Meet our Executive Team

John Ryser, Acting Director

Acting Director John Ryser heads up the Washington State Department of Revenue. John has a long history with Revenue, starting his career in the Taxpayer Account Administration division and moving on to the Audit division. Prior to his current appointment he has served as the agency’s Deputy Director, Senior Assistant Director of Operations, Senior Assistant Director of Tax Policy and as the Assistant Director of the Audit division.

As the Acting Director, John oversees a staff of 1,386 employees and a biennial budget of $631.6 million.

Heidi Geathers, Acting Deputy Director

As the Acting Deputy Director at Revenue, Heidi provides oversight for Information Services as well as ATLAS Program Management (AMP), Internal Audit, Enterprise Risk Management, and the Lean Transformation Office. Heidi has worked both in the private and public sectors. Before coming to state government, Heidi spent 20 years in the banking industry gaining a keen understanding of customer-centric ideals and practices which drove technology strategies that were implemented.

Gil Brewer, Senior Assistant Director of Tax Policy

Gil Brewer currently serves as Senior Assistant Director of Tax Policy for the Washington State Department of Revenue. He oversees the Department’s Research and Fiscal Analysis, Interpretations and Technical Advice (ITA), Legislation & Policy and Administrative Review & Hearings divisions, as well as the Tribal Partnerships Program. Gil is responsible for the overall development of agency tax policy.

Gil has worked at Revenue for over 18 years and has held various positions, including Tax Policy Specialist, Legislative Liaison, and Assistant Director of the ITA Division. He also previously served as the Senior Assistant Director of Tax Policy until 2015, when he left to become Deputy Tax Commissioner for the West Virginia Tax Department. He eventually returned to Washington and to the Senior AD position. Gil also has more than 15 years of prior policy-related work with governments in Maine, Hawaii and Micronesia.

Gil earned a Bachelor of Arts in English writing from the University of Pittsburgh and his Juris Doctor from the University of Maine School of Law.

Alyson Fouts, Senior Assistant Director of Operations

Alyson is the agency’s Senior Assistant Director of Operations and oversees the Audit, Compliance, Property Tax, Taxpayer Services, and Taxpayer Account Administration divisions. Alyson started her career with Revenue in 1990 in the Taxpayer Account Administration division and worked in several policy and operation roles including Assistant Director of Taxpayer Services.

Steve McLain, Acting Senior Assistant Director of Administrative Services

Steve McLain serves as Revenue’s Acting Senior Assistant Director of Administrative Services. Steve oversees the agency’s Human Resources and Business and Financial Services divisions, as well as Information Governance. In his more than 39 years with state government, Steve spent the majority of his state career working in human resources-related roles. Since he came to Revenue, Steve has served as the Assistant Director of the agency’s Human Resources division.