Tax Justice Network

Nicole Tichon, Executive Director

Nicole Tichon joined TJN-USA in February 2011, shortly after leading a strategic planning retreat that resulted in the formation of the new Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) coalition. Nicole's work, commentary and articles have appeared in many national publications and news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, CNBC, MSNBC, ABC News, USA Today, Reuters, Yahoo News and Fox News.
 
Prior to joining TJN-USA, Nicole was the Tax and Budget Reform Advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG). U.S. PIRG is a federation of non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy groups that take on powerful interests on behalf of their members. Prior to joining U.S. PIRG, Nicole worked for Deloitte Consulting, in the Federal Financial Services Integration and the State and Local Government practices. While at Deloitte, Nicole was a program and performance management specialist, providing process, technical and budget evaluation tools, as well as strategic planning services to agency executives at all levels of government.

Nicole served as the Legislative Assistant for banking, labor and judiciary issues for the late Congressman Norm Sisisky of Virginia, as well as a Legislative Correspondent for Senator Carl Levin of Michigan. During her undergraduate studies, Nicole interned in the Executive Office of the President in both the Vice President and President’s speechwriting offices.Ms. Tichon earned a Masters Degree in Public Policy and Management, concentrating in Financial Management, from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. Her undergraduate degrees include a Bachelor of Science in Communication and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Boston University, in Boston, MA.

Jack Blum, Chairman of the TJN-USA Board

Jack Blum is a Washington lawyer who specializes on issues of money laundering, financial crime, and international tax evasion. He spent fourteen years as a Senate investigator with the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He played a central role in the Lockheed Aircraft bribery investigation of the 1970's which led to the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and in the investigation of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. He is chair of Tax Justice Network USA, and the Violence Policy Center.

Brent Blackwelder, Board Member

Dr. Brent Blackwelder served as president of Friends of the Earth from 1994 until his retirement in October of 2009.  He was the founding chairman of American Rivers in 1973 and worked for 40 years on environmental issues, testifying over 100 times to Congress.  He led many efforts to protect rivers throughout the United States and the world, helping to halt over 200 dam and diversion projects and to increase the national scenic rivers system from only 8 protected rivers in 1973 to over 250 rivers today.  He was listed by Vanity Fair magazine as one of the Best Stewards of the Planet in 2005.   Blackwelder graduated summa cum laude from Duke University and has a masters degree in math from Yale and a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Maryland.  He currently teaches part-time at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC.  Brent earned a BA from Duke University (Math) in 1964, graduating Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. He received his MA fromYale University (Math) and PhD from the University of Maryland (Philosophy).

Charles Davidson, Board Member

Charles Davidson is the Publisher of The American Interest, a magazine and website that focuses on policy, politics & culture. He was instrumental in developing the Global Financial Integrity Program at the Center for International Policy, and is Executive Producer of Onshore Productions, which is making a documentary focusing on issues related to TJN concerns. Prior to The American Interest, Mr. Davidson spent most of his career in the information technology industry, most recently in venture capital.

Seamus Finn, Board Member

Rev Séamus P. Finn OMI has been a member of the Justice/Peace and Integrity of Creation Ministry team of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate since 1986. The office supports the mission of the congregation especially the JPIC dimension and is also responsible for the Socially Responsible Investment program both for the U.S. province and for the congregation. The program is grounded in Catholic Social Teaching, on the promotion of the dignity of the human person and on active solidarity with the work of Oblate missionaries throughout the world.

Fr. Finn represents the Oblates on the the board of Jubilee USA and has represented the Oblates at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility www.iccr.org in New York since 1988. He also represents the Oblates on the executive committee of the International Interfaith Investment Group www.3ignet.org Fr. Séamus believes that the work that faith communities do through their participation in coalitions like Tax Justice USA, a more vital and vigorous message of solidarity is  delivered to leaders in both the public and private sectors.

Visiting many of the places where Oblates work, Séamus has worked to create and  develop opportunities and resources through which the OMI JPIC office, in collaboration with many faith based and civil society partners, support the mission of the congregation by addressing public policy issues and public officials and through the work of the office with private corporations.

Jo Marie Griesgraber, Board Member

Jo Marie Griesgraber is the Executive Director of the New Rules for Global Finance Coalition, a Washington-based international network of activists and researchers concerned with reforms of the international financial architecture. Previously, Dr. Griesgraber was Director of Policy at Oxfam America where she supervised advocacy programs on international trade, humanitarian response, global funding for basic education and extractive industries. Before that, she directed the Rethinking Bretton Woods Project at the Center of Concern, a Jesuit related social justice research center, where she worked on reform of the World Bank, regional development banks and International Monetary Fund. She has taught political science at Georgetown University,

Goucher College and American University, and was Deputy Director of the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights lobby office. She chaired Jubilee 2000/USA's Executive Committee and edited, with Bernhard Gunter, the five volume Rethinking Bretton Woods series. Ms. Griesgraber received her Ph.D. in political science from Georgetown University and her B.A. in history from the University of Dayton, Ohio.

