Ryan grew up in Phoenix, AZ and received his undergraduate degree from Arizona State University (ASU) in Accounting. Upon graduation, he began working on his Master’s in Taxation at ASU. Before beginning his career, Ryan had the privilege of teaching an undergraduate tax class at ASU. It was here that he discovered how much he enjoyed teaching others about the world of taxation.

At the beginning of 2023, Ryan began working for Ernst & Young (EY) doing tax compliance for investment partnerships in the private equity and hedge fund space. He learned more in the two and a half years he spent there than he had during his previous 5 years in school. However, he quickly realized two things. First, working 100+ weeks for months on end was difficult in a number of ways. He struggled with mental health, physical health, and just didn’t feel like the best version of himself. Second, he realized that working as hard as he was to save private equity firms with millions (sometimes billions) of taxable income each year money in tax didn’t give him the warm and fuzzy feeling he was hoping to get from the career he had chosen.