Alvarez & Marsal Taxand, LLC, an affiliate of leading global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal, announced that industry veteran Laurie Wik has joined the firm’s tax practice as a senior director in San Francisco.

With more than 26 years of tax-related experience, particularly in the technology sector, Wik’s expertise lies in sales and use tax, including overpayment reviews, tax process optimization, audit defense services and capital expenditure planning.   Her technology industry expertise includes work with interactive gaming companies, SaaS providers, hosted services providers, social networking sites and other web-based product sellers. She has also advised traditional businesses that are consumers of Cloud services or are transitioning their business models into the Cloud.

“Increasingly companies are shifting their business processes and integrating neAlvarexsw tools, such as cloud computing,” said Craig Beaty, a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Taxand. “Businesses need to ensure these new practices are properly evaluated for sales tax purposes. Laurie brings deep knowledge and experience in the technology sector, as well as the construction, engineering, biotech and life sciences sectors, that will help our clients navigate the varied challenges in this ever-evolving space.”

Prior to joining A&M, Wik was a Tax Director in the San Jose office of DuCharme, McMillen & Associates, a national state and local tax consulting firm. Before joining DuCharme McMillen, she was a state and local tax director in the San Jose office of Deloitte Tax where she led the Tax Technology Industry subsector group. Prior to joining Deloitte Tax, she was the State and Local Tax Manager at Network Associates, Inc., a software manufacturer and hosted software and services provider. 

Alvarez & Marsal Taxand, LLC, an affiliate of Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), a leading global professional services firm, is an independent tax group made up of experienced tax professionals dedicated to providing customized tax advice to clients and investors across a broad range of industries. Its professionals extend A&M’s commitment to offering clients a choice in advisors who are free from audit-based conflicts of interest, and bring an unyielding commitment to delivering responsive client service. A&M Taxand has offices in major metropolitan markets throughout the U.S., and serves the U.K. from its base in London.

Alvarez & Marsal Taxand is a founder of Taxand, the world’s largest independent tax organization, which provides high quality, integrated tax advice worldwide. Taxand professionals, including almost 400 partners and more than 2,000 advisors in nearly 50 countries, grasp both the fine points of tax and the broader strategic implications, helping you mitigate risk, manage your tax burden and drive the performance of your business.