Mary
G. Ryan
Assistant Administrator for Field Operations
Mary G. Ryan was appointed Assistant Administrator for Field Operations of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau in May 2005. Prior to this position, Ms. Ryan served as the Deputy Chief Counsel of TTB, since inception.
As Assistant Administrator for Field Operations, Ms. Ryan oversees the Bureau’s enforcement arm, which consists of the Trade Investigations Division, Tax Audit Division, Trade Analysis and Enforcement Division, and National Revenue Center. These divisions are intricately coordinated and represent personnel reporting to 17 field offices across the United States and Puerto Rico.. As the head of the Office of Field Operations, Ms. Ryan oversees the collection of $15 billion in excise tax revenue per year in Federal alcohol, tobacco, firearms and ammunition excise tax, as well as the administration of TTB’s permit authority, which authorizes qualified persons to operate in the alcohol and tobacco trades. She is also responsible for enforcement of the Federal trade practice and consumer protection provisions that ensure a fair and even marketplace in the alcohol beverage trade and that ensure that alcohol beverages are what they are labeled or advertised to be and are safe to consume. As part of its tax administration responsibilities Field Operations personnel work closely with officials from other Federal agencies, state agencies, and domestic and international agencies and organizations to detect and eliminate unlawful tax diversion schemes involving the alcohol and tobacco trades. These same liaisons are also effectively used to administer TTB’s consumer protection responsibilities.
Ms. Ryan started her career as a law clerk with the late Honorable John Lewis Smith of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She then joined the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Office of Chief Counsel in 1991 as an attorney in the Litigation division in Washington, DC. She was appointed as Deputy Associate Chief Counsel in the Alcohol and Tobacco Legal Division in 1998 prior to being appointed as TTB Deputy Chief Counsel. Throughout Ms. Ryan’s legal career, she represented TTB and ATF in litigation in Federal court, before congressional committees, and in contacts with other Federal as well as state agencies, trade associations, and public interest groups.
Ms. Ryan graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, earning an A.B. in English and Theology. Following additional studies in British and American literature at Harvard University, Ms. Ryan went on to Georgetown University Law Center, where she earned her juris doctorem in 1990. She is a member of the bars of the State of Maryland and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
1/2009
