Two of the highest honors a TEI member can receive are the Institute’s President’s Award and honorary membership. At the 2025 Annual Conference in San Francisco, California, in October, TEI gave the President’s Award to Louis Mestier and an honorary membership to Teri Wielenga.
Here’s a brief summary of these recipients’ impressive careers and TEI service, as described by TEI’s international president, Walter Doggett, who nominated Mestier, and past international president, Sandhya Edupuganty, who nominated Wielenga, in nominating them for these awards.
Louis Mestier, President’s Award
I would like to nominate Louis Mestier to receive the Tax Executives Institute’s President’s Award. Louis’ career as an in-house tax professional spanned over thirty years before his retirement in June 2025. He has worked for the IRS and several companies throughout his career, including Samsung, Silicon Laboratories, Guaranty Financial Group, EZCORP, Hanger, Inc., and Caesars Entertainment. Louis spent the final years of his career at Cook Inlet Region, Inc., as the senior director of tax from 2021 until his retirement.
Louis joined TEI in 2000 and has been a vital contributor to the organization. During his twenty-five-year volunteer service with TEI, Louis held several roles at the chapter, region, and Institute levels. He became the founding chapter president of the Central Texas Chapter, formerly known as the Austin Chapter, and served as president for its three initial terms starting in 2000. He then stepped back into the president role of the Central Texas Chapter from 2012 to 2013. Louis also held the role of Central Texas Chapter Representative from 2006 to 2008 and then 2010 to 2018. Louis later moved to Alaska and served as the Alaska Chapter vice president (2022–2023) and Alaska Chapter president (2024–2025). In all, he has served as chapter president five times, which may be a record. Louis also served as the regional vice president for Region 6 from 2004 to 2005.
In addition, Louis maintained active service on several of TEI’s Institute-level committees. He was a member of the State & Local Tax Committee (1990–1998), Awards Committee (2005–2006, 2007–2010, and 2011–2013), Continuing Education Committee (2014–2016 and 2018-2020), IRS Administrative Affairs Committee (2010–2012), and the Tax Technology Committee (2014–2018). He also chaired the Corporate Tax Management Committee (now Tax Leadership and Development) from 2014 to 2016 and 2018 to 2020. Louis also contributed to the Institute by serving on the Executive Committee from 2016–2018.
In addition to serving in various offices at the Institute, region, and chapter level, Louis has contributed to numerous presidential goals and task forces, with a dedicated focus to helping in-house tax professionals grow and develop personally and professionally. For example, in 2016–2017, Louis chaired a working group under Past International President Janice Lucchesi’s presidential goals to develop a professional, skills-based curriculum at Institute events, which were continued in 2017–2018. In 2017–2018, Louis also led the efforts under Past International President Robert Howren’s goals to ensure prominent positioning of Emerging Tax Professional events at levels of the organization.
Perhaps most notably, Louis led the Institute’s efforts under Past International Presidents Katrina Welch’s goals and James Kennedy’s year to design and launch TEI’s 2021 Corporate Tax Department Survey. This effort culminated in a comprehensive benchmarking survey providing data on tax departments’ structure, staffing, and budget; personnel strategies and measures; compliance, governance, and tax examination responsibilities; financial reporting and reserves; and tax technology adoption. This detailed survey provided needed guidance to tax department leaders as they came through the disruptive COVID-19 pandemic.
Most recently, Louis served as a founding instructor of TEI’s Tax Leadership Academy (TLA) under Past International President Josephine Scalia. The TLA is the Institute’s newest leadership program educational opportunity for members who are interested in enhancing their leadership capabilities as an in-house tax professional. Louis has been instrumental in developing the TLA curriculum, teaching sessions, and engaging our inaugural TLA participants.
As the current TEI international president, it is my distinct honor to nominate Louis Mestier for the TEI President’s Award, which will be presented at the Annual Conference in San Francisco on October 26. I cannot think of a more deserving honoree than Louis. I look forward to recognizing and celebrating his many significant contributions during such a distinguished career of service. I am especially grateful that this President’s Award will take place during my presidential year, making this recognition even more meaningful to me.
Teri Wielenga, Honorary Membership
I am pleased to nominate Teri Wielenga of the Orange County Chapter for honorary membership. Teri has been a member of TEI since 1993 and has more than 30 years of experience at Fortune 500 global companies. Her expansive career includes roles at Deloitte, QAD, and Ampersand Holdings, Inc. In addition, Teri spent over 20 years at Allergan as their senior director of tax from 1990 to 1998, and their senior vice president of tax from 2001 to 2015. Teri’s final role in her career was the vice president, global head of tax and policy, at Gilead Sciences, which she held from 2017 through retirement.
Teri’s contributions to TEI at the chapter level include service as the Chapter Committee Chair of the Corporate Tax Management Committee (now Tax Leadership and Development (1994-1995)). She also took on chapter officer roles, becoming the Orange County Chapter President (1996-1997) and Orange County Chapter Representative (2004-2007 and 2010). Teri also served as the Regional Vice President for Region 8 from 2003-2004.
In addition, Teri was active as a committee chair on several Institute-level committees, including the Awards Committee (2000-2001), Financial Reporting Committee (2007–2010), Continuing Education Committee (2012-2013), Internal Affairs Committee (2014–2015), and the Nominating Committee (2014–2015). She was also served as Vice Chair of the U.S. International Tax Committee from 2005 to 2007. She was a member of the Awards Committee (1999–2000), Nominating Committee (2000–2001), U.S. International Tax Committee (2004–2005), Continuing Education committee (2007-2010), Financial Reporting Committee (2010–2011 and 2014–2017), Tax Reform Task Force (2010-2014), Internal Affairs Committee (2012–2014), and the Nominating Committee (2012–2013).
Teri was elected to the Institute’s officer queue in 2010, becoming the Institute treasurer (2010–2011), secretary (2011–2012), senior vice president (2012–2013), and international president (2013–2014).
Teri’s theme during her term as International President was “Embracing Change, Building on Tradition.” Her goals included topic areas such as member centricity, member recruitment and retention, education, advocacy, diversity, governance, and global operations and initiatives. During this time, she led the charge of creating three important groups for the organization that included the creation of the Governance and Management Task Force, Education Task Force, and Membership Structure Task Force. Under Teri’s leadership, the members of these task forces were able to create better engagement with chapters and regions, redefined the leadership development guidelines for the Nominating Committee, and revamped the Audits & Appeals Seminar. She embraced a “Chapter+1” strategy, tasking members of her Executive Committee to attend and speak at chapter and regional meetings, as well as engage with new members, including being the first president to visit the Asia Chapter in November 2013.
Teri was also a member of TEI’s Vision 20/20 Task Force, which was tasked with developing a strategic plan for the Institute with the help of a consultant. She also served as a member of the Investment Policy Task Force, which recommended changes to the Institute’s investment policy and worked to form the Investment Committee.
Teri participated in the Membership Structure Task Force and Continuing Education Task Force.
The consistent trait and value Teri has displayed in all her years as a TEI member is her devotion to what TEI represents and belief in what it can do for its members. My first memory of Teri was at a board meeting many years ago when the sense of responsibility and respect towards others that Teri held became apparent and the example she set for others to follow. Teri always asks the pertinent questions with grace and fortitude. TEI has benefited from immensely from Teri’s loyalty, wisdom, and her valuable and consistent participation.
