Richard C. Berning CPA/ABV, CBA, CVA, CFF, CMA

Mr. Berning is a founding shareholder of the firm of Berning & Heidebrecht, Ltd., a firm located in Medina, Minnesota and dedicated exclusively to providing business valuation and litigation support services.  His credentials include being a CPA, Accredited in Business Valuations (ABV), a Certified Business Appraiser (CBA), a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA), Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF) and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).  The Firm has been involved in hundreds of business valuations for many purposes, involving companies from start-ups to those with revenues over $1 billion.  Mr. Berning is active in many organizations and is currently the president of the Minnesota chapter of NACVA.  He is a frequent speaker locally and nationally on business valuation and litigation related topics.  He often acts as a court-appointed neutral expert and has provided expert witness testimony on more than a hundred occasions.

Shelley A. Brown, MBA, CPA/ABV, CVA

Shelley Brown is the Director of Forensic and Valuation Services for Sax Macy Fromm & Co., PC (SMF) and has more than 10 years of experience providing business consulting services to the legal community on fraud investigation, marital dissolution, shareholder disputes, white collar crime, and other legal matters.  Shelley has been certified as an expert witness in Morris, Hudson, Passaic, Essex, and Middlesex counties, serves as a joint expert witness in various litigation consulting matters, and has been court appointed in matrimonial matters to perform business valuations in Union, Hudson, and Morris counties.

In addition, Shelley provides business valuation consulting services for litigation, and has prepared business valuation reports for estate tax purposes, matrimonial dissolution, shareholder derivative suits, bankruptcy litigation, and buy/sell agreements. Her experience includes the restaurant, medical, construction, manufacturing, professional service, printing, distribution, collision repair, auto lift, home-health care, real-estate franchise, title, and lobbying industries. Shelley is also an adjunct accounting professor at Rutgers University and has been published in the National Litigation Consultants Review.  In June of 2007 and 2008, Shelley served as co-chair of the academic track for the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts’ annual conference.  In 2009, she will be serving on the valuation track for that conference.  She was recently elected to the Association’s Valuation Credentialing Board.  

She is a frequent speaker on forensic and business valuation matters and has addressed The New Jersey Family Bar, New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, The Hispanic Bar Association, The National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts, The New Jersey Council on Economic Education, The New Jersey Center for Consumer Education Services, The Essex County Chapter of the New Jersey State Society of Certified Public Accountants, The New Jersey Association of  Women Business Owners, and the Displaced Homemakers Association of America.

Shelley is a member of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts, the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Jerry Love, CPA, CVA, ABV, PFS, CFP

Davis Kinard is a regional certified public accounting firm with nine partners and approximately 60 employees, DK is the largest CPA firm in Abilene, Texas.  Jerry has extensive experience in a variety of litigation support and business valuation services.  Additionally, he has client responsibilities that include tax preparation, personal financial planning, financial reporting, auditing, peer review and strategic planning for other CPA firms. He is a frequent speaker & trainer not only for CPAs and also for non-profit organizations of all sizes in areas of board training, board responsibilities, strategic planning and fund raising.  He is currently serving on the NACVA Ethics Oversight Board, the Case Study grading team as well as the Current Update in Valuations team.

Summary of Professional Involvements
Texas Society of CPAs – Chairman 2006/2007
CPA Magazine named Jerry as one of Top 100 Most Influential Practitioners in the country for 2006.
Texas Society of CPAs - Distinguished Public Service 1999-2000   

Over the past 30 years has served as President or Chairman of 12 nonprofit organizations having served multiple terms for several of them. In addition to these roles he has served on over 45 other nonprofit organizations boards in a variety of offices and roles.      

