Indirect Tax Awards 2010

Chris Needham, VAT Director, GE

Chris has spent the last 14 years developing GE’s in house European VAT team that now has more than 55 members.  Chris has spoken extensively around the world on how to create an effective, modern in-house VAT team and on the need for proportionate indirect tax systems.  Chris has extensive VAT experience having spent 5 years as a Senior VAT Inspector with HM Customs and Excise in the UK and a subsequent 7 years as a VAT Consultant with Price Waterhouse.  He helped to establish Price Waterhouse’s first European VAT desk in New York in 1994.

GE is a diversified technology and services company dedicated to creating products that make life better from aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, medical imaging and television programming. GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs more than 330,000 people worldwide.  In 2007 GE’s revenues were  $172.7 billion

The company traces its beginnings to Thomas A. Edison, who established Edison Electric Light Company in 1878. In 1892, a merger of Edison General Electric Company and Thomson-Houston Electric Company created General Electric Company. GE is the only company listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Index today that was also included in the original index in 1896.