Executive Staff

The West Virginia Department of Revenue executive staff administers and enforces West Virginia revenue laws to ensure the state's fiscal responsibility.

 

The department oversees 10 agencies and the executive staff works to support the various Department of Revenue agencies and ensure that they are following West Virginia rules that govern each one. 

SECRETARY OF REVENUE

 

Governor Jim Justice appointed Dave Hardy cabinet secretary of the West Virginia Department of Revenue effective January 16, 2017. He also serves as the governor’s designee on both the Municipal Home Rule Board and the Board of Treasury Investments.

 

Secretary Hardy has more than 33 years of experience in private legal practice and is also a certified public accountant with decades of experience balancing the budget for the Mountain State’s most populous county. He has a combined 21 years of service to the citizens of Kanawha County, first as a member of Charleston City Council from 1995 to 2001, and later as a commissioner on the Kanawha County Commission from 2001 to 2017.

 

As a lawyer, Secretary Hardy is experienced in all aspects of the mining industry, including occupational and mine health and safety matters and deliberate intent occupational injury litigation and been designated a “Best Lawyer in America” in energy law as well as a “Top Lawyer” in the West Virginia Top Lawyers Guide. He has lectured widely throughout the country in the areas of occupational and mine health and safety law and he currently teaches a master’s degree level class on public budgeting at West Virginia State University.

 

Secretary Hardy is a proud native of Pratt, W.Va. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in history and government and a Bachelor of Science in accounting from West Virginia University Institute of Technology. He earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law. He was named a partner at Jackson Kelly law firm in 1993 and in 2012 he formed the Hardy Pence firm, which specializes in mining and energy law. He also has served on the board of the Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences and the Charleston Area Alliance.

 

Secretary Hardy lives in Charleston with his wife of 32 years, Nadia. They have two children, Scott and Kristen.

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Kathy Torlone

Executive Assistant to the Secretary

Kathy.A.Torlone@wv.gov

304-558-0755

DEPUTY SECRETARY

 

Mark Muchow serves as Deputy Secretary for the Department of Revenue working closely with the Secretary, State Budget Office, State Tax Department, and Governor’s Office.

 

Muchow brings significant experience to the State of West Virginia earned while working with the administrations of eight governors over the course of 33 years. Beginning in 1984 as a Tax Analyst I for the State Tax Department, he rose through the ranks to serve as a Tax Analyst II, Chief Tax Analyst, Director of Research, and Chief Administrator of Revenue Operations.  In 2004, he was named Director of Fiscal Policy for the Department of Revenue. Two years later, Muchow was appointed Deputy Secretary of Revenue.

 

He is known for his expertise in revenue forecasting and tax policy and is involved with annual budget preparation and the state’s six-year financial plan. He also assists the Tax Commissioner as a representative to the Legislature.

 

Muchow served as a consultant to the Governor’s Commission on Fair Taxation Project from 1997 to 2000 and co-authored a study of tax incentive programs in West Virginia, an analysis that contributed to the enactment of significant reforms in 2002. He also was a participating member of the Tax Modernization Project. For more than 14 years Muchow has provided a fiscal outlook presentation for the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research’s Annual West Virginia Economic Outlook Conference. 

 

In 2005 he was presented the highest award bestowed by a Governor, the Distinguished West Virginian Award.

 

Muchow has taught macroeconomics for the then-West Virginia Institute of Technology as well as West Virginia Southern Community College and has published a multitude of articles and studies on topics from tax credits to coal severance tax. He was a member of the 1994 Global Leaders for the South Forum sponsored by BellSouth Corporation.

 

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Secondary Education from Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, and his Masters of Science in Public Management and Policy from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He lives in Poca with his wife Gwen and enjoys participating in Boy Scout activities with their son Joseph.

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Jeanette Ahangardezfooli

Administrative Secretary

Jeanette.L.Ahangardezfooli@wv.gov

304-558-8730

304-558-2324

MANAGING DEPUTY SECRETARY

 

Douglas P. Buffington II has served the West Virginia Department of Revenue in top legal counsel roles across two administrations for more than four years. Beginning as General Counsel and Chief of Staff in October 2013, he progressed to the role of Managing Deputy Secretary in February 2017.

 

Acting as adviser to the Secretary of Revenue, Buffington implements general policy directives throughout the department’s 10 subordinate agencies and provides direct oversight for the State Tax Department, Offices of the Insurance Commissioner, Lottery Commission, Alcohol Beverage and Control Administration, Office of Tax Appeals, and Athletic Commission. Additionally, he provides legal and administrative guidance for the State Budget Office, the Division of Financial Institutions, the Municipal Bond Commission, and the Racing Commission.

 

As Managing Deputy Secretary, Buffington also acts as liaison between the department and the Governor’s Office regarding complex agency and governmental issues, legislation, and administrative regulation. He works closely with the Office of the Attorney General on agency-related litigation and serves as Chief Privacy Officer and Chief Record Retention Officer for the agency.

 

Prior to joining the department, Buffington was an associate attorney for the legal firm Pullin, Fowler, Flanagan, Brown and Poe in Beckley for nearly 5 years and a public defender in Raleigh County for nearly 10 years. During law school he served as a law clerk for the Division of Special Fund in Frankfort, Kentucky, focusing on Workers’ Compensation law, as well as a federal judicial internship with the Eastern District of Kentucky in Lexington focusing on civil and criminal law.

 

Buffington earned his law degree in 1999 from University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, and his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in 1996. He has been a member of the Beckley Human Rights Commission and served on the Board of Directors for the Raleigh County Public Defenders.

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Courtney Shamblin

Executive Assistant

Courtney.D.Shamblin@wv.gov

304-558-3356

DEPUTY SECRETARY AND GENERAL COUNSEL

 

Allen Prunty has served the West Virginia Department of Revenue as Deputy Secretary and General Counsel since March 2017.  He is the Cabinet Secretary’s chief legal adviser and legal liaison with the department’s 10 agencies, the Governor’s Office, the Office of the Attorney General, the Legislature and the general public. 

 

Before he entered public service, Prunty spent 22 years as a litigation attorney with the Jackson Kelly law firm in Charleston, West Virginia, four years in New York City working for an offshore investment bank and the New York City Law Department (Special Litigation Unit), and 11 years as a litigation and commercial transactions attorney in the Charleston offices of Robinson & McElwee PLLC. He served in various management positions during his 22 years with Jackson Kelly.

 

Prunty is admitted to practice law in West Virginia and New York, and before the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 8th Circuits, and the Supreme Court of the United States. He has represented clients in toxic tort, personal injury, constitutional law, and commercial litigation before state and federal courts, and in administrative litigation before the United States Department of Labor and the West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Office of Administrative Law Judges, Workers’ Compensation Board of Review, Occupational Pneumoconiosis Board and Human Rights Commission.  He also has experience in business law, commercial transactions  and campaign finance law; and he served as general counsel for the West Virginia Affordable Housing Trust Fund. 

 

Prior to joining Governor Justice’s administration, Prunty was a frequent speaker at legal seminars and professional conferences. He also taught Legal Research & Writing at the University of Charleston for seven years, and he has published articles regarding the Federal Black Lung Act, captive insurance companies, and campaign finance law.

 

Prunty earned his law degree from the West Virginia University College of Law, where he served on the Moot Court Board and wrote for the Law Review. He was a Magna Cum Laude graduate of West Virginia University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and is a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha and Phi Beta Kappa honor societies. He lives in South Charleston and is the proud father of three WVU students and grandfather of a future Mountaineer.

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Courtney Shamblin

Executive Assistant

Courtney.D.Shamblin@wv.gov

304-558-3356