Christopher Von Essen Email & Phone Number

New Jersey

I. Compliance • Tax preparer investigations • Tax Compliance coordination• Compliance policies, procedures, and tracking • Third-party due diligence• Remedial measures• Monitoring • Auditing• Corporate Hotline Management• State qualificationsII. Investigations• Attorney General customer complaint investigations• Franchisee audits and investigations• Tax Compliance investigations• Mitigating fraud & theft• Incident Response Management• Asset Protection• Litigation support• Tax fraud leads reporting documentation

Parsippany, Nj

• Department head responsible for operational and strategic direction for shared services department with specific focus and oversight on cost reductions, maximizing operating efficiencies, and seasonal readiness.• Managed centralized back office operations for all 1800+ company owned tax offices including: o Real Estate Leasing – Negotiations and Renewals o Technology/Networking Requirements o Cash Reconciliations/Controls o IRS/ERO Compliance & Tax Return Compliance o CAPEX budgeting o Acquisition Contract Review and Execution o Vendor Relations • Directed $13 million annual real estate budget through bankruptcy and achievement of strategic EBITDA goals, which resulted in the closure of non-profitable and marginal locations. • Negotiated and renewed an average of 200+ leases annually while executing an average of 40+ new leases for company owned operations.• Negotiated and closed 23 independent franchise acquisitions which accounted for 215 offices and 53,663 tax returns. • Managed annual CAPEX budget of $1.2mm providing weekly recaps to senior executive committee.• Responsible for initiating, communicating, and ensuring compliance with all IRS Electronic Return Originator obligations.• Optimized vendor pricing for enterprise by leveraging buying power of company owned and franchise operations. • Responsible for redesign of annual onboarding procedures used to hire seasonal staff of 6000+ tax preparers. Resulted in development of 100% online and paperless process to maximize efficiencies. • Conducted weekly operations strategy sessions with Area Managers regarding performance results, marketing efforts, employee retention, managing client traffic and effective customer service execution.

• Responsible for design, launch and management of the support structure that introduces company policies, procedures and programs to start up franchise owners.• Designed and developed curriculum and online educational tools allowing new owners to take instructional sessions in a self-paced environment.• Served as the primary liaison and business consultant for all support needs of the new franchisee as they navigated their first year in the tax industry. • Created territory, operational, and marketing analysis to assist franchise operators with their selection of new site openings.• Ensured compliance metrics were reached and brand image standards were strictly adhered to.• Reviewed store level P&L budgets, highlighting areas of concern and recommending corrective actions where necessary.• Integrated over 260 owners representing nearly 200,000 tax returns and $40 million in tax preparation revenues.• Presented training for all employee populations (line staff to executive level), financial institutions, tax preparers and tax preparation entities• Successfully developed and coached team of seasoned field directors that provided hands on support via on-site orientations and regional workshops.

• Recruited, hired and trained field personnel to perform retail-merchandising jobs.• Created step by step training manuals for merchandising projects that are distributed nationwide to over 2,000 merchandisers.• Developed positive relations with clients on a retail level i.e., store managers, reset coordinators, district managers, and department managers• Track completion levels of products throughout client base.• Monitored project payroll budget ensuring actuals are kept within parameters.

• Supervisor of a 34 member staff that handled all facets of customer service, receiving and merchandising for an $11 million dollar store.• Responsible for the proper budgeting of payroll for seven departments within the store, reported actuals to the corporate office.• Supervised all cash handling activities from POS to back office cash deposits.• Responsible for store facilities quality which involved building maintenance, supply orders, and daily updates to store manager.