Patricia M. Soldano
Founder & President, Policy and Taxation Group

Patricia M. Soldano has spent over 30 years providing family office services. She owned Cymric Family Office Services and sold to GenSpring Family Offices in January 2009, where she was Managing Director of Western Region for 5 years and then a Family Office Consultant to GenSpring until December of 2017.

Ms. Soldano is President of Family Enterprise USA; its mission is to promote the growth of generational owned family businesses in the US, and President of Policy and Taxation Group, which she formed in 1995, that works to reduce onerous tax and economic policies for successful families, family offices and family business. She is Principal Advisor to the Drucker School Global Family Business Institute, and a member of CSUF Family Business Center, as well as on Family Business editorial committee for Trust & Estate Magazine. She is on the Investment Committee, Comp Committee and Audit Committee for Alzheimer’s Orange County. Ms. Soldano received an MBA from Claremont Graduate School, The Drucker School and a BA in Business Administration from Cal State University Fullerton.

Russ Sullivan
Outside Counsel

Russ Sullivan is chair of the National Tax Policy Group at lobbying and law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, providing unparalleled insight into the legislative and regulatory risks and opportunities related to tax policy. Russ is a Capitol Hill veteran who spent 14 years with the Senate Finance Committee, including nine as staff director. He leverages his vast network and industry expertise to devise and execute complex strategies for both nonprofit and for-profit clients on a broad range of issues, including health care, pension planning, trade, economic development and tax policy.

During his time at the Senate Finance Committee, Russ worked directly on policy matters related to the estate tax. He served as chief tax counsel under Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) when the committee passed legislation repealing the estate tax in 2001. A decade later, as committee staff director, Russ worked with a bipartisan group of senators to make a reduction in the estate tax rate and an increase in the exemption amount permanent.

Brandon C. Roman
Outside Counsel

Brandon Román advises a wide array of domestic and international clients, including banks, non-bank financial institutions, financial market utilities, trade associations, and multinational corporations, on a variety of financial services and tax issues.

Brandon assists clients in developing comprehensive strategies to further their legislative and regulatory interests before Congress, relevant congressional committees, and various regulatory agencies, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Federal Reserve, Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Department of Treasury, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), among others.

Brandon also assists various nonprofit organizations with their corporate formation, including assistance with obtaining tax-exempt status with the IRS and state-level tax regulators. He also advises nonprofit organizations, such as charities and trade associations, on corporate governance and compliance issues.

Charles D. (“Skip”) Fox IV
Treasurer and Assistant Secretary

Skip Fox is retired from McGuireWoods LLP and is now a Consultant to Policy and Taxation Group and Family Enterprise USA. Skip concentrated his practice in estate planning, estate administration, trust law, and charitable organizations. Skip has been on the faculty of the American Bankers Association’s National Trust School and National Graduate Trust School since 1987. He was an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University School of Law where he taught from 1983 to 2005 and has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law since 2006. He speaks extensively around the country on estate planning topics and is the co-presenter of the long-running monthly teleconference series on estate planning and fiduciary law issues sponsored by the American Bankers Association. Skip has contributed articles to numerous publications and is a regular columnist for the ABA Trust Newsletter on tax matters.

John Marino
Director of Family Office Engagement

John Marino is a Washington, DC consultant with a specialization in business development and strategic relationship building. He has extensive experience working closely with corporate leadership, aligning organizational goals, executing strategy, and driving growth. Marino has spent over 20 years in executive roles with consulting firms, government affairs companies, and nonprofit organizations. He effectively managed domestic and international clients across multiple industries, strategically positioning companies in competitive markets, creating value, and driving performance. He has helped companies navigate the public sector and collaborated with the bipartisan Italian American delegation in the United States Congress.

Marino received a Master of Business Administration at Louisiana State University in Shreveport, a Master of Arts from Fordham University in New York City, and a Bachelor of Arts from Clemson University in South Carolina.

Robert Z. Chew
Communications & Marketing

Robert Z. Chew is an author, speaker, leadership training coach, and marketing communications expert. Currently, he develops marketing communications programs, content development, advertising, and public relations for Family Enterprise USA and Policy and Taxation Group.

Bob has been in the leadership development and marketing communications industry for 30 years and has worked for some of the largest advertising agencies and brands in the world, including Toyota, Singapore Airlines, Coca-Cola, and GE. He has written seven books, has taught at UCLA Extension for over 20 years, and is a regular leadership guest lecturer at such institutions as the University of Southern California and California State University.

Loren Nelson
Communications & Marketing

Loren Nelson oversees the daily communications, social media, public relations distribution, and messaging operations of the organization.

Loren has spent over 30 years providing communications, marketing, and messaging expertise, helping companies and organization understand digital communications and media to effectively use and leverage the power of the Internet for their objectives and goals.

Loren has experience locally, statewde, and nationally in a wide range of industries including health, medical, politics, manufacturing, retail, financial, legal, restaurants, gaming, sports, water filtration, real estate, non-profit, and newly financed start-up ventures.  Earliest projects were as local marketing manager overseeing all in-market expects from hiring, training, and operations.