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After graduating from Bowling Green State University, Jeff Kalata interviewed with seven of the big eight accounting firms back in 1986 in hopes of being hired directly into their tax practice. But life had other plans for Kalata, who was vying for a position with only an undergraduate degree in accounting under his belt and a passion for tax.
“They looked at me and said, ‘That’s not how it works at our firm,’” he recalls. “I needed a master of taxation or a law degree. I would need to start out in their assurance practice as an auditor, and I was really disappointed.”
However, when Kalata started his career with Cooper and Lybrand, he realized he was in the right place. His tax colleagues were doing most of their work in the office while he was traveling across the country, meeting interesting clients and conducting challenging audits.
Working on that side of the coin eventually became a passion, driving him to serve as group accounting manager at North American Refractories and then, as an assistant controller at FirstEnergy. In the latter company, things came full circle when leadership tapped him to serve as director of tax.
“If you have a certain skill set, I think it’s important to give back and to work with communities and organizations that are near and dear to your heart.”
Jeff Kalata
When reflecting on that journey, he says he is thankful for the network of professionals, mentors, and experiences that shaped him to be the leader he is today. He also believes one of the most valuable lessons he learned was about maintaining an open mind and building new skills when opportunities are presented.
“Keep all your options open. Don’t think that your perceptions or preconceived notions going into something is the be all, end all. You can be pleasantly surprised,” he says. “You might gain an experience that you had no idea about that you like and are very good at.”
In 2013, Kalata brought his tax experience from the Midwest to Con Edison, as a director of tax to help build the tax team and replace the outsourced resources the company had in the tax department. Kalata was instrumental in implementing the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 ensuring the excess deferred federal income taxes were properly calculated and flowed back to Con Edison’s customers.
In 2019, he was promoted to vice president of tax and is now focused on developing the next generation of tax professionals and ensuring the team is in a much better place than when he started. He aims to pay it forward through on-the-job and formal training in addition to offering his team members opportunities to step outside their comfort zone and expand their critical thinking. In 2022, he led a tax team of professionals that managed all tax aspects of the $6.8 billion sale of Con Edison’s Clean Energy Businesses that closed on March 1, 2023.
“I think everyone likes their comfort zone but if you step outside of it or do something that’s different or challenging, you’ll stay sharp and embrace the idea that it’s a continuous learning process,” Kalata says. “I am constantly learning and growing professionally. Passing that knowledge onto the next generation is critical to their development and success.”
Kalata oversees all aspects of tax for the utility company, which provides power to more than ten million people and businesses across New York City and Westchester. In his tenure, he’s been instrumental in building the tax department from the ground up, strengthening its processes and implementing automation to allow work to get done more efficiently. Constant improvement is always a focus for the leader and his team of thirty professionals.
“Jeff is a champion for process efficiency and technological innovation,” says Vadim Lantukh, cofounder and CEO at tax software company Lucasys Inc. “Having worked with Jeff over many years and multiple organizations, I’ve been a witness to his unique ability to evaluate processes, quickly understand areas of opportunity, and take decisive action to constantly improve his organization.”
“At Con Edison, we’re always looking at our pain points and thinking about how we can get better, become more efficient, build stronger controls, and make sure we’re focused on the right things,” Kalata explains. “Sometimes we do things for the sake of doing them, and it really doesn’t mean anything in the overall process. We look to minimize the busy work and focus on the activities of the business where we’re adding value.”
But Kalata’s responsibilities are only one part of the job. When a storm arises, he and his colleagues also play a significant role in providing emergency response support. Each member is given a storm emergency assignment (SEA) and helps communities reeling from harsh weather conditions.
In March 2018, Kalata got a chance to serve as a logistics lead during storm restoration efforts in the aftermath of winter storms Riley and Quinn. The team set up shop at Rye Playland in New York, where the team organized mutual aid vehicles and resources, housed workers, provided meals, and refueled their trucks. Kalata says the work was a rewarding way to stretch outside his daily duties and assist in the restoration efforts to get the lights back on for Con Edison’s customers.
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“It’s a unique experience that I didn’t have at my other utility company. Having that dual assignment when nature wreaks havoc is a way we can all focus on restoration and make sure we’re all doing what we can to restore power as quickly and safely as possible,” he says. “The challenge was you’re doing something you didn’t go to college for. You have to pull up your boots and help wherever you can. In the end, it was a good way to learn about the company and to meet people across the organization that I hadn’t worked with before.”
Giving back has been a lifelong passion for Kalata. For twelve years, he served as a trustee and treasurer for an education foundation back home in Cleveland that gave grants to teachers for projects that supplemented the students’ learning experiences. At his local church, he served as the chair to the finance committee and helped it steer through uncertain financial times amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as participated on the church’s exploratory committee for the restoration efforts of its historical pipe organ. He continues to serve on its leadership board in 2024.
“If you have a certain skill set, I think it’s important to give back and to work with communities and organizations that are near and dear to your heart,” he shares.
“Don’t think that your perceptions or preconceived notions going into something is the be all, end all. . . . You might gain an experience that you had no idea about that you like and are very good at.”
Jeff Kalata
As a leader, he also values critical thinking in individual and listening more than talking. Leaders who want to be successful and effective should “always do what they commit to, engage in others to develop their knowledge and skills, and allow bad news to flow just as fast as good news in an organization,” he says.
“When something goes wrong, there’s no need to hide it or delay communication,” he adds. “Life is a learning experience. As long as you don’t repeat mistakes or shortcomings and learn from it, you will get better. We all have to learn and move on so that we are not afraid to come out of our comfort zones.”
Lucasys provides software and technology-enabled services to empower finance, accounting, and tax professionals in asset-intensive industries to optimize the financial performance of their fixed assets and proactively meet changing regulatory and compliance requirements. With a core focus on rate-regulated utilities, Lucasys provides the industry and domain expertise utilities require to meet their business objectives.
Lucasys has a knowledgeable team of consultants with the experience to organize and standardize tax accounting systems to adapt for the latest regulatory rulings, and their software solutions make it simple to address the latest tax, accounting, and compliance challenges facing the utility industry.
Founded in 1920, as one of the first law firms specializing in federal income tax matters, Miller & Chevalier is a Washington, DC, law firm with a global perspective. Miller & Chevalier is a top-ranked firm sharply focused on targeted areas that interact with the federal government. A significant number of firm lawyers have held senior positions in the US government and have written many of the regulations they currently help clients navigate.
Regulated Capital Consultants (RCC) is thrilled to celebrate Jeff Kalata and his team at Consolidated Edison. His contribution to our industry continues to grow brighter each year and it’s been our joy at RCC to work together throughout the past decade. Most recently, RCC and Jeff collaborated to prepare schedules supporting the tax-basis of assets from the Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses sold to RWE Renewables Americas, LLC on March 1, 2023. It was fantastic working with Jeff across multiple tax teams at Con Edison to complete the vital project. Another feather in your cap, Jeff—hats off to you!