Lyn Reagan, CVA, CFFA, ABV,

Lyn is a Certified Valuation Analyst and a Certified Forensic Financial Analyst.  Through the American Institute of Public Accountants (AICPA) she is accredited in business valuation (ABV) and is certified in Financial Forensics.  She is the former Chairman of the DFK International/USA Valuation/Litigation Support committee, a former member of the Georgia Society of CPAs Valuation and Litigation Services Section Content Team and a member of the Collaborative Law Center of Atlanta. Ms. Reagan has rendered services in over one hundred litigation matters, including business litigation, marital dissolution, loss of earnings and partner and shareholder disputes. She has been qualified as an expert and testified in court and in depositions over fifty times.
Lyn graduated with honors from the University of Oklahoma and received her Masters of Professional Accountancy from Georgia State University. Lyn has lectured at state and local conferences on business valuations and litigation support, including the Family Business Academy, Kennesaw State University and State of Georgia Annual Family Law Institute.

Before taking up a career in accounting, Lyn worked in both government and industry. She worked for the Agency for International Development in the United States State Department from 1965-1966; she handled scheduling and appointments for the President in the White House from 1966-1968; and she served as Assistant to the Postmaster General from 1968-1969. She assisted in the presidential transition from Lyndon Johnson to Richard Nixon. After leaving the U.S. Government in 1969, she served as Assistant to the President of Occidental International Corporation and Assistant to Armand Hammer, Chairman of the Board of Occidental Petroleum Corporation.

Lyn is a member of the Georgia Society of CPAs, the AICPA, the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts, the Atlanta Estate Planning Council, and is on the Advisory Board of Visions Anew. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Margaret Mitchell House, a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of SAFE Kids of Georgia, a member of the Board of Governors of the Ravinia Club and Chairman of the Ambassadors Council, and a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of Patient School, Inc. She has also served as a member of the Board of Governors and Treasurer of the Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School Scholarship Foundation and Treasurer of the Swan House Ball Committee.

CP “Salty” Schumann, CPA, CVA, CFFA

C. P. “Salty” Schumann is a graduate of the Business Honors Program from the University of Texas at Austin.  He is the managing director and founder of his firm, which offers both traditional accounting services and the non-traditional services of business valuation, litigation, and fraud in San Antonio, Texas; both on a local and national level.  He is a nationally known speaker and publisher of various articles in the areas in which the firm practices.  The firm’s website at www.cpschumannco.com is considered one of the industry’s best.  He holds both the Certified Valuation Analyst and the Certified Forensic Financial Analyst designations from the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts (N.A.C.V.A.).  He has served on the Litigation Forensic Board of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts and was chair of the Standards Committee for a number of years.  He was past chair of the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants Litigation Member Services Section.  He was also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Litigation Support & Dispute Resolution Sub Committee, as well as the A.I.C.P.A. National Litigation Conference Planning Committee.

Mr. Schumann has been active in the standards area of the business valuation industry rewriting the N.A.C.V.A. Standards twice and participating in establishing the ground work for business valuation standards for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants as a representative of the Litigation Committee to the National Business Valuation Committee. 

Mr. Schumann has 28 years experience with commercial business damages and has performed previous valuation and litigation engagements to include the following:

Prior litigation support engagements including expert witness testimony and consultation on business valuations, insurance defense, lost earnings, economic damages, construction delay damages, wrongful termination and death, taxation including estate and gift, general business, fraud, fiduciary, divorce, breach of contract, tort, professional malpractice, covenant not to compete, professional goodwill, embezzlement, age discrimination, usury, conflict of interest, estate and gift, shareholder derivative, qualification of the expert witness (Daubert), dissenting shareholder, buy-sell, employee stock options, and grantor retained annuity trust.

Thomas J. Taricani, CPA/ABV, CVA

Tom is a partner of a regional CPA firm where practice concentrates on business clients in a variety of industries and on needs of the entrepreneur.  Involved in most aspects of clients income tax and estate planning including preparation of income tax returns and other related areas of consultation.  Also involved in accounting and auditing functions for closely held businesses.  Specializations include formulation and implementation of succession and estate plans and preparation of business valuations of closely held businesses for use in succession and estate planning and various litigation.  Frequent lecturer on estate and succession planning and business valuation topics.  Much of work is focused on continuity of entrepreneur businesses and wealth management of high net worth individuals and families.

