Voice of experience: Ben Booher

Innovative ideas

Early in Ben’s career at Deloitte Tax, he scored a big win when he and a colleague won Deloitte’s Tax Innovation Challenge, a competition that focuses on creating new and innovative solutions to tax problems facing clients. The solutions presented by Ben and his team led to a new service offering  being established to provide even more value to clients. The success of this competition further bolstered Ben’s confidence as he saw how quickly Deloitte Tax adopted his ideas. Proving that with hard work and innovation Deloitte professionals can shape the impact they make on the job.

Over the next ten years, Ben gained a wide array of experiences in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and initial public offerings. Ben took some time away from Deloitte Tax in 2006 to work at a local law firm. Ben’s team at Deloitte Tax was very supportive of his decision to pursue this opportunity, but a managing partner jokingly warned that he would return to Deloitte Tax one day. As if he had powers to tell the future Ben returned in 2010.

“I went to the law firm and immediately realized it wasn’t going to be a good fit for me long term,” said Ben. “It was an amazing opportunity, but it wasn’t the same type of atmosphere that I was used to at Deloitte Tax. I missed the collaborative atmosphere, the feeling that I was working with my friends every day.”

A true calling

Although his time practicing law proved rewarding, it was while working with Deloitte Tax's Partnership Solutions Group, where he found his true calling. Ben acted as chief architect for various Deloitte technologies used to perform detailed partnership tax analysis. Developing and implementing these tools gave Ben a great appreciation for the complexity of federal tax rules and the importance of communicating the ramifications of those rules effectively, especially concerning information that is critical to decision making.

Now, as a member of the Tax Analytics Insights practice, Ben specializes in building tools that enable clients to view their traditional tax data in new and compelling ways, resulting in a deeper understanding and more effective communication of critical tax positions.

Nurturing aspiring tax talent

Apart from his work with clients, Ben is committed to coaching Deloitte’s tax interns and staff. He has presented on tax analytics and data visualizations at Deloitte Tax’s annual Tax Intern Conference, where he was very impressed with the level of engagement from aspiring tax professionals.

“I had many students approach me about how they can utilize their skills in technology in their career at Deloitte,” said Ben.

Ben’s voice of experience

Through his own experiences in the tax profession, Ben urges young professionals to think strategically about their careers and engage in activities that will help them to gain the knowledge and expertise that they need. He also suggests harnessing the power of technology to build tools to solve problems and visualize data in a way that gives deeper insight and meaning to provide additional value.

“Think strategically about what you want from your career and plan your academic pursuits accordingly,” shared Ben. “Enjoying your time at work can make a big difference in how you feel about everything in your life.”