Jim Henry, Board Member

James S. Henry is a leading economist, attorney, and investigative journalist, with a strong business background. He has written and spoken widely on key issues in the arenas of development finance and international taxation. Mr. Henry has served as Chief Economist, McKinsey & Co.; VP Strategy, IBM/Lotus; Business Development Manager, Chairman's Office (Jack Welch), GE, and Senior Consultant,Monitor, Dr. Michael Porter's consulting firm.

As founder of Sag Harbor Group (www.sagharbor.com), a strategy consultant, Mr. Henry's clients have included such top enterprises as ABB, Allen & Co., AT&T/Bell Labs, the Calvert Fund, Cemex, ChinaTrust, Scotland Yard, IBM/Lotus, Intel, South Africa Telecom, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Swedish Power Board, TransAlta, and Volvo.He has also founded several startups, including a private equity firm based in Sao Paulo, an e-commerce company focused on developing countries, an e-payments company, and a cable TV channel. Mr. Henry has served as Senior Advisor, Ashoka; Board member, Long Island University Global College; Fellow, The New School's World Policy Institute; Board member, New York Civil Liberties Union – Suffolk County; Board member, Tax Justice International; and Senior Advisor, Oxfam GB.

Mr. Henry is founder of the Northern Environmental Law Center in Sag Harbor, a non-profit law firm that offers pro bono litigation services to environmental organizations and civil rights in Eastern Suffolk County, New York.

Since the 1970s, Mr. Henry's original ground-breaking economic investigations, focused on international debt, currency demand, capital flight, and tax havens, have

been featured in many leading publications, books, conferences, Congressional hearings, and media interviews. As a founder of Tax Justice USA and a board member of TJN International, he has worked diligently for the reform of secrecy jurisdictions and international transfer pricing.

Mr. Henry's original research on the impact of tax havens on developing countries was featured at the G20 meetings in London in April 2009. At the recent September 2009 G20 meetings in Pittsburgh, he led an NGO panel on development finance and offshore taxation. He is co-author and principal investigator of "The Price of Offshore Revisited," (Tax Justice International, 2011, forthcoming).

In 2009 Mr. Henry was named the "Edward R. Murrow Fellow In Investigative Economics" at the Fletcher School of International Diplomacy, where he also taught a graduate-level seminar on the global financial crisis. Mr. Henry is a columnist for Forbes.com, and an Investigative Fund reporter at the Nation Institute. Mr. Henry's articles have appeared in many leading newspaper, magazines, and professional journals, including Business Week, The Conference Board, The FinancialTimes, El Financiero, Forbes, Fortune, Harpers, International Development Review, Jornal do Brasil, The Manila Chronicle, Manhattan Inc., La Nacion, The New York Times, The Nation, The New Republic, Newsweek, Sabah, Slate, Time, The Tax Lawyer, Tax Notes, US News, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Monthly.

Mr. Henry's books include, with Paul Starr and Ray Bonner, The Discarded Army – A Study of the Veterans Administration and Vietnam Veterans. (NY: Charterhouse, 1976); Banqueros y Lavadolares. (Bogotá: Tercer Mundo, 1996); The Internet's Impact on Financial Services. (NY: AT Kearney, 1999); Prof. Richard Caves, ed., The Economics of Competition (Boston: Prentice Hall,1988); The Blood Bankers (NY:Avalon/ Nation's Books, 2003, 2006), the first investigative history of the Third World debt crisis; and Pirate Bankers. (NY: forthcoming), on havens, private banks, and money laundering.

Mr. Henry is an honors graduate of Harvard College (Magna Cum Laude, Social Studies'72; Detur Prize; Phi Beta Kappa, National Merit Scholar, Chairman, Institute of Politics, Student Advisory Committee); Harvard Law School (J.D., Honors, 1976); Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (M.S..ABD, Economics, 1978); Danforth Fellow; "Nader Raider;" and a member of the New York Bar since 1978. He has a working knowledge of Spanish, Portuguese, German and French.

Conrad Martin, Board Member

Conrad Martin serves as the Executive Director of the Fund for Constitutional Government.  Additionally, Mr. Martin is the Executive Director of the Stewart R. Mott Foundation and chairs the Board of Directors of HALT -- Americans for Legal Reform.  Mr. Martin also serves on the Boards of the Center for International Policy, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and the American Progressive Caucus Foundation.  Mr. Martin served in the Peace Corps from 1981 to 1983 as a Forage Agronomist on the island of Barbados.  He is a graduate of Utah State University where he studied Agronomy and International Agricultural Development with a focus in Agricultural Economics.  Born in Mexico, Mr. Martin is fluent in conversational Spanish and has traveled widely in South America, Central America, Europe and the Near East.

David Spencer, Board Member

David Spencer is an attorney in New York City specializing in tax and banking law.  David has written seventy professional articles on international banking and taxation, published in the Journal of International Taxation (New York), and International Financial Law Review (London), and he is on the Board of Advisers of both journals.  Mr. Spencer’s particular interest is exchange of tax information, and related tax justice issues.  He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and he has a Master’s of Law in Taxation from the New York University Law School Program in Taxation.  Mr. Spencer previously practiced law at a major Wall Street law firm, and at Citicorp/Citibank.  He is a Senior Adviser of the Tax Justice Network.

Special thanks to Lucy Komisar and Sarah Knott, former Executive Directors for their contributions to Tax Justice Network USA and to this website.