Valuations

Matt Cohen oversees Tiger’s entire Retail and E-Commerce valuation practices, including managing the analysts, appraisers and writers working on all aspects of retail appraisals. He is responsible for the quantitative analysis that serves as the basis of Tiger’s retail appraisal reports, as well as interacting with both our clients and the transaction teams in support of the valuation process.

The valuation methodology of Cohen’s group combines a meticulous review of financial data to understand inventory mix, sales performance, margins, turnover, discounting activity, and operating expenses. His group then uses this data to conduct comparative analyses and detailed assessments of current metrics in comparison to those provided in past appraisals.

In the past year, Tiger appraised over $20 billion in retail inventories, leveraging $1 billion in annual retail (liquidation) sales.

Cohen came to Tiger in 2012 as a Financial Analyst and was promoted to Manager of Financial Analysis, then Director.

He received his BS in Finance from Syracuse University.

Mark DiCenso is the Director for Tiger’s Wholesale Industrial group, overseeing and specializing in the valuation of a wide variety of industrial goods as part of Tiger’s larger asset appraisal portfolio.

DiCenso previously managed Tiger’s team of consumer goods analysts, where he was responsible for all project scheduling and planning on behalf of the group.

His group is responsible for the analysis of data using an ‘orderly liquidation’ model to determine asset values if a wholesale liquidation were to occur.

In addition to data compiled from on-site visits and management interviews, his group leverages the results of Tiger’s wholesale disposition practice, which conducts $100 million in annual transactions.

Before joining Tiger, DiCenso was a Pricing Specialist at State Street Corporation and a Research Analyst at Technology Business Research, Inc.

He received his BS in Finance from the University of New Hampshire.

Peter Donahue is the Director for Tiger’s Consumer Goods wholesale appraisal division. He oversees Tiger’s team of Consumer Goods Appraisers and Analysts, employing years of data analysis expertise to ensure the most accurate valuation of all client inventories in this category.

Prior to becoming Associate Director, Donahue was a Manager of Financial Analysis and Senior Analyst focused on build financial models to determine the value of assets in a liquidation scenario – both on behalf of ABL lenders or as a point of reference for mergers and acquisitions. Since joining Tiger in 2015, Donahue has focused on consumer goods, with a particular emphasis on consumer electronics inventories.

Before joining Tiger’s Boston office, Donahue was an intern at Federated Investors. There he worked on the Absolute Returns Mutual Fund, valuing IPOs as they hit the market and assisting the portfolio manager in valuing different equities. He received his BA in Economics and Philosophy from Boston College, graduating in 2015.

Bryan Seeley is a 35-year veteran of the industrial asset appraisal industry. At Tiger, he manages the M&E Valuation Group and supports the North American operations and business development teams through the production and delivery of comprehensive machinery and equipment appraisals.

Seeley’s career began in 1989 with Daley-Hodkin’s liquidation practice. He then moved into their appraisal company in 1995. Since then he has managed complex machinery and equipment appraisals in various industries, including printing, converting, packaging, pharmaceuticals, textiles, plastics, woodworking, metalworking, food processing and healthcare.

He has also been involved in all phases of the liquidation process. All told, Seeley has supervised over 1,000 appraisals, with total assets valued in excess of $1.5 billion.

Seeley attended Hofstra University and has completed the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice course administered by the American Society of Appraisers.

He is a member of the Turnaround Management Association, a Candidate Member of the American Society of Appraisers and has testified as an expert witness in several bankruptcy proceedings.

Leslie Duffy is a Senior Appraiser of Consumer Goods for Tiger Valuation Services. She is responsible for managing Tiger’s internal team of executives, analysts, and writers, and works closely with management of the appraised company and ABL client in developing the liquidation model upon which NOLV is based. She is based out of Tiger’s Los Angeles office.

Duffy holds 15 years of analysis, brokerage, underwriting, trading, and team leadership experience throughout her career. Just prior to joining Tiger, she worked in Sales Management for CBRE, where she innovated an internal consulting position and built processes to provide targeted business strategies across multiple industries. Before CBRE, she served as a Client Support Manger for Meridian Finance Group protecting international and domestic accounts receivable through risk mitigation tools. She has also served as an underwriter at FirstComp Insurance Company.

Duffy earned her master’s degree in International Management from the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego, and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

An accomplished finance professional with over 15 years of industry experience, Jarid Henley brings expertise in financial analysis, asset valuation, project management, client relationships and risk management to Tiger’s valuation partners.

