CAPVAL, LLC - Key Persons
Barry A. Baker joined CapVal-ABA in 2010 and specializes in the valuation of technology companies, rapidly-growing companies, closely-held businesses, professional practices, and intangible assets. His practice includes valuations required for corporate transactions (M&A, spin-offs, transition planning, buy-sell agreements), litigation support (business disputes, economic losses, matrimonial dissolution), and financial reporting and tax compliance (equity based compensation, purchase price allocations, derivatives, gift & estate tax).
Prior to joining CapVal-ABA, Barry founded The Cobble Hill Group LLC, which provides research-driven, outsourced business development services to private equity groups and their portfolio companies. He also co-founded American Home Centers Corporation, a $75 million in revenue, private-equity backed consolidator/roll-up of manufactured home dealerships.
Prior to relocating to North Carolina in 1999, Barry was an investment banker based in New York. He began his career with Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. (now part of UBS), where he provided M&A, corporate finance and financial advisory services to a client base of multinational corporations. He left Dillon Read to join a brokerage firm where he co-founded a corporate finance department that served emerging growth and middle market companies primarily in the healthcare, information technology, environmental, and consumer product and service industries.
Barry received a B.S. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business. He is a member of the CFA Institute and American Society of Appraisers which have awarded him, respectively, the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) designations. Barry is also a member of the Association for Corporate Growth and the Alliance of M&A Advisors.
James B. Lurie is a founding Member of CapVal-ABA and, after his formal retirement in 2013, he remains with the firm as Managing Member Emeritus. His current responsibilities include quality review of appraisals for accounting compliance, tax compliance, and litigation support. While he has worked with domestic and international clients in many industries, Jim has special background and knowledge in technology, retail and wholesale distribution, manufacturing, real estate, and hospitality.
Jim is a qualified arbitrator, and he has been a member of the Commercial Panel of the American Arbitration Association for many years; he has been trained as a mediator and served as a mediator for the United States Bankruptcy Court - Delaware.
Jim is a 1968 graduate of Michigan State University (Honors College) and earned a Masters Degree in Industrial Management from the University of North Dakota while on active duty in the Air Force. Jim is active with SCORE (formerly the Service Corps of Retired Executives).
Mark Dayman and Jim Lurie, both founders of the firm, formed an accounting and consulting corporation in the early 1990's in Vermont with a focus on business appraisal and litigation support. Kathleen Sliter, another founder of the firm, pursued her career in Big-4 accounting, the Federal Reserve Bank, and other large financial and industrial corporations in Atlanta, Georgia and Houston, Texas and completed the AICPA's business valuation training in 1999. In 2000, Mark accepted the position of Chief Financial Officer for a multi-million dollar hotel franchise in Atlanta, while Jim became director of valuation services for a large regional CPA firm in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Kathleen turned her focus to a sole professional practice.
In 2003 Kathleen and Jim collaborated on a North Carolina business valuation engagement and recognizing a need for independently-obtained business valuations by dedicated, credentialed business appraisers, Jim, Mark and Kathleen formed CapVal, LLC in 2005. Beginning in 2009, CapVal expanded its professional team and in 2010, recognizing its strong ties with American Business Appraisers, a premier national organization, we changed the firm's name to CapVal-American Business Appraisers, LLC.
Marta B. Jacobus has been with CapVal-ABA since 2010, specializing in valuations and forensic accounting. In the valuation arena, Marta concentrates on shareholder buyouts and disputes, tax-driven valuations, and gift and estate appraisals. Her practice also includes valuations for equitable distribution and ESOPs, In the forensic arena, her practice includes analysis and reconstruction of accounting records, investigations of employee theft, and business damage analysis.
Prior to joining CapVal-ABA, Marta served as CFO of a privately-held manufacturer based in North Carolina. Before joining private industry, she was a Supervisor in the Business Management Services Department of Lowrimore, Warwick & Co., CPA's (now RSM McGladrey).
She received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and is a graduate of the Executive Management Program, School of Business Administration, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.