Overview

Cogent Valuation is comprised of professionals with strong corporate finance backgrounds that are all engaged in the full time valuation of businesses and business interests.  Most of its professionals are either Accredited Senior Appraisers with the American Society of Appraisers (ASAs) or Chartered Financial Analyst charter holders (CFAs).  Its Managing Directors have an average of over 30 years of valuation experience (and an average of 20 years with their respective Cogent Valuation offices).

Click on one of our professional's names to view their bio.



Glenn Garlick

Managing Director
Glenn Garlick, Managing Director, Orange County
Glenn Garlick, Managing Director, Orange County

Glenn Garlick is a Managing Director at Cogent Valuation and currently manages its Orange County Office. Providing business valuation and related financial advisory services full-time since 1982, he has managed over 1,000 valuation engagements involving companies ranging in size from small closely held companies with under $1 million in revenue to multinational, publicly traded companies with revenues in the tens of billions. The purposes for such engagements include mergers and acquisitions (including fairness and solvency opinions), corporate restructuring, leveraged buyouts, equity investments in early stage companies, estate and tax planning, employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) transactions, financial reporting and compliance, and litigation support.

Mr. Garlick has performed valuation services for companies in virtually all major industries including aerospace, energy, computer hardware and software, biotechnology, internet, professional services, financial services, apparel, food and beverage, consumer products, retail, wholesale, and miscellaneous manufacturing industries. Mr. Garlick has extensive experience in corporate transactions, including resolving highly complicated securities design and equity allocation issues. He has also dealt with the Internal Revenue Service on valuation matters for income, gift and estate tax purposes. He has provided expert testimony in various courts in California and Utah as well as providing testimony before members of the American Arbitration Association.

Mr. Garlick holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and an M.B.A. with an emphasis in finance from California State University, Northridge. He is an Accredited Senior Appraiser with the American Society of Appraisers in Business Valuation and has written and spoken extensively regarding valuation issues, often for MCLE or CPA credit. From 1982 to 1991, Mr. Garlick provided business valuation and financial advisory services with Houlihan Lokey Howard and Zukin, serving as an officer the last four years.

Steven D. Kam - ASA

Managing Director
Steven D. Kam, ASA, Managing Director, San Francisco
Steven D. Kam, ASA, Managing Director, San Francisco

Steven D. Kam is a Managing Director in the San Francisco office of Cogent Valuation. Mr. Kam has been performing valuations, structuring securities, and recapitalizing privately owned companies for corporate finance, ESOP, estate planning and tax purposes since 1980. Over the last 20 years he has originated and processed a wide variety of corporate transactions and financial advisory assignments for Fortune 500, middle-market, and small companies. The financings have included leveraged buy-outs, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, public offerings, exchange offers, and private placements. The advisory engagements have been provided to ascertain fairness, solvency, recapitalizations, equity allocation, pricing, economic feasibility, credit analysis and enhancement.

Mr. Kam was an instructor for the California society of CPAs continuing education course on the Valuation of Businesses, teaching the class throughout California and in Oregon and Washington from 1986-1989. He has spoken at the American Society of Appraisers International Conference, the San Francisco, Portland, East King County (Washington), and Tacoma Estate Planning Councils; The Tax Section of the California, Oregon and San Francisco Bar Associations; The Southern California Tax and Estate Planning Forum; The San Francisco Financial Analysts Society; and the California Probate Referees Association, regarding valuation, partnerships, freezes, 2036c, Chapter 14 and the use of securities in accomplishing estate planning goals. His testimony experience includes: Tax Court, San Francisco Superior Court, arbitrations, and mediations.

Mr. Kam co-authored a paper, The Market Pricing of Syndicated LPs And The Valuation of FLPs, published in the February 1996 issue of Trusts and Estates that presents the results of two studies of pricing in the secondary market for syndicated limited partnerships and the implications for the valuation of private and family limited partnerships. Additionally, he co-authored an eighteen-month study and the related article, The Pricing of Successful Venture Capital-Backed High-Tech and Life-Sciences Companies, published in the September 1998 issue of the Journal of Business Venturing and the Spring issue of the Journal of Private Equity.

Previously, he was with Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, where he originated and processed the full complement of the firm's advisory and transactional services to public and private companies. His early career includes merchant banking activities at Banque Paribas, corporate finance projects and transactions at Sutro & Co. and financial opinions at Underwood Neuhaus & Co. in Houston. Mr. Kam is an Accredited Senior Appraiser with the American Society of Appraisers in Business Valuation. He is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Estate Planning Council, a Resource Member of the Keiretsu Forum, and an Advisor to Inner City Advisors. He has an M.B.A. from the University of Houston and a B.B.A. from Florida Atlantic University.

Steven D. Kam is an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA), American Society of Appraisers

Steven Kam Credentials and Publications

 

Bret A. Tack - ASA

Managing Director
Bret Tack, ASA, Managing Director, Los Angeles
Bret Tack, ASA, Managing Director, Los Angeles

Bret Tack is a Managing Director at Cogent Valuation, and currently manages its Los Angeles Office. Providing business valuation and related financial advisory services full-time since 1985, he has managed over 1,000 valuation engagements involving companies ranging in size from small closely held companies to multinational, publicly traded companies with revenues in the tens of billions.

The purposes for such engagements include mergers and acquisitions (including fairness and solvency opinions), corporate restructuring, leveraged buyouts, equity investments in early stage companies, estate and tax planning, employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) transactions, financial reporting and compliance, and litigation support.

Mr. Tack has valued companies in virtually all major industries and has particular expertise in the aerospace, restaurant, medical device, entertainment, printing, retail, wholesale, computer hardware and software, internet, information and market research, professional services, financial services, real estate development and syndication, apparel, food and beverage, consumer products and miscellaneous manufacturing industries. In addition, he has either valued or determined the appropriate royalty rate for various intellectual property assets, including patents, trademarks, music rights, film rights, and software.

Mr. Tack has extensive experience in corporate transactions, including resolving highly complicated securities design and equity allocation issues. He has also dealt with the Internal Revenue Service on dozens of valuation matters for income, gift and estate tax purposes with overwhelmingly positive results. He has provided expert testimony in various courts, including United States Tax Court.

Mr. Tack holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and is an Accredited Senior Appraiser with the American Society of Appraisers in Business Valuation. He has written and spoken extensively regarding valuation issues, often for MCLE or CPA credit. He was with Houlihan Lokey Howard and Zukin from 1985 to 1992.

Bret Tack is an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA), American Society of Appraisers.

Lisa M. Miller

Vice President
Lisa M. Miller, Vice President, Los Angeles
Lisa M. Miller, Vice President, Los Angeles

Lisa Miller is a Vice President at Cogent Valuation in the Los Angeles Office. She joined the firm in 2004 and has been involved in the valuation of over 150 companies of various sizes. The primary purposes for these engagements have been estate and tax planning, employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) transactions and litigation support.

Ms. Miller has worked with companies in a wide range of industries, including food and beverage, construction, professional services, publishing, consumer products and miscellaneous manufacturing industries.

Ms. Miller holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California with a concentration in Corporate Finance. Ms. Miller is also a CFA Level III Candidate.