Taken from "MEET THE INNKEEPERS" at CHERRY CREEK INN
LESTER H. SWEETING was born and grew up in Syracuse, New York, where he graduated from Marcellus Central School. He holds both an AB in History and Political Science and a LL.B from Syracuse University. Lester was admitted to the Bar in the District of Columbia in 1969. After law school, Les joined the Internal Revenue Service in Syracuse, transferring to the National Office in Washington, D.C., in 1968. He worked in the IRS' International Division for 15 years before transferring to London as Assistant Revenue Service Representative in 1983. He served as Revenue Service Representative for South America south of the Equator and Africa south of the Sahara, with more than 50 countries in his territory, returning to the United States at the end of 1987. Les then joined the staff of the Legislative Affairs Division of IRS in 1988, and in 1993, he transferred to the United States House of Representatives, where he worked as senior counsel to the Honorable Matthew G. Martinez, D-CA, until his retirement in 1996. On June 1, 1996, Les reported for duty as an employee of then KPMG Consulting, Barents Group in Moldova (one of the former Soviet Republics) where he spent the next three years as Chief of Party and tax advisor to the Minister of Finance. He returned to the US in 1999, and spent two years based in Washington but working in Latvia, Indonesia, Egypt, Macedonia, and other countries. He became Chief of Party of the USAID-funded Macedonia Fiscal Policy project in September 2001, and served there 3 years until October 2004. In July 2005, Les retired from BearingPoint, Inc.