Nevada Tax Commission

Members

Anthony Wren

Anthony Wren

Chairman

Anthony (Tony) Wren is an independent fee appraiser with 39 years of experience. He has been in the Reno/Sparks area for over 30 years. A native of Wyoming, Mr. Wren relocated to Reno/Sparks in 1984. At that time, he had just earned the SRA-Senior Residential Appraiser designation from the Society of Real Estate Appraisers. In 1987, he received the SRPA-Senior Real Property Appraiser designation. In 1991, he received the MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute. 

Mr. Wren has been active in the Reno-Carson-Tahoe Chapter of the Appraisal Institute. He served as a member of the Board of Directors for the chapter and served as its president in 1988 and 1989 and 2000. He has served on several national committees of the Appraisal institute including the Faculty committee and was a national reviewer for several courses. Mr. Wren teaches real estate appraisal courses and is also a real estate broker. He has taught the Principles course and the Income Valuation course at Truckee Meadows Community College. He has also instructed Standards and Ethics, as well as Principles and Procedures and other courses and seminars, for the Appraisal Institute. 

Mr. Wren is a nationally Certified AQB Instructor, (USPAP), Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. He was instrumental in the writing of the appraiser licensing/certification law for Nevada. He has been appointed twice by the Governor of Nevada to serve on the Nevada Commission of Appraisers (9/94 to 6/97) and (7/97 to 6/00) and served twice as President of that Commission. Mr. Wren was appointed to the Nevada State Board of Equalization by Governor Jim Gibbons (3/08 to 3/12), reappointed for (3/12 to 10/15) and was the Chair of the Nevada Board of Equalization for seven years.

Jeff Rodefer

Jeff Rodefer

Commissioner
Appointed by Governor Steve Sisolak in 2022, Jeff Rodefer, a lawyer with over 30 years of experience, currently focuses his practice primarily in the areas of gaming and regulatory matters, gaming compliance, transactional and general corporate.  He previously worked for 15 years as in-house corporate counsel for two public gaming companies.  He also served over 13 years in the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, where he was as legal counsel to the Nevada Tax Commission, Nevada Department of Taxation, State Board of Equalization, Nevada Gaming Commission and Nevada Gaming Control Board.  He is the author of, among other publications, the Nevada Property Tax Manual (1st ed. 1993), Nevada Gaming Law Index (1st ed. 1999, 2nd ed. 2019); and Internet Gambling in Nevada: Overview of Federal Law Affecting Assembly Bill 466, 6 Gaming Law Review 393 (2002). He successfully argued the seminal property tax case, Imperial Palace, Inc. v. State, Dep’t of Taxation, 108 Nev. 1060, 843 P.2d 813 (1992). He is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration (Major/Finance and Minor/Accounting) and earned his Juris Doctorate degree from Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon.  In addition to the State Bar of Nevada, he is a member of the State Bars of California, Colorado and Oregon.  He has an “AV” Martindale-Hubbell peer review rating and an AVVO rating of “10.”  In 1993, the Nevada Supreme Court appointed him to serve on the Functional Equivalency Committee of the State Bar of Nevada, where he currently serves as the Chair.  Since 2000, he has served as the Chair of the State Bar of Nevada’s Gaming Law Section (https://www.nvbar.org/content/gaming-law-section). In 2010, the State Bar of Nevada named him its first recipient of the “Volunteer Lawyer of the Year” award.  In 2012, he was appointed as a Trustee to the University of Nevada, Reno Foundation (https://www.unr.edu/giving/foundation/board-of-trustees), where he served as Chair of the Board of Trustees in 2021 and 2022 including previously serving as Chair of the Audit & Finance Committee (2016) and Governance Committee (2017, 2019 and 2020).  In 2016, he was appointed to the Gaming Law Advisory Board at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law.  
Sharon R. Byram

Sharon R. Byram

Commissioner

Sharon Byram was appointed to the Nevada Tax Commission as the mining industry member in November 2017. She has more than 30 years of experience in the mining industry and in taxation. She opened her firm, Sharon R Byram, Attorney at Law, PLLC, in 2015, and her practice focuses on serving the mining industry in Nevada with state and local tax and valuation services.

Prior to opening her own firm, Ms. Byram worked for Ryan, LLC from 2011 to 2014, providing tax and valuation consulting to mining operations throughout the United States and Canada. From 1987 to 2010, Ms. Byram worked for Newmont Mining Corporation, where she gained valuable experience in mine accounting, tax, business, and litigation. She was awarded the Chairman’s Award by the Newmont Board of Directors in recognition of her successful integration and settlement of tax issues related to a complex merger.

Ms. Byram holds a Bachelor of Business Administration Summa Cum Laude from National University, San Diego; a Master of Business Administration from the University of Nevada, Reno; and a Juris Doctor from the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  She is licensed to practice law in Nevada, and holds a CMI (property tax) certificate from the Institute of Professionals in Taxation.

She is a member of the Nevada Bar Association, American Bar Association, Nevada Taxpayer’s Association (board member), Nevada Mining Association, Women’s Mining Coalition, Elko County Board of Equalization, Institute of Professionals in Taxation, Elko Rotary Club (board member), and the Elko Chamber of Commerce.

