About Birch

Biography

Steve Bunson is an Advisory Director at Birch Risk Advisors, with particular expertise advising clients on both structuring and global tax risks.

Prior to Birch, Steve was a Partner at Goldman Sachs where he served as Global Head of Tax from 2000 until 2020. Steve has nearly 40 years of experience overseeing financial statement tax preparation, tax legislation lobbying, structured products, tax advisory, international tax planning, IRS controversy and effective tax rate management.

Steve serves on the Board of Trustees at Brandeis University. He was formerly Chair of the Wall Street Tax Association and the Federal Tax Committee of the Securities Industry Association, a board member at the Advisory Council of the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University, and a board member at the Goldman Sachs Trust Company.

Steve received his BA in Economics from Brandeis University, and an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University.

Biography

Barry Sklar is a founding Partner at Birch Risk Advisors, with a focus on advising clients on structured transactions and renewable energy risks.

Previous to Birch, Barry was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs serving as U.S. Head of Structured Investing from 2007 until 2023. At Goldman Sachs, he managed a team that optimized firm-wide investing, lending and treasury activities for tax, regulatory capital and financial accounting purposes. In this capacity, he employed tax risk insurance as a risk mitigant.

A former tax attorney and investment banker, Barry leverages 30 years of developing efficient strategies to the structuring of comprehensive insurance solutions for global financial risks.

Barry received a BA in Economics and Mathematics from Columbia University, a JD from Columbia Law School, and an LLM in Tax from New York University Law School.

Biography

Sheldon Elefant is a founding Partner at Birch Risk Advisors, where he develops and executes specialty insurance structures for unique transactional risks.

Prior to Birch, Sheldon served as U.S. Head of Tax Insurance at Willis Towers Watson. A pioneer of specialty insurance, Sheldon has advised underwriters and clients since the inception of transactional risk insurance, and is continually sought by industry advisors for his creative risk transfer expertise.

A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Sheldon also practiced as an M&A tax attorney for nearly 20 years, most recently with Norton Rose Fulbright, where he regularly worked with private equity sponsors on strategic transactions worldwide and advised financial sponsors and developers operating in the renewable energy space.

Sheldon received a BS in Accounting from Touro University, a JD from Brooklyn Law School and an LLM in Tax from New York University Law School.

Biography

David Danesh is a founding Partner at Birch Risk Advisors, where he sources, negotiates, and structures specialty insurance solutions globally.

Before Birch, David was a lead tax attorney-broker at Alliant Insurance, and practiced as a federal and state tax attorney at Goldman Sachs, McDermott Will & Emery, and TD Bank.

David has advised on billions of dollars worth of transactional risk insurance coverage for M&A transactions, corporate reorganizations, tax qualifications, tax controversy, tax credits, and other financial risks. His specialty insurance clients have included Fortune 500 companies, investment banks, private equity & sovereign wealth funds, and high-net-worth individuals.

David received his BS in Business Management from Yeshiva University, Sy Syms School of Business, and a JD from Yeshiva University, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

Biography

Brandon Edwards is a Partner at Birch Risk Advisors, where he leads the team that facilitates renewable energy tax credit transfer transactions.

Brandon is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience building high-growth enterprises, spearheading successful mergers & acquisitions, and scaling advisory and technology-enabled services companies.

Prior to joining Birch, Brandon spent two decades providing solutions for corporate tax departments while leading Tax Credit Co. (TCC), a tax credit advisory and technology-enabled services firm serving the Fortune 500.  Brandon completed two strategic acquisitions for TCC including Incentives Advisors, a tax credit technology firm, and uConfirm, a verification of income and employment technology platform.   Brandon sold TCC to Experian in 2021, as a key component of the new Experian Employer Services division.  He served as Chief Strategy Officer of the division for three years.

Brandon received his BA in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Biography

Howard Morris serves as a Senior Advisor at Birch Risk Advisors, where he provides Birch clients strategic counsel in optimizing complex transactions and navigating the global M&A markets.

Howard is a highly regarded transactional lawyer with a proven track record in transformational growth, restructuring and corporate negotiations. Prior to joining Birch, Howard served as Co-CEO of Dentons and led the firm’s client development efforts across the US and EMEA, marketing the firm to sovereign wealth funds, financial organizations and global corporations, in addition to institutionalizing key client relationships around Denton’s international footprint.

Subsequent to Dentons, for nearly ten years, Howard was Head of the European Business Restructuring & Insolvency Practice for Morrison Foerster in London. During his tenure there, he advised the Creditors Committee in the chapter 11 and administration of Valaris PLC for the purpose of converting $7 billion to equity. He also counseled boards of late-stage growth companies in the tech industry to manage through financial crises.

A graduate of Queen Mary College, University of London, Howard qualified as a barrister in 1979 and as a solicitor in 1990.

Biography

Meirav Azoulay is a Senior Advisor at Birch Risk Advisors, where she provides clients with financial advisory services on renewable energy projects.

Meirav has over two decades of investment and financing experience in the specialty finance, fintech, and solar finance sectors.

Prior to joining Birch, Meirav was a Director in the Investment Banking Group at Piper Sandler focused on advising financial services clients. At Piper Sandler, Meirav successfully raised $10 billion for Sunlight Financial and $450 million for Sunagage Financial, amongst numerous other transactions and advisory assignments. Before Piper Sandler, Meirav held numerous roles in the investment banking divisions of Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch. Over her career, Meirav has raised over $60 billion of capital across more than 40 deals.

Meirav has served in the Israel Defense Forces and is a veteran of Unit 8200 / Military Intelligence.

Meirav received a BA in Management from Tel Aviv University, and an MBA in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business.

Biography

Troy Lauterbach is a Senior Advisor at Birch Risk Advisors, where he advises renewable energy and power developers on optimizing their renewable energy tax investments and financing structures, and associated project finance matters.

Before Birch, Troy served as CEO & President at NovaSource Power Services, the global leader in solar and storage services provider for renewable energy assets, where he led over 1,500 employees in 10 countries.

A recognized leader and veteran of the renewable energy industry, Troy has particular expertise in the construction and operational lifecycle of renewable assets. Troy enjoys interfacing with sustainable energy owners and operators in developing solutions to emerging challenges in their businesses.

Troy received his BS in Computer Science from Oklahoma Christian University, and an MBA in Business Administration from Colorado State University.

Biography

Hershel is a Senior Advisor at Birch Risk Advisors, where he advises clients on transactional risk across a wide range of tax exposures.

Previous to joining Birch, Hershel was a senior tax Partner at Wilson Sonsini and Dewey & LeBoeuf, and a Principal in the Washington National Tax practice of KPMG.

Hershel’s past experiences include numerous tax credit and alternative energy transactions, project finance transactions, real estate transactions, corporate joint ventures, partnership and corporate restructurings and workouts, and cross-border financings and investments.

In 2022, President Joseph Biden appointed Hershel to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Sites Abroad.

Hershel received his BS in Accounting from City University of New York at Brooklyn College, and earned a JD from Columbia Law School.