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.
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