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2/3/2021

Treasury Announces Appointment of Several Members of Staff | U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Treasury Announces Appointment of Several Members of Staff
February 3, 2021

WASHINGTON – Today, the United States Department of the Treasury announced the
appointment of new members of key sta . This diverse and deeply experienced team is
prepared to deliver results for the American people by getting the economy back on track,
strengthening the financial system, and restoring jobs.
Biographies of the appointees are listed below in alphabetical order:
Clement Abonyi Jr., Special Assistant, Legislative A airs
Clement Abonyi, Jr. is a legislative policy and process professional who specializes in
financial services matters. Most recently, he served as Director of Member Services to
Chairwoman Maxine Waters of the House Committee on Financial Services. In that capacity,
Abonyi led the Committee’s member services operation and maintained regular
communication with standing Committees in the House of Representatives. He played key
roles in advancing the Chairwoman’s legislation, advising on legislation dra ed by
Committee Members, and facilitating successful passage through the Committee and the
House of Representatives. A first-generation American born to deaf immigrants, Abonyi
received his Bachelor’s degree from The American University School of Public A airs and is a
native of South Norwalk, Connecticut.
Kimberly Clausing, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis, O ice of Tax Policy
Kimberly Clausing most recently the Eric M. Zolt Professor of Tax Law and Policy at UCLA
School of Law. She recently joined UCLA from Reed College, where she worked as the
Thormund Miller and Walter Mintz Professor of Economics. She has published numerous
articles on taxation, with a particular emphasis on the taxation of multinational companies,
and she is the author of Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global
Capital (Harvard University Press, 2019). Professor Clausing has received two Fulbright
Research awards, and her research has been supported by external grants from the National
Science Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the International Centre for Tax and
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Development, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Washington Center for
Equitable Growth. She has worked on economic policy research with the International
Monetary Fund, the Hamilton Project, the Brookings Institution, the Tax Policy Center, and
the Center for American Progress. She has testified before both the House Ways and Means
Committee and the Senate Committee on Finance. Professor Clausing received her B.A. from
Carleton College and her Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Suzanna Fritzberg, Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary for Domestic Finance
Suzanna Fritzberg joins the Administration with experience in economic development at the
state and local level, most recently founding and leading a public-private partnership for
COVID relief in Birmingham, Alabama, where she worked directly with community members,
elected leaders, small businesses, and institutional partners. She began her career in public
service as Deputy Chief of Sta to Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the City of South Bend, Indiana,
and served as a policy advisor to his 2020 campaign, where she led work on economic
mobility. Fritzberg served on the Biden-Harris Treasury transition team and was a coconvener of the Biden-Harris campaign economic policy committee. Originally from
Washington State, Fritzberg is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Oxford.
Itai Ginberg, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multilateral Tax O ice of Tax Policy
Itai Grinberg is returning to the Treasury Department a er spending ten years as a Professor
of Law at Georgetown University. Since leaving the Treasury Department, his academic
research has focused on international tax policy matters and the intersection of international
tax law, international trade law, public international law, and international financial
regulation. While in academia Grinberg also served as an outside international tax advisor to
various multilateral institutions, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), the Asian Development Bank, and the Inter-American Development
Bank. Grinberg previously served at the Treasury Department in the O ice of the
International Tax Counsel in the Bush-Cheney and Obama-Biden Administrations. Prior to
that, he practiced law in the tax group at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. In 2005,
Grinberg served as Counsel to the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, a
bipartisan presidential advisory commission that proposed fundamental tax reforms for the
United States. Raised in Colorado, Grinberg received his bachelor’s degree in economic and
political science from Amherst College, and his law degree from Yale Law School.
Rebecca Kysar, Counselor to the Assistant Secretary, O ice of Tax Policy
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Treasury Announces Appointment of Several Members of Staff | U.S. Department of the Treasury

