Business Valuation and Litigation Services Conference (E2009120)

Neil Beaton is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal Valuation Services practice in Seattle. Mr. Beaton specializes in the valuation of public and privately held businesses and intangible assets for purposes of litigation support (marriage dissolutions, lost profits claims and others), acquisitions, sales, buy-sell agreements, ESOPs, incentive stock options, and estate planning and taxation. He also performs economic analysis for personal injury claims, wrongful termination and wrongful death actions.

Although he has a broad range of experience, Mr. Beaton has particular expertise in the valuation of early-stage, venture-backed companies and has written and spoken extensively on valuation techniques for companies with complex capital structures. He has valued companies in most major industry groups including manufacturing, fishing, utilities, telecommunications, healthcare, wholesale, retail and service industries both domestically and internationally. Mr. Beaton has also testified on valuation issues in federal and state venues across the United States, as well as in international arbitrations.

Mr. Beaton has valued patents, trademarks, trade secrets, IFQs and a plethora of other intangible assets. He is regularly hired to perform purchase price allocations and valuations for the granting of stock options. Mr. Beaton also performs valuations for employee-owned companies, as well as municipal, state and federal entities. He has served as a neutral appraiser in numerous disputes and has served as a special master in a number of venues.

Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Beaton was a Partner with Grant Thornton LLP for over nine years. He joined Grant Thornton from a Seattle-based boutique business valuation and litigation consulting firm, where he worked for 14 years, ultimately as a Partner. Mr. Beaton began his consulting career at Dun & Bradstreet Corporation.

Mr. Beaton earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Stanford University and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from National University. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA). Additionally, he is Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) and Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF), and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the CFA Institute and the American Society of Appraisers.

Mr. Beaton is the Co-Chair of the AICPA’s Valuation of Private Equity Securities Task Force and a member of the AICPA’s Mergers & Acquisitions Disputes Task Force. He is also a member of the Business Valuation Update Editorial Advisory Board, on the Board of Experts, Financial Valuation and Litigation Expert and is on the editorial board of the Valuation Examiner, a trade magazine of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts.

Retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge Frank M. Ciuffani is General Counsel at Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, P.A. and Chair of the firm’s Alternative Dispute Resolution practice. Judge Ciuffani serves as the firm’s key advisor concerning the law governing lawyers, governance issues, risk management, and policy implementation. In addition to his role as General Counsel, Judge Ciuffani focuses his practice on mediating and arbitrating complex commercial, business, employment, probate and family disputes. A certified civil trial attorney, he draws on over 40 years of experience on the bench and in private practice. Judge Ciuffani is member of the Middlesex County and the New Jersey State and American Bar Association and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. From 2017/2019, he served on the Supreme Court Committee on Complementary Dispute Resolution. He is also a former Assistant Prosecutor in Middlesex County.

Don is a graduate of LaSalle University and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He is a senior shareholder in Gold Gerstein Group LLC, an accounting and business valuation firm (www.g3cga.com) with offices in Moorestown and Voorhees, N.J. He is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, the New Jersey Society of CPAs, Expert Resource Connection, LLC and is a past chairman of the Forensic, Valuation and Litigation Services Committee of the New Jersey Society of CPAS. Don has provided testimony in business valuation for a variety of matters as well as in matrimonial, minority stockholder, and economic damages litigation and has been qualified as an expert witness by the federal and state courts. He also specializes in federal and state. multi—state and matrimonial taxation, as well as tax nexus issues.

Don has chaired and been a frequent speaker and panelist at various national and international conferences and webinars as well as state and local seminars conducted by the AICPA, the NJSCPA, the PICPA, the Florida Institute of CPAs, the American Bar Association, Integra International, Inc., the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts, the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education covering business and professional practice valuation, forensic accounting and federal taxation. He has authored numerous articles and contributed chapters to professional books on those subjects. He is an editor of the "Guide to Divorce Engagements" published by Practitioners Publishing Corporation (PPC) and an editor and (:o—author of the "Family Law Service Handbook, The Role of the Financial Expert" published by John Wiley & Sons.

He is a past Global Chairman of Integra International, Inc., a worldwide association of independent accounting and consulting firms, He is also a past president and remains a member of Integra's Americas, Asia & Australia and Global Boards.

Hubert Klein is a Partner and Practice Leader for the Financial Advisory Services Group in the firm’s New Jersey location. With over 30 years of experience, Hubert is, frequently called upon as a technical resource in various litigation actions. He has consulted and provided services in matters including complex damages, business valuations, due diligence analysis, fraud and forensic investigations, lost profit calculations, shareholder disputes, insurance claims analysis, bankruptcy and matrimonial proceedings.

In addition, Hubert has served as an agreed-upon neutral expert and as an expert witness appointed by judges in the types of matters listed above; and to issue reports for the courts on these cases. He has been appointed by various courts to serve as a Receiver, Provisional Director, Special Fiscal Agent, and Court’s Independent Forensic Auditor in various civil litigation matters. He has experience in providing traditional accounting services, such as financial statement and tax return preparation, financial analysis, and consulting services for closely held businesses.

As a strong proponent of professional development, Hubert frequently speaks to both business and civic groups on topics such as business valuation, forensic accounting, commercial damages and fraud. He has presented to both regional and national organizations.

Hubert is an active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) where he served on the Forensic and Litigation Services Executive Committee, Fraud Task Force; Forensic, and the Valuation Conference Committee and received the Volunteer of the Year award. In addition, the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts recognized Hubert as Outstanding Member for extraordinary committee participation and service.

