Executive Board
The Executive Board is responsible for the strategic leadership and overall governance of DFK International. Comprising the President, Deputy President, regional Vice Presidents, and the Executive Director and CEO, the Board works to develop and deliver the association’s strategic objectives on behalf of its members.
Warren Baker is a Partner at BKL in London, UK, having joined Wilson Wright in 2001 and merged into BKL in 2024.
Prior to being elected as Deputy President, Warren was a member of the EMEA Executive Committee. He qualified in 1988 with Arthur Anderson in London and then went into industry for a stint of the real world. He returned to practise, and he is a general practise partner at BKL a top 30 practise in the UK and BKL’s International Liaison partner. One of his key goals is to ensure BKL and DFK are sufficiently focused on ensuring the younger generations are properly equipped to enable them to compete and operate in the current environment. He is an expert on the issues of inward and outward investment and has worked with many firms helping them to set up operations in the UK and abroad.
Before joining DFK International, Bill was a Principal with the DFK member firm in San Francisco, where he was responsible for client mergers and acquisitions and the firm’s business development activities. He had previously been a Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, a Vice President at Daiwa Bank, and a Corporate Banking Officer at Bank of America. Bill is a member of the Institute of Directors in London, has held board roles at the Association for Corporate Growth in San Francisco, and was an adjunct professor of accounting at Golden Gate University.
Bill earned a Master’s degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. Bill was born in Japan, has lived in the United States and the United Kingdom, and has travelled to 35 countries. He and his wife reside in Ohio, United States.
Based in Atlanta, USA, Ben Miller is a Partner and leader of Bennett Thrasher’s Transfer Pricing practice.
Prior to Bennett Thrasher, Ben worked in the Deloitte Tax LLP Transfer Pricing practice where he assisted corporations operating in a variety of industries.
As VP Americas, Ben is responsible for representing the Americas region of DFK and providing overall leadership at the board level. Before being elected to the Executive Board, Ben served as Chair of the DFK Tax Committee Transfer Pricing subgroup.
Francesco Nicolini is a Partner at N&CA Studio Nicolini Commercialisti Associati, Milan, Italy, member of DFK International since 1976.
Francesco is responsible for representing the EMEA region of DFK International and before being elected to the Executive Board, Francesco was a member of the EMEA Executive Committee.
He is a Chartered Accountant and, prior to joining his firm, he worked at KPMG, where he carried out audit and advisory works for financial institutions. Francesco is Professor and Academic Fellow at the Bocconi University of Milan, Department of Finance, and holds courses in Financial Management and Financial Markets. In Italy, he also acts as Technical Adviser of the Judge for the Court of Milan and is a bankruptcy trustee and arbitrator, as well as a member of Supervisory Committees in procedures of the Ministry of Economic Development.
Ragu is a Chartered Accountant and a Certified Management Consultant, and a post-graduate in systems and software application development, a combination that lets him work with equal fluency across finance, assurance and technology. He specialises in audit and in tax, with particular depth in international tax and transfer pricing, advising enterprises on cross-border structuring, valuation and governance.
Within DFK International, Ragu has contributed across several of the association’s technical Special Interest Groups. He served for several years as Vice-Chair of the International Tax Group and as Chair of the Transfer Pricing Group. He is currently a member of the Valuation Services Group, Vice-Chair of the Information Technology Group, Chair of the ESG & Sustainability Group, and a member of the International Tax Group. He has also served on the Executive Committee of the Asia Pacific region and on the Members Council.
As Vice-President for Asia Pacific, Ragu is responsible for the development of the region within DFK International, creating opportunities and value that help member firms thrive in the new era of digital and AI.
Stephen Bushell is the managing partner of DFK Gooding Partners in Perth, Australia, where he was part of the firm’s founding team in 1998.
Prior to taking on the role of DFK International board president, Stephen served as the deputy president of DFK International, a director and chairman of the board of DFK Australia New Zealand, an executive member of DFK Asia Pacific and a board member and treasurer of Ronald McDonald House Perth. He is a Chartered Accountant, a Fellow of The Tax Institute and holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Finance from Edith Cowan University.