Shannon Pratt Business Valuations

Shannon P. Pratt

Shannon P. Pratt, CFA, FASA, MCBA, MCBC, CM&AA, is a well-known authority in the field of business valuation and has written numerous books that articulate many of the concepts used in modern business valuation around the world.

Shannon Pratt is Chairman and CEO of Shannon Pratt Valuations, Inc., a business valuation firm headquartered in Portland, Oregon. He is also a member of the board of directors of Paulson Capital Corporation, an investment banking firm that specializes in small cap IPOs.

Over the last 35 years, he has performed valuation engagements for mergers and acquisitions, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), fairness opinions, gift and estate taxes, incentive stock options, buy-sell agreements, corporate and partnership dissolutions, dissenting stockholder actions, damages, marital dissolutions, and many other business valuation purposes. He has testified in a wide variety of federal and state courts across the country and frequently participates in arbitration and mediation proceedings.

He holds an undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Washington and a doctorate in business administration, majoring in finance, from Indiana University. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Appraisers, a Master Certified Business Appraiser, a Chartered Financial Analyst, a Master Certified Business Counselor, and is certified in mergers and acquisitions.

Dr. Pratt's professional recognitions include being designated a life member of the Business Valuation Committee of the American Society of Appraisers, a life member of the American Society of Appraisers, past chairman and a life member of the ESOP Association Advisory Committee on Valuation, a life member of the Institute of Business Appraisers, the Magna Cum Laude in Business Appraisal award from the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts, and the distinguished service award of the Portland Society of Financial Analysts. He recently completed two three-year terms as trustee-at-large of the Appraisal Foundation.

Dr. Pratt is the author of Valuing a Business: The Analysis and Appraisal of Closely Held Companies, 5th edition, available in 2007, and the co-author of Valuing Small Businesses and Professional Practices, 3^rd edition, published by McGraw-Hill. He is the co-author with Roger Grabowski of the forthcoming Cost of Capital: Applications and Examples, available in 2008, the co-author with Jay Fishman and William Morrison of Standards of Value, author of The Market Approach to Valuing Businesses, 2^nd edition, Business Valuation Body of Knowledge, Business Valuation Discounts and Premiums, and co-author with the Honorable David Laro of Business Valuation and Taxes: Procedure, Law and Perspective, all published by John Wiley & Sons, and The Lawyer's Business Valuation Handbook, published by the American Bar Association. He is also co-author of Guide to Business Valuations, 17^th edition, published by Practitioners Publishing Company.

He is publisher emeritus of a monthly newsletter, Business Valuation Update (primarily for the professional appraisal community).

Dr. Pratt develops and teaches business valuation courses for the American Society of Appraisers and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and frequently speaks on business valuation at national legal, professional, and trade association meetings. He also developed and often teaches a full-day seminar (sometimes divided into two partial days) on business valuation for judges and lawyers.

Alina V. Niculita, CFA, MBA, is President and COO of Shannon Pratt Valuations, Inc. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a candidate for the ASA designation in business valuation. She is also a member of the CFA Institute, the American Society of Appraisers, and the Licensing Executives Society.

At Shannon Pratt Business Valuations, Ms. Niculita works on all aspects of case management including the fundamental aspects of business valuation and economic analysis and report writing. Ms. Niculita has been involved in business valuation engagements for various purposes such as transactions in company stock, estate and gift taxes, and litigation support. Ms. Niculita has also worked on valuations of intangible assets and fairness and solvency opinions. Ms. Niculita is an assistant author of Valuing a Business: The Analysis and Appraisal of Closely Held Companies, 5th edition (2008), and a co-author of Business Valuation Body of Knowledge Workbook, 2nd Edition and the Cost of Capital Workbook.

Before joining Shannon Pratt Business Valuations, Ms. Niculita was a financial editor of publications and resources for valuation professionals for Business Valuation Resources including being the managing editor of Shannon Pratt's Business Valuation Update©, BVLibrary™, and the Economic Outlook Update™.

Ms. Niculita received a dual MBA in finance from the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh and from the Czech Management Center, Czech Republic. She also received a B.S. in economics with a concentration in banking and finance from the Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania.

Angelina McKedy, is a senior analyst for Shannon Pratt Valuations, Inc. She has assisted in performing valuation assignments for litigation support and dispute resolution (including dissenting stockholder suits and marital dissolution cases), solvency opinions, and fairness opinions. In addition to her business valuations work, she also provides stock portfolio management. Ms. McKedy worked as a financial research analyst for Business Valuation Resources, where she was the project manager for the BVPapers® database, compiled statistical data for the Economic Outlook Update®, and wrote numerous abstracts on current and relevant business valuation books and articles for Shannon Pratt's Business Valuation Update.® She has contributed to many of Shannon Pratt's books, most recently to Valuing a Business: The Analysis and Appraisal of Closely Held Companies, 5th edition (2008), and regularly contributes to Guide to Business Valuations. She holds a Bachelor of Science, Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance, Portland State University and is a Candidate Member of the American Society of Appraisers.

Kimberly Linebarger, is a Financial Analyst with Shannon Pratt Valuations, Inc. She is a contributing author in Valuing a Business: The Analysis and Appraisal of Closely Held Companies, 5th edition (2008). She assisted in researching and editing of Cost of Capital: Applications and Examples, Third Edition (2008) and PPC's Guide to Business Valuations, Eighteenth Edition (2008). She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with an emphasis in Finance, from Portland State University.

Noah J. Gordon, Esq., is Legal Counsel for Shannon Pratt Valuations, Inc., where he is regularly involved with business valuations. He was the Associate Editor of Shannon Pratt's Business Valuation Update,® Economic Outlook Update,™ and BV Q&A Update™ for Business Valuation Resources. Mr. Gordon also was an Executive Editor with Wolters Kluwer/Aspen Publishers and a Managing Editor with Prentice Hall in those publishers' legal publications divisions. He has served as a contributing author and editor of several legal treatises and publications, and regularly contributes to various business valuation publications. Most recently, he has contributed to Valuing a Business: The Analysis and Appraisal of Closely Held Companies, 5th edition (2008), Guide to Business Valuations, 17th edition (2007), Standards of Value (2006), and the second edition of The Market Approach to Valuing a Business (2005). He also maintains a freelance editorial business. Mr. Gordon is admitted to the bars of Oregon, New York, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and the United States Supreme Court. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Arts in French Literature from Haverford College, and a Juris Doctor from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

Frances (Xudong) Fan, is a financial analyst at Shannon Pratt Valuations, Inc. She passed the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level I test and is a member of the American Society of Appraisers.

At Shannon Pratt Valuations, Ms. Fan works on the essential aspects of business valuation, such as economic analysis, financial statement analysis, discount rate development and report writing. She also assisted in researching, editing and contributing The Lawyer's Business Valuation Handbook: Understanding Financial Statements, Appraisal Reports and Expert Testimony, 2nd Edition, and Business Valuation Discounts and Premiums, 2nd Edition.

Ms. Fan holds a MBA with an emphasis in Finance from Portland State University, and a M.S. with major in Material Science and Engineering from Tsinghua University, China. She also received a B.S. with double major in Material Science and Computer Science from Zhejiang University, China.