What is your business industry category or specialty?   
Ryan is a global tax consulting firm with the largest indirect tax practice in North America and the seventh largest corporate tax practice in the United States.

How do you describe your job to people outside the industry? 
Ryan’s business roughly falls apart in two sections; recovery and consultancy. On the recovery side we use our experience and proprietary software to generate refunds for our clients. These services take place on a performance based fee; clients pay us if we bring results and get a free confirmation that they have done everything right if we find nothing (which is quite rare). We can do this on a turnkey basis and for every kind of tax (property, sales and use, abandoned property, VAT, GST, etc.). On the consultancy side we bring innovative tax planning ideas to our clients. Ryan achieves a 97% approval rating for our services, so we must be doing something right!
 
Who are your main competitors and what differentiates you from the competition? What makes you unique? 
Ryan primarily competes with the Big 4 accounting firms (Ernst and Young, Deloitte, KPMG, & PWC), Grant Thornton, and BDO Seidman.   Ryan goes beyond the expected and looks for exceptions which benefit our clients.  We are at our best when following other, less focused, firms.  And, our competition doesn’t bother to follow us.  We know of no instance where any of our competitors have produced meaningful tax savings after our review was complete. Our pricing model is very much appreciated by our clients; we get paid when we actually deliver tax savings. Clients are stunned for the amounts of refunds that we generate for them without them being involved.

How was the business started?
Ryan was founded in 1991 as a two person firm to provide tax audit defense and recovery services for clients seeking assistance with state & local tax audits on a turnkey basis. At that time, Ryan relied on credit card accounts to fund the start-up of the Firm.

How many employees does the business have?
Roughly 1,600 current employees worldwide.

How did you end up in Atlanta? 
Todd was working in San Francisco and married a Georgia girl.  In his experience, they are good at getting their way and as a result, Ryan’s international tax practice is headquartered in Atlanta (where the firm is HQ’ed in Dallas). Mark divides his time throughout the USA, while being based in New York.

What is your number one business goal over the next year?
Expanding in the Georgia market by winning over new clients. After that, the world… .

What is the best advice you have received regarding doing business with Americans/Dutch?
Highlight the strong relationship between the Netherlands and the USA. The Netherlands bankrolled the US war of independence in a major way. In addition, the Netherlands was the first country to recognize the US as an independent state on November 16, 1776. That day is Netherlands-American heritage day (designated by George Bush sr.) Americans like these not well known facts. As a close 2nd. Talk to us for your tax structuring. The foreign/US tax systems and rates differ so much that mistakes can easily be made and benefits can easily be achieved .

Any other personal information you would like to share, e.g. hobbies, special interests, family etc…
Todd is a very proud father of three children, and enjoys attending and watching his children play high school and college football. Mark loves to tour his motorcycle and classic car. On vacation he tries to squeeze in some scuba diving to scare the fishies.