Frank Wisehart CPA, ABV, CVA, CFE

Frank Wisehart is President of Wisehart & Wisehart, Inc., a CPA firm specializing in business valuations, litigation support and forensic accounting.  Based in Columbus, Ohio the firm recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary, performing work both in state and across the country.  Frank has testified as an expert witness in both federal and state courts, offering expertise on a wide range of cases including bankruptcy, fraud, divorce and lost profit valuations.  Prior to becoming president of Wisehart & Wisehart, Frank held several prominent positions in the finance field including IT Auditor for Ernst & Young, controller for Foremost Computer Systems and Newtowne, Inc., Vice President and Treasurer of Colony Development Corporation.

Frank has served as an instructor for the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts, teaching Economic Losses, the Market Method Business Valuation Approach, the Fundamentals of Litigation Consulting and Applying Business Valuation Premiums and Discounts classes for the organization.  Frank received the honor of “Instructor of Great Distinction” every year from 2004 to 2007 for his service to NACVA. 

Frank also serves as member of professional ethics committees including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) where he reviews complaints referred to the committee throughout the United States concerning the unethical behavior or below standard work product of CPAs.  These cases involve auditing, business valuation, forensic accounting, and litigation support complaints.  Another ethics committee on which Frank serves is the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants (OSCPA) Ethics Committee.  As a member of the OSCPA Ethics Committee, he reviews written complaints about CPAs in Ohio about the ethical behavior of members of the Ohio Society of CPAs.  These cases usually involve issues of independence, behavior or technical standard violation issues.

David N. Wood, CPA/ABV, CVA

Mr. David Wood is the developer of MUM’s The Word,TM a computer model that allocates personal and enterprise goodwill.  The Multiattribute Utility Model, known as the MUM method, was recently upheld in a case before the Illinois Appellate Court for the 5th District. 
The method is based on Mr. Wood’s article on the subject first published in 2004 in the American Journal of Family Law.  The MUM method tackles this allocation now required in family valuation cases in about 30 states, known as “no double-counting” states.
Mr. Wood is the chairman of the Editorial Board of The Value Examiner and served as the technical editor on BVR’s Guide to Personal v. Enterprise Goodwill.  Mr. Wood is the author of several publications as follows:
"An Allocation Model for Distinguishing Enterprise Goodwill from Personal Goodwill," Volume 19, Number 3 (Fall 2004) of the American Journal of Family Law, Aspen Publications. 
“An Unwilling Seller - Is There Such a Thing?  Fair Market Value, Goodwill, and an Unwilling Seller: Is a Covenant-not-to-Compete Required?”  May/June 2005 edition of The Value Examiner, a publication of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts.
“Allocating Personal and Enterprise Goodwill Values in Divorce and the Role of the Covenant-not-to-Compete,”  Chapter in the 2006 Supplement to Valuing Professional Practices and Licenses – A Guide for the Matrimonial  Practitioner, Third Edition, Edited by Ronald L. Brown, Aspen Publications.
“Goodwill Attributes: Assessing Utility,” Jan/Feb 2007 edition of The Value Examiner, a publication of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts.
“MUM’s The WordTM: How the Multiattribute Utility Model Works,” Jan/Feb 2007 edition of The Value Examiner, a publication of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts. “MUM’s the WordTM A Formal Method to Allocate Blue Sky Value in Divorce, Business Valuation Update, a publication of BVResources, Vol.13 No. 3, March 2007.
“Introduction to Buy-Sell Valuation War Stories,” excerpts from Buy-Sell Agreements: Ticking Time Bombs or Reasonable Resolutions?  by Z. Christopher Mercer, ASA, CFA, Mar/April 2007 edition of The Value Examiner, a publication of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts.

Mr. Wood is an Accredited Business Valuator and Certified Valuation Analyst and the founder of Wood Forensic/Valuation Services located in Vernon, Illinois.  He performs forensic accounting services involving investigations of fraud, embezzlement, valuations of businesses and other complex financial matters. 

ValuSource Software, Inc. based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is marketing Mr. Wood’s software.  The software was released nationally in February, 2007 and is available on-line at www.valusourcesoftware.com.