Rakhi Bhattacharya
Rakhi Bhattacharya is a senior global tax executive serving as Senior Director and Global Head of Transfer Pricing Planning & Controversy at Fiserv in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. She leads the company’s worldwide transfer pricing function, shaping international tax strategy across more than 100 countries while ensuring compliance, efficiency, and alignment with business objectives. Known for her ability to bridge deep technical expertise with strategic business leadership, she oversees complex global structures involving intellectual property planning, financial arrangements, mergers and acquisitions, and cross-border tax controversy resolution.
Before joining Fiserv, Rakhi built a distinguished career in international tax and transfer pricing across major financial institutions and advisory firms. She spent many years at Ernst & Young and CIT, where she developed expertise in global tax documentation, audit defense, valuation, and operational transfer pricing systems. Over time, she transitioned into senior in-house leadership roles, eventually stepping into global director positions where she managed multi-regional teams and complex tax planning initiatives across Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Rakhi holds advanced degrees from prestigious institutions, including an MBA in Corporate Finance from Clark University and a Master’s degree in Business Leadership and Strategy from Harvard Business School. A first-generation immigrant, she has built her career through persistence, global perspective, and a strong commitment to mentorship and professional development. Recognized as one of New Jersey’s Top Women Leaders in 2023, she is also active in mentoring and leadership communities, where she advocates for education, curiosity, and the advancement of women in finance and tax leadership roles.
• Harvard Business School- Master's
• Clark University- M.B.A.
• Mumbai University Mumbai- Bachelor's
• Institute of Chartered Accountants of India- C.P.A.
• Honored Listee-
Marquis Who's Who
• High Impact Award
• Employee of the Quarter
• The Top Women Leaders of NJ 2023 - The Women We Admire Awardee
• Beta Gamma Sigma
• Fiserv
• CIT Group Inc.
What do you attribute your success to?
I have to say I attribute my success to my parents, who were very hardworking, sincere individuals that built a life for us focused on getting your education and focusing on what makes you happy to build a career out of it. They taught me that if you enjoy what you do, it won't seem like a job - it will be a very exciting day-after-day career. They instilled in me not just respect for hard work, but respect for the people you work with and building relationships along the way, both professional and personal relationships. Those are eventually bonds that help us make this journey wonderful. As a first-generation immigrant to America who came here to study for my master's 25 years ago and have stayed since, those values really were the core. They helped me focus on my degrees and get to where I am today, building relationships along the way, good mentoring relationships, good professional relationships, and through sheer hard work, ensuring I deliver quality work every single day. Those really are the values on which I've built my life and career.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is: Don't let anyone tell you that you cannot do it, or you do not belong in that meeting room with all the people that are senior leadership. Prove to them you can, believe you can, because you can do it. And do it not just for them, do it for yourself. You will get there. There is nothing we cannot achieve with hard work and sincerity. And we have to believe in ourselves.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I do a lot of mentoring with early career professionals and young women that enter the field right from school or in their first jobs, and I would say two things are really critical. One, definitely work hard, no matter how big or small the job is. Work hard and deliver your best 1000% every single time. The second thing, which I think is extremely important, is never let go of your curiosity. Ask questions. The more you ask, the more you will learn. The more your piece of the project and puzzle will fit into a bigger picture. There's no such thing as a small question or a dumb question. Ask questions, unleash your curiosity, learn, and that will help you grow as an individual.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The challenges in my field are constant - there's a lot of tax regulation changes that happen, and not all of it is very easy to understand. There are very complex calculations, scenario analysis, and planning that needs to happen on the regulatory and legal side. Then there's the people and human side, working with different teams in different countries, different languages, different cultures. My challenge is always to balance those two, so that there is a harmonious meet of both the legal, regulatory, tax side and the people side, and to ensure that we work in a very harmonious fashion amongst all these different teams in different countries. This is definitely something that I work on every day to strive to reach out to our people with the strategic guidance that they need so we can move forward.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me are ones I attribute to my parents, who were very hardworking, sincere individuals that built a life for us. They focused on getting your education and focusing on what makes you happy to build a career out of it, because if you enjoy what you do, it won't seem like a job - it will be a very exciting day-after-day career. They instilled in me not just respect for hard work, but respect for the people that you work with and building relationships along the way, professional and personal relationships. Those are eventually bonds that help us make this journey wonderful. As a first-generation immigrant to America who came here to study for my master's 25 years ago and have stayed since, those values really were the core. They helped me focus on my degrees and get to where I am today, building relationships along the way, good mentoring relationships, good professional relationships, and through sheer hard work, ensuring I deliver quality work every single day. Those really are the values on which I've built my life and career.