representing clients in tax collection, tax examination, and tax appeal matters pending before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Additionally, Mr. Frost represents clients in civil and criminal litigation in U.S. Tax Court, U.S. District Court, and State Courts. Mr. Frost also provides tax planning advice on a variety of issues. Mr. Frost also holds a Master Captain's License with the United States Coast Guard and is authorized to operate for charter inspected vessels of up to 50 Gross Tons.

 

Ronald Lee Banks, Director

banks.jpgBorn and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, he holds a BA in marketing from Southwest Missouri State University and a MBA from City University. Ron has worked in the fast moving consumer goods sector in the US and in Europe. He has done international marketing consulting and is a founding partner of three companies. In addition, Ron is an adjunct professor of marketing at a US university in Geneva.  As the Vice Executive Director of ACA, he is involved in the marketing and planning activities of the organization. Ron is married and lives in Geneva. They have two daughters and three grandchildren, all living in the United States.

 

In Memory