Craig Witt

Craig Witt

Commissioner

Craig Witt is a native Nevada farmer born and raised on a Carson Valley dairy farm. He has experienced what farming once was, what it has become, and the direction it needs to go in the future. After graduating in 1978 from the University of Nevada Reno with a Bachelor of Science Degree in General Agriculture, Craig returned home to run his family's third generation dairy farm. While managing the operation, Craig Witt converted the dairy farm into a thriving full-scale composting operation: the first of its kind permitted in the State of Nevada. Mr. Witt started the first composting site offering recycling of organic materials from the Tahoe Basin, Reno, Carson City, the Carson Valley and many nearby communities. Craig Witt is the current owner and President of Full Circle Compost, Inc. with a location in Carson Valley and a composting facility in Carson City, NV. 

Besides Mr. Witt’s involvement with numerous local community programs, Craig has been certified as a Composting Expert by the State of Nevada Environmental Protection Agency and is listed on the 2006 Lake Tahoe BMP Resource Professionals list. Mr. Witt is a life long Farm Bureau Member and has served in many diverse capacities on agricultural boards and committees. Mr. Witt gained valuable experience in management and decision making while serving on the Associated Nevada Dairyman Board of Directors, Farm Bureau Dairy Advertising Board, Carson Valley Conservation District, and is an active member of Nevada Resource Conservation and Development, National Compost Council and California Society of Ecological Restoration.

Mr. Witt has developed a broad understanding of the agricultural businesses in his capacity as a National and International “Composting and Soil Fertility” consultant. Mr. Witt is passionate about the environment, renewable farming practices, and ecologically correct waste management practices, and speaks regularly sharing his knowledge in the community, nationally and internationally.

Dr. Ann Bersi

Dr. Ann Bersi

Commissioner
Dr. Ann Bersi was appointed to the Tax Commission in December 2005. Prior to serving on the Commission, for 10 years Dr. Bersi was bankruptcy counsel to Clark County, Nevada, and related entities. As such her practice focused on contract, statutory lien, and ad valorem tax issues in cases ranging from the individual taxpayer to complex cases involving hotels and casinos. In addition, she served as legal counsel to the Clark County School Board and the Clark County Board of Equalization, and represented the County before the Public Service Commission. From 1991-1995 she represented private corporate/commercial and individual clients with the law firms of Lionel, Sawyer & Collins and Morris, Brignone & Pickering.

Bersi graduated from San Diego State University with a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature, from the University of Connecticut with a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration, and from California Western School of Law. She is admitted to practice law in the states of Nevada and California, and before the United States Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, and the city, state, and federal courts in California and Nevada. She was president of the State Bar of Nevada in 1999/2000, and currently serves as a trustee for the Foundation of California State University San Marcos.
Francine J. Lipman

Francine J. Lipman

Commissioner

Francine J. Lipman is a Professor at the Boyd School of Law for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She brings an exceptional record as an accountant, a lawyer, a teacher, and a scholar. After working as a CPA in an international accounting firm and as the Chief Financial Officer for a chain of retail jewelry stores, Professor Lipman turned to law where she served as the Editor in Chief of the UC Davis Law Review and was recognized as an Outstanding Law Student and a member of the Order of the Coif. Following a similarly stellar record in NYU’s Graduate Tax Law Program, where she was a Tax Law Review Scholar, she practiced law with O’Melveny & Myers LLP and Irell & Manella LLP.

Professor Lipman joined the faculties of Chapman University’s School of Business and Economics in 2001 and the School of Law in 2003. Professor Lipman is an elected member of the American Law Institute, the American College of Tax Counsel, and the American Bar Foundation, and an editor and former committee chair for the Tax Section of the American Bar Association. She has been a visiting professor at UC Hastings College of Law and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has written extensively on tax and accounting issues for legal journals, including the Wisconsin Law Review, Florida Tax Review, Virginia Tax Review, Nevada Law Journal, American University Law Review, Harvard Environmental Law Review, Harvard Latino Law Review, Harvard Journal on Legislation, The Tax Lawyer, The Practical Tax Lawyer, Taxes and Tax Notes. Professor Lipman is a frequent speaker on tax subjects to law and business groups.

H. Stan Johnson

Commissioner

H. Stan Johnson is a native Nevadan and the managing partner of Cohen-Johnson, LLC a law firm that was founded in 1986.  He has more than 30 years of experience in commercial transactions, commercial litigation, real estate acquisition, development and finance and tax advantaged investments. Mr. Johnson has represented start-up companies, as well as large established companies operating nationally and internationally.  

Mr. Johnson served as General Counsel, Secretary and Board of Director for a publicly traded company for six years during which time he gained experience in securities, business transactions, and tax issues.  Mr. Johnson has also experience as general counsel and president of several tech startups.  Mr. Johnson holds several patents dealing with encryption, quantum encryption, digital watermarking, and secure data transmission.

Mr. Johnson holds degrees from Brigham Young University in Business Administration and a Juris Doctorate from the J. Reuben Clark School of Law, Brigham Young University, and is a Certified Financial Planner.

 Mr. Johnson is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts of the State of Nevada; the Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals; and the United States Supreme Court.