Mid-Atlantic Tax Forum

Vivian J. Paige, CPA, CGMA, MBA, MS, has extensive experience in taxation and accounting. She was a successful sole practitioner until selling most of her firm and joining the faculty of her alma mater, Old Dominion University (ODU). She is actively involved with the Virginia Society of CPAs (VSCPA), serving as a member and past chair of the Tax Advisory Committee and as a member of the VSCPA Political Action Committee Board, the ad hoc Educators' Symposium Task Force, and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Council. She authored the VSCPA Legislators' Tax Guide and presented briefings to the legislature on taxation. She is the co-author of VSCPA ethics courses and has been a presenter at several VSCPA conferences.

Arthur Joseph Werner, J.D., M.S. (Taxation)

Arthur Joseph Werner, JD, MS (Taxation), is the president and is a shareholder in the lecture firm of Werner-Rocca Seminars, Ltd. Mr. Werner’s lecture topic specialties include business, tax, financial and estate planning for high net worth individuals.

In addition, Mr. Werner is a former adjunct professor of taxation in the Master of Science in Taxation program at the Philadelphia University.

Mr. Werner received his B.S. in Accounting and his M.S. in Taxation from Widener University. He holds a J.D. in Law from the Delaware Law School. Mr. Werner lectures extensively in the areas of Estate Planning, Financial Planning, and Estate and Gift Taxation to Certified Public Accountants and Financial Planners and has presented more than 3000 eight-hour seminars over the past twenty-five years as well as numerous webinars and video presentations. Mr. Werner has been rated as having the highest speaker knowledge in his home state of Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, was awarded the AICPA Outstanding Discussion Leader Award in the State of Nevada, the Florida Institute of CPAs Outstanding Discussion Leader Award, and the South Carolina Association of CPAs Outstanding Discussion Leader Award.

Elissa Borges is Assistant General Counsel in the Office of Tax and Revenue, Office of the Chief

Financial Officer, for the D.C. Government. Prior to joining OTR in 2016, Elissa was a partner

at the law firm of Ober Kaler in Baltimore, Maryland (now Baker Donelson) for more than a

decade where she was a member of the firm’s Tax and Litigation practice groups. Elissa is the

past chair of the Tax Section of the Maryland State Bar Association.

Nick joined YHB in 2020 with over 15 years of experience in the industry. Nick is a graduate of Carthage College with a BS in Accounting and Business, the University of Connecticut with an MA in Accounting, Case Western Reserve University with a JD, and Georgetown University with an LLM in taxation. Nick has also worked with the Internal Revenue Service as a Revenue Agent and an Attorney with the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility.

EXPERTISE

Nick’s expertise includes helping high wealth individual and large business entities with complex tax compliance, along with specializing in international, non-for-profit tax issues, and tax ethics issues. He has used his tax expertise not only to serve his clients, but also his peers. He has authored publications for the AICPA’s Journal of Accountancy, AICPA’s Tax Advisor, NATP’s Tax Pro Journal, and CCH’s Journal of Tax Practice and Procedure and co-authored a textbook, Tax Preparer Penalties and Circular 230 Enforcement, published by Thomas Reuters. He has also lectured nationally on topics such as ethics, complex tax transactions, and IRS practice and procedure.