Henley began his career supervising accounting teams, first at State Street Bank in Boston, then at Brown Brothers Harriman, also in Boston.

While at Brown Brothers, he was assigned as the Accounting Lead on the PIMCO account and, subsequently, as a Business Analyst in their Wealth Management division. In 2013 he was named an Associate, Risk Analyst, in which he oversaw compliance for the company’s major accounts.

At Tiger, Henley lends his expertise in commodities such as metals, polymers, chemicals and energy assets to our appraisal practice.

He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and holds a Six Sigma Green Belt certification.

Henley holds a Bachelor’s in Finance from Roger Williams University and a Master’s of Business Administration from Boston University.

With over 12 years of financial services experience, Ryan Taylor brings expertise in financial analysis, risk management, valuation, and relationship management to Tiger’s valuation practice.

At Tiger, Taylor manages all aspects of preparing valuation reports – from acting as the key liaison to the appraised company to conducting management interviews, inspecting properties and inventories, reviewing financials, and developing liquidation strategies in support of determining NOLV.

Before joining Tiger, Taylor was an Institutional Sales Trader with Longbow Research where he advised hedge funds and institutional money managers on trade execution strategies and leveraged the firm’s proprietary research product to generate investment ideas for his clients.

Prior to Longbow Research, he served as a Trader and Analyst for National City Bank’s Private Client Group, where he was charged with trade execution of equity, fixed income, and derivative securities, financial modeling, and risk management.

He received his BS in Business Management from Florida State University.

Lucas Westreich is an Appraiser for Tiger Valuation Services with over 18 years of experience in financial modeling and risk management for asset-backed securities portfolios. Westreich manages the efforts of Tiger’s internal team of executives, analysts and writers specializing in assessing Consumer Goods, and works closely with management of the appraised company and ABL client in developing accurate valuations.

Just prior to joining Tiger full time, Westreich was a Financial Consultant at the OCIE Small Business Development Center, where he was responsible for processing and underwriting local city loans, as well as advising clients on debt financing and other financial topics. Before that, he served as a Director of Mortgage Ratings at McGraw Hill Financial where his focus was on business development and streamlining financial projections.

Before McGraw Hill, Westreich was also a Vice President of Trading for the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he analyzed, priced, and managed the $2 billion repo portfolio in real estate markets.

Westreich began his career as the Vice President of Portfolio Management & Trading at ACA Capital in New York conducting collateral monitoring and due diligence for the firm’s asset categories. He then went on to join Credit Suisse as an Associate Vice President in Valuations.

Westreich earned his dual bachelor’s/master’s degree in Economics from Boston University.

Juliana Jerse is an Appraiser for Tiger’s wholesale appraisal practice, where she works closely with management of the appraised company and ABL client in developing accurate valuations for Consumer Goods.

Jerse comes to Tiger from Ross Stores, where she was a Buyer for over three years, managing over $25mm in annual revenue and 100+ vendor partners. Before Ross, Juliana worked for Bloomingdale’s in New York City where she rose from Assistant Buyer to Omni Associate Planner during her five-year tenure.

Jerse earned her bachelor’s degree in Fashion Merchandising from Kent State University, including studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Andrew Vibert serves as an Appraiser for the Consumer Goods asset category of Tiger’s appraisal practice, working with a team of analysts and writers to create accurate reporting for a variety of different clients in this space.

Vibert is an experienced finance and banking professional, having spent several years at Bank of America holding an array of positions. He began there as a Relationship Manager, responsible for driving revenue through the company’s client pipeline, and was eventually promoted to Financial Center Manager, where he focused on risk management and compliance for several branch locations. Just prior to joining Tiger, he held the position of Small Business Banker, serving as a strategic partner for clients looking to expand their business through lending, credit and digital solutions.

Vibert began his career as an Analyst at Karelia Health, where he gained invaluable experience working with data and helping design RFPs from prospective clients.

Vibert holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Miami Herbert School of Business.

Jon Katz is an Industrial Goods Appraiser and seasoned financial  leader specializing in mergers, acquisitions, and strategic corporate development.

Katz most recently served as an M&A and Corporate Development Specialist at IBM, where he led over $18 billion in transactions for IBM Consulting. His work spans the full M&A deal cycle, including strategic rationale, financial modeling, due diligence, acquisition integration, and stakeholder alignment.

