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This Episode is Sponsored by: CBIZ
While many food industry professionals were hoping that the Supreme Court ruling on tariffs would elucidate the current global trade environment, it appears that it may have added more uncertainty than before. CBIZ’s Lou Biscotti and Mark Baran, and former Customs expert Michael Contino, all join The Food Institute Podcast to provide clarity and actionable insights.
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More about CBIZ:
From farm to fork, optimize operations, control costs, and prioritize profits. CBIZ teams work across the supply chain—supporting agribusinesses, manufacturers, distributors, processors, importers, restaurants, retailers, and hospitality concepts in achieving their goals.
CBIZ, Inc. (NYSE:CBZ) is a publicly traded, leading professional services advisor to middle market businesses and organizations nationwide. With unmatched industry knowledge and expertise in accounting, tax, advisory, benefits, insurance and technology, CBIZ delivers forward-thinking insights and actionable solutions to help you anticipate next steps and accelerate growth.
We help your organization navigate challenges, turn risk into opportunity and drive sustainable, long-term excellence — where you are today and wherever you want to grow. Our 9,500+ team members across 23 major markets provide top-tier industry expertise with local delivery, relationships and support. To learn more, visit https://www.cbiz.com/.
More about Louis Biscotti:
Louis Biscotti is the national leader of CBIZ’s Food and Beverage Services group. He has been an entrepreneurial leader in accounting for over 40 years. Mr. Biscotti has focused his efforts on improving his clients’ growth and profitability and has guided many companies in their development from small emerging entities into organizations worth hundreds of millions of dollars. While his clients represent a variety of industries, he is particularly well known for his work in manufacturing and distribution, especially with food and beverage companies.
An active member of many local chambers of commerce, Mr. Biscotti served as a trustee for the Foundation for Accounting Education and was a board member of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA). He is a former president of the Accounting Circle and an Executive Advisory Board member of St. John’s, his alma mater, and Molloy College. He also serves on the advisory boards for many of his clients, where the cumulative experience of his 40 years in practice and work with nearly 1,000 companies gives those clients an invaluable edge.
More about Mark Baran:
Mark Baran is a Managing Director in the National Tax Office. He has more than 25 years of tax, transactional and legal experience advising publicly-traded and private companies, regulated financial institutions, investors, high net worth individuals, and government agencies.
Mark’s practice areas include providing tax consulting and transactional services to a broad spectrum of clients and industries including the public sector. He routinely provides tax opinions on the tax implications of proposed transactions, products, services and initiatives, and serves as a firm resource in the areas of financial services and products, regulatory compliance and planning, lending transactions and payment obligations, tax information reporting, expert witness support, asset management and tax controversies.
Mark also advises governments in developing countries on the design and implementation of tax and fiscal reform programs. Areas of expertise include M&A planning and due diligence, corporate reorganizations and dissolution, financing transactions, S corporations, tax and policy administration, and cross border transactions.
Previously, Mark was a director in the national tax office and a federal practice tax leader for a Big Four accounting firm. He also practiced law at a prominent law firm in Washington DC, served as a
director and senior tax counsel for a leading financial services trade association, and worked as a senior attorney for an independent agency of the federal government.
Mark is licensed in Florida, Georgia, and Washington D.C
More about Michael Contino:
Mike began his career with U.S. Customs in 1973 and concluded more than three decades of service in 2007, serving under seven Presidential administrations and working across three major U.S. tariff frameworks: the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930, the Tariff Schedule of the United States (TSUSA) of 1968, and the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) of 1986, which now underpins the global tariff system adopted by more than 160 nations. Over the course of his career, he held numerous leadership and technical roles, including Import Specialist, Assistant to the National Import Specialist, Supervisory Import Specialist, Division Director, Operations Officer, Field National Import Specialist, and ultimately National Import Specialist — the highest technical authority within the Customs Service for tariff adjudication, classification, and appraisement of imported merchandise.