P. Dermot O’Neill is a CPA with over 40 years of public accounting experience. Dermot’s practice concentrates in the areas of forensic accounting, litigation support, business valuation, transaction consulting, financial analysis, and income taxation. He has provided consulting and expert witness assistance in cases involving oppressed shareholders, personal injury, wrongful death, accounting malpractice, as well as contract and tort issues. He has testified as an expert in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Florida, New York, Connecticut, Virginia, Colorado, the Chancery Court of Delaware as well as Federal Bankruptcy Court and Federal District Courts.

He was the Managing Editor of the National Litigation Consultants’ Review for which he has written numerous articles. In addition, he is a member of the Financial Forensic Institute’s (FFI) Advance Litigation Program Development Team, helping to create content for the Master Analyst in Financial Forensics (MAFF) credential and serving as a national instructor in the program. He is a member of the Extension Faculty of the National Judicial College, Reno, NV.

Dermot is an adjunct instructor at Rider University College of Business Administration, Graduate Studies and Drexel University Lebow College of Business, Graduate Programs. He has been an adjunct lecturer at Villanova University School of Business as well as a guest lecturer at the Widener University and Lehigh University Graduate Schools of Business. For ten years, he was a member of the National Faculty of the American Institute of CPAs presenting week long accounting and auditing staff training programs. He has presented continuing professional education seminars and webinars sponsored by various state accounting institutes and societies, bar associations and universities as well as legal groups such as the Defense Research Institute. He received his B.S. in Economics from Villanova University.

Laura Crothers Osborn is a highly regarded speaker, author and expert in HR and Leadership. She is the Owner and President of Crothers Consulting, a boutique HR consulting, coaching and soft skills training firm servicing middle market businesses for over 10 years. They work with organizations to determine the best ways to attract, integrate, develop, engage and retain their talent.

Laura is a Human Resource expert with over twenty-five years of experience coaching and assisting senior and mid-level leaders. Laura opened Crothers HR Consulting in 2010 to fuel her passion for helping leaders achieve organization and strategic clarity. She and her team have successfully guided business leaders and HR executives, providing a clear line of vision as they face the many challenges associated with growing their company or engaging in mergers or acquisitions. Her candid, down-to-earth approach allows her to connect quickly and deeply with people.

Laura is known for her fast paced, creative solutions in all areas of HR. Her leadership style developed throughout her years in Human Resource leadership roles with McGraw Hill, AT&T, ADP, Merrill Lynch, EverBank and Shearson Lehman Brothers. Laura led and/or facilitated multiple initiatives focused on change management, integration, mentoring, leadership development/coaching, workforce planning, talent, performance management, employee engagement and compensation design.

Laura was Chief People Officer at US Express Leasing (USXL). Here she built the HR capability for this $85 MM start-up commercial leasing organization, which grew to $1 Billion in assets. Her ability to be nimble and react quickly to changing dynamics enabled them to grow the organization from 8 to 250 employees in five years. Laura worked as Senior Director of HR focused on the Mergers and Acquisitions at Standard & Poor’s where she led complex diligence, integration and acquisitions. She and her team use this experience as they deal with clients engaged on both the buy and sell side.

Laura is the chapter chair of both the Morris and Monmouth chapters of the Women President’s Organization (WPO) for CEO’s that run multi-million dollar businesses. She also sees great value in leadership assessment tools and is certified in The Leadership Circle® Profile, The Leadership Circle® Culture Survey, PDI Profiler®, DiSC ®, and is a SHRM certified SPHR and a CTI coach. Laura is an active member of ACG-NJ and Impact-100 Garden State.

David H. Stein co-leads the Banking & Creditors’ Rights team at Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, P.A., a regional law firm with offices located in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. For over 30 years, David has represented lenders, receivers, trustees, official committees, debtors, and strategic purchasers of distressed real estate and other operating assets in lending, work-out, commercial litigation, reorganization, foreclosure litigation, asset recovery and judgment enforcement matters, including high profile cases such as Barneys New York, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc., Maxus Energy Corporation, Modell's Sporting Goods, National Stores Inc., Payless ShoeSource and Toys-R-Us. His trial experience extends to the litigation of complex commercial matters, enforcement of and priority of liens, adjudication of claims and security interests, fraudulent conveyance litigation, and other commercial matters affecting the debtor-creditor relationship. David is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Middlesex County Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Ms. Tullar has over 20 years experience specializing in the areas of business valuation, litigation support, complex capital structures and intangible assets. Prior to joining VRC, she was a director with Delphi Valuation Advisors, founder and president of Valiant Metrics, Inc., a boutique business valuation and litigation services firm, director of the Boston business valuation and litigation practice of McGladrey. Before joining McGladrey, she was a senior manager with The Michel-ShakedGroup, a boutique litigation consulting and valuation firm and has also served as the finance manager for a university-based venture capital and technology transfer office.

Ms. Tullar earned a master of business administration degree with a concentration in finance from the Graduate School of Management of Boston University and a bachelor of science degree in accounting from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

She is accredited by the American Society of Appraisers as an Accredited Senior Appraiser. She is licensed in both Massachusetts and North Carolina as a Certified Public Accountant and is accredited in business valuations and certified in financial forensics.

Ms. Tullar also chairs the American Association of Certified Public Accountants’ Business Valuation Committee.