Leisa: Hello, I’m Leisa Holland-Nelson and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business, where we’re going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. My guest today is Myrtle Jones, Senior Vice President of Tax for Halliburton. Myrtle, welcome to Women Mean Business.
Myrtle: Well, hello Leisa, and thank you for having me.
Leisa: I’m thinking, Senior Vice President of Tax, global company, that’s quite a challenge and honestly, to me, a little scary. Tell us about what you do.
Myrtle: Well I can understand why some people might think that it’s scary. Especially for a company the size of Halliburton. We’re a multinational company, we operate in over 80 countries, and that means that I’m responsible for making sure that we pay the right amount of tax in all of those different countries.
Leisa: How many people help you do that?
Myrtle: Well, close to 300. They are scheduled all around the world and stationed all around the world so I have a lot of subject matter experts, and so I don’t have to know everything. I depend on the good people that work for me.
Leisa: Do you have to travel a lot?
Myrtle: Not so much. With having the number of people that I have working for me that are based in those different countries, I really don’t have to get out to those countries very much. Here I’m responsible for oversight, for guidance, for governance, and making sure I have a really good staff that’s trained up to do the job.
Leisa: So what do you see as your greatest challenge going forward?
Myrtle: The greatest challenge is staying abreast of all the changes in tax laws. You may not realize it but multinational companies, especially ones that are based in the United States are kind of under attack around the world. Some countries seem to think that we’re not paying our fair share, and because of that, they are constantly passing new laws that makes it more difficult for us to stay on top of things.
Leisa: Thank you very much. There you have it, another extraordinary woman doing extraordinary things. I’m Leisa Holland-Nelson, President and Co-founder of ContentActive, Houston’s leading web and mobile technology company. You can find me at contentactive.com or follow me on Twitter @lhnelson. We’ll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.
brought to you by