Aswath Damodaran, MBA, Ph.D., (New York University)

Aswath Damodaran is Professor of Finance and David Margolis Teaching Fellow at the Stern School of Business at New York University.  He teaches the corporate finance and equity valuation courses in the MBA program. He received his MBA and Ph.D from the University of California at Los Angeles. His research interests lie in valuation, portfolio management and applied corporate finance. He has published in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics and the Review of Financial Studies.

He has written three books on equity valuation (Damodaran on Valuation, Investment Valuation, The Dark Side of Valuation) and two on corporate finance (Corporate Finance: Theory and Practice, Applied Corporate Finance: A User’s Manual). He has co-edited a book on investment management with Peter Bernstein (Investment Management) and has a book on investment philosophies (Investment Philosophies).  His newest book on portfolio management is titled Investment Fables and was released in 2004. His latest book is on the relationship between risk and  value, and  takes a big picture view of how businesses should deal with risk, and was published in 2007.

He was a visiting lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1984 to 1986, where he received the Earl Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award in 1985. He has been at NYU since 1986, received the Stern School of Business Excellence in Teaching Award (awarded by the graduating class) in 1988, 1991, 1992, 1999, 2001, 2007 and 2008, and was the youngest winner of the University-wide Distinguished Teaching Award (in 1990). He was profiled in Business Week as one of the top twelve business school professors in the United States in 1994.

Tony Aaron, CPA, ASA (Ernst & Young), Moderator

Tony Aaron is a principal and serves as Americas Leader of Quality and Risk Management for the Ernst & Young Transaction Advisory Services’ Valuation and Business Modeling Practice.  He also serves numerous clients nationwide, including many major Fortune 100 and global accounts.

In his role as QRM Leader, Tony acts as a key liaison between Ernst & Young’s  National  Accounting and Advisory Business Services Professional Practice Group and National Valuation Practice.  He has served on the In-Process Research and Development Task Force of the AICPA/SEC Regulations Committee and the Appraisal and Valuation Task Force of the Independence Standards Board.  Tony is often consulted by client engagement teams around the country when a valuation matter relating to financial accounting arises as part of interactions between the SEC and a public registrant.  He has provided assistance, including direct consultations with the SEC staff, to resolve questions regarding valuation models, methodology, theory, assumptions and conclusions.

As a major account executive, Tony oversees teams engaged in performing valuation and business modeling services for a myriad of purposes, including financial accounting, tax strategy and compliance, bankruptcy and corporate reorganization, litigation matters, strategic advisory and mergers and acquisitions.  These projects involve valuing businesses, tangible and intangible assets as well as providing valuation education and advice, including reviews of valuations performed by company managers and other third party advisors.

From an industry prospective, Tony has had significant involvement in a number of sectors including Aerospace & Defense, Media, Entertainment and Sports Entertainment, Technology and Life Sciences.

Tony began his career in 1981 as Director of Research for a West Coast based investment advisory firm.  In 1985, he joined Ernst & Young’s predecessor Firm, Arthur Young & Co. in the Valuation Services Group, where he continues to practice today in what is now the Ernst & Young Transaction Advisory Services’ Valuation and Business Modeling Group.

Neil Beaton, CPA/ABV, ASA (Grant Thornton)

As Partner in Charge of Grant Thornton LLP’s Valuation Services Group, 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.

Prior to joining Grant Thornton LLP, Mr. Beaton was a Partner and shareholder at Brueggeman and Johnson, P.C., an independent valuation and litigation support firm. He was also a National Business Analyst with Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, where he was responsible for analyzing large, publicly traded corporations and assisting in large-scale credit decisions. He specialized in the banking, insurance and financial services industries.

Mr. Beaton holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from National University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from Stanford University. He has also completed specific coursework covering the financial analysis of banks and insurance companies and numerous continuing education classes in the areas of accounting, taxation and business valuation. In addition, he has completed the American Society of Appraisers’ Business Valuation Courses, Levels I–IV.

David Dufendach, CPA/ABV (Grant Thornton)

As an Executive Director with Grant Thornton LLP, Mr. Dufendach specializes in the valuation of closely-held businesses, intangible assets, intellectual property, financial instruments, derivatives, and related matters for purposes of financial statement reporting, litigation support, corporate planning, acquisitions, sales, buy-sell agreements, income taxes, and estate planning and taxation.

Prior to joining Grant Thornton LLP, Mr. Dufendach was a Senior Manager at a boutique valuation and litigation support firm in Seattle.  At Brantley Janson Yost & Ellison, he directed firm activities related to business consulting services; developed its business valuation practice, with a primary emphasis on estates/gifts; managed a variety of accounting and audit client relationships; and co-directed the design and implementation of firm-wide quality control policies.

At Security Pacific Bank, Mr. Dufendach managed a loan portfolio consisting of large private and publicly-traded companies, primarily in the forest products industry; evaluated credit risk, and structured and negotiated credit agreements.  Formal training included interest rate swaps, ESOP loan structure, and various corporate finance topics.  At Norwest Bank he co-managed a loan portfolio consisting of large private and publicly-traded companies in the airline, radio-TV broadcasting, and wholesaling industries.

Mr. Dufendach holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Business Administration from the University of Washington.

Lyn Graham, CPA, MBA, Ph.D.

Lynford Graham is a Certified Public Accountant with more than 25 years of public accounting experience in audit practice and in national policy development groups. He is currently a consultant on professional accounting and auditing matters and an author.

He is a major contributor to the development of the new software product ControlsDoc—for Documenting and Assessing Internal Controls designed to capture the required controls documentation and assist companies and auditors in assessing the effectiveness of controls design and/or effectiveness for all five components of the COSO Internal Controls framework.

Dr. Graham is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and a recent past member of the Auditing Standards Board. He chaired the AICPA’s Audit Risk Guide Task Force ("Assessing and Responding to Audit Risk in a Financial Statement Audit") and was the U.S. representative to the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) Materiality Task Force (ISA 320 and 450). He previously served as a member of the AICPA’s Materiality and Audit Risk Task Force (SAS 47); was a founding member of the AICPA’s Information Technology Section, serving on its Executive Committee; and was a member of the AICPA’s Statistical Sampling Subcommittee during the development of SAS 39 on Audit Sampling. He drafted the 2007 revision of the AICPA Audit Guide, Audit Sampling. Previously he chaired the Educator-Practitioner Case Development Task Force for the annual AICPA Education Conference and served on the Executive Committee of the Pre-Certification Education Committee.

He is a former partner and the national director of audit policy for BDO Seidman, LLP. There Dr. Graham was responsible for the development and implementation of audit policy and software, as well as Assurance Services Learning and Education programs, and was the firm’s sampling coordinator. He served on several international BDO Seidman task forces developing audit software, audit methodology, sampling approaches, and audit automation techniques. Dr. Graham was responsible for BDO Seidman’s implementationof audits of internal control under PCAOB AS 2 and participated with professional groups in developing industry-wide guidance on audits of internal control. Prior to joining BDO Seidman LLP, Dr. Graham was an associate professor of accounting and information systems and a graduate faculty fellow at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, where he taught primarily financial accounting courses. Prior to joining Rutgers, he was a national accounting & SEC consulting partner for Coopers & Lybrand, responsible for their technical issues research function and database, auditing research, and sampling techniques.

CPE Credit Information

Earn 3 Interactive CPE Credits (Consulting Services)
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