Rebecca M. Kysar has been a Professor of Law at Fordham University since 2018, where her
academic research focuses on tax policy, international tax, and the tax legislative and budget
processes. Most recently, she served on the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition as an ad hoc
advisor to the tax policy and Treasury agency review teams. Rebecca has testified before the
U.S. Congress on international tax and tax regulatory matters. Prior to joining Fordham,
Rebecca was on the faculty at Brooklyn Law School for nine years and served as the James
S. Carpentier Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. Before entering academia,
she worked as a tax associate at Cravath, Swaine, & Moore, where she advised on tax issues
related to restructurings, mergers and acquisitions, and other complex transactions. She
also clerked for the Honorable Richard J. Cardamone on the U.S Court of Appeals, Second
Circuit. A native of Greenwood, Indiana, Rebecca is a graduate of Indiana University and Yale
Law School.
David Lipton, Counselor to the Secretary
David Lipton was the number two o icial at the International Monetary Fund for eight years
until last March. Before that, he served in the Obama White House as Special Assistant to the
President covering international economic a airs at the National Economic Council and
National Security Council. Lipton spent five years in the Clinton Treasury Department where
he supervised work with the transition economies rising to Under Secretary for International
A airs during the financial crisis in Asia. Before that, he and Je rey Sachs together advised
governments in Eastern Europe during their transition to market economies. Lipton also has
experience in the private financial sector, both at Citi and Moore Capital Management, a
global hedge fund. Lipton earned a Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard University and a B.A. from
Wesleyan University. He resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife Susan Galbraith, and has
three children and two grandchildren.
Adair Morse, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Capital Access, O ice of Domestic Finance
Adair Morse most recently served as the Soloman P. Lee Chair in Business Ethics, Associate
Professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, Fellow at
the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, and founding faculty director of the Sustainable
and Impact Finance initiative at Berkeley-Haas. Until recently, she was on the Governance
and Allocations Committee of the California Rebuilding Fund and on the Expert Panel for
oversight of the global fund for the Ministry of Finance of Norway. She is an award-winning
teacher of New Venture Finance, Impact Investing, and Sustainable Investing. Adair’s
research spans multiple areas of finance: household finance, FinTech, discrimination, climate
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Treasury Announces Appointment of Several Members of Staff | U.S. Department of the Treasury

finance, small business and venture finance, corruption, and pension management. Recent
work includes papers on algorithmic discrimination, impact investment, and small business
fiscal programs. She holds a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Michigan, two Master’s
degrees from Purdue University, and a Bachelor’s degree from Colgate University.
Noel Andrés Poyo, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Economic Development,
O ice of Domestic Finance
Noel Andrés Poyo most recently served for fourteen years as Executive Director of the
National Association for Latino Community Assets Builders (NALCAB), a non-profit
membership organization that is the hub of a network of more than 120 community and
economic development organizations that serve geographically and ethnically diverse Latino
communities. Since 2015, he concurrently served as CEO of Escalera Community
Investments, NALCAB’s subsidiary asset management company, which controls social
investment funds designed to capitalize a ordable housing projects and small businesses.
Poyo’s 22 year career has focused on integrating low-income people and immigrants into
mainstream financial services and real estate sectors of our economy as well as improving
the livability and economic resilience of low-income neighborhoods and a ordable housing
communities. He has played diverse roles in the implementation of community development
projects valued over $1 billion. From 2015 to 2017, Poyo served as one of 15 members of the
Community Advisory Council for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He
has extensive experience advising the executive leadership of some of our nation’s largest
banks as well as numerous nonprofit lenders and social investors. A graduate of Yale
University, Poyo is bicultural and bilingual. He is a proud husband and father of three girls.
Laurie Scha er, Principal Deputy General Counsel, O ice of the General Counsel
Laurie Scha er has been appointed to the position of Principal Deputy General Counsel.
Prior to joining the Treasury Department, Scha er served as the Deputy General Counsel in
the Legal Division of the Federal Reserve Board. In that role, she managed the Banking
Regulation and Policy Group which has responsibility for the legal work related to
supervision and regulation of banking organizations, as well as the review and management
of various banking applications. Scha er previously served from 2008-2011 in the Treasury
Department as the Assistant General Counsel for Banking and Finance. She played a critical
role in the Department response to the financial crisis and in the dra ing the
Administration’s regulatory reform legislation and providing legal and policy support during
congressional consideration of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection
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Treasury Announces Appointment of Several Members of Staff | U.S. Department of the Treasury

Act. Scha er is a graduate of Fordham University Law School and the American University,
School of International Service.
Maddie Smith, Special Assistant, O ice of the Secretary
Maddie Smith joins the Treasury Department from the public a airs and communications
firm Rational 360 where she advised clients on strategic communications, messaging, and
thought leadership. She has previously served on the Podium Operations team at the 2016
Democratic National Convention. Smith is a native of Falls Church, Virginia, and a graduate of
the University of Virginia.
Tom West, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Domestic Business Tax, O ice of Tax Policy
Tom West is returning to the Treasury Department from the global accounting and advisory
firm KPMG LLP where he advised clients on tax policy and regulatory matters. Previously,
West served at the Treasury Department during the Obama-Biden Administration, spending
five years in the O ice of Tax Policy as Tax Legislative Counsel, managing the implementation
of domestic tax. Prior to his government service, West spent 15 years in private practice
advising clients on global tax planning and compliance. West holds a J.D. from Temple
University Beasley School of Law and an LL.M. in Tax from Georgetown Law. He lives on
Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. with his wife and son.

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