Prior to this role, Katz served as a Client Director for IBM’s OpenPages business, managing key accounts such as Bank of America and Fidelity. He drove software adoption, guided product strategy, and managed high-impact client engagements valued at $5 million annually.

Earlier in his career, Katz was a Consulting Manager at Phase Forward (now Oracle), where he oversaw ~$20 million in SaaS revenue and led over 50 clinical trials through software-driven solutions.

Katz holds an MBA from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University at Albany, SUNY. He is also a CFA charter holder and holds certifications in AWS Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

Steven Taylor is a Senior Appraiser for Tiger Valuation Services who assists in arriving at the most accurate valuation for the Machinery and Equipment asset class. Taylor specializes in verticals ranging from construction and agriculture to plastic injection molding and scrap metal recycling, and has worked on projects across all of North America and the UK.

Before joining Tiger, Taylor was a Senior Consultant for SJT Appraisal for five years, where he was an independent subcontractor for many different valuation firms, including Tiger Group. Prior to SJT, he spent almost a decade as a Senior Appraiser for a competing appraisal firm.

Taylor received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Arlington. He is a Marshall & Swift certified appraiser and is also USPAP certified. Taylor resides in Colorado.

Taran Singh is an Appraiser specializes in the analysis of machinery and equipment assets – including manufacturing, processing, diagnostic and distribution equipment, fleets, and heavy equipment.

Singh leverages data aggregated from on-site visits to ensure Tiger appraisals reflect actual recovery values in a liquidation scenario. He also conducts comprehensive industry research and inspections of assets.

Categories of expertise include aviation, apparel, A/V, bearings, bottling/canning, food & beverage, HBA, pharmaceuticals, plastics, printing, and medical equipment.

Before coming to Tiger in 2013, he was a Machinery & Equipment Appraiser for Daley-Hodkin from 2008 to 2011.

He received his BS in Business Management from SUNY, Farmingdale.

Brennen Duhart specializes in appraising Industrial assets, employing years of data analysis expertise to ensure the most accurate valuation of all client inventories in this category.

Prior to becoming Associate Director, Duhart served as a Financial Analyst and Manager of Financial Analysis at Tiger, where he was responsible for reviewing financial data and conducting industry analysis to build financial models that determine the true, underlying value of assets in hypothetical liquidation scenarios.

Duhart received his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Pepperdine.

Laura Santoski is an Associate Director for the Wholesale Consumer Goods category of Tiger’s appraisal practice. As a seasoned financial writer and editor, she works closely with the Appraisers and oversees the Consumer Goods writing team to convey detailed concepts thoroughly in final client reports.

Prior to becoming Associate Director, Santoski was a Managing Editor of wholesale appraisals with a focus on manufacturers and distributors of industrial supplies and consumer products.

Before joining Tiger, Santoski taught LSAT preparation courses, tutored students, and held marketing events for a California-based firm. She also held administrative roles at Northwestern Mutual and the Office of Career Services at NYU’s School of Law and was the Copy Chief of the Washington Square News.

Santoski graduated from New York University in 2012 with degrees in Politics and Spanish Literature.

As an accredited senior appraiser of the American Society of Appraisers, Matthew Robison brings decades of experience to his role as Associate Director for M&E. He oversees a team of appraisers, researchers, analysts and writers dedicated to appraising Machinery and Equipment across multiple categories.

Robison is the President of MDR Appraisal Services LLC, where he has performed hundreds of industrial equipment appraisals for leading financial institutions, and also partnered with the top industrial liquidation companies in inspecting, cataloguing, and marketing assets for auction.

Prior to joining Tiger, Robison spent 10 years at a competing appraisal firm as an Associate Director in Standards and Training, as well as Vice President/Senior Appraiser. While there, he valued hundreds of millions of dollars for traditional lending institutions and private equity groups, as well as led and trained teams of employees assisting in software and business development.

Before that, he was Vice President of Auction and Appraisal Services at G-2000 Inc., where he purchased and sold millions of dollars of industrial equipment as a stocking dealer.

Robison earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing and Economics from the University of Toledo.

As part of Tiger’s appraisal practice, Manager of Financial Analysis Molly Chapin conducts valuations for Retail/E-Commerce companies and their assets.

Prior to managing, Chapin served as an Analyst on Tiger’s Retail Analyst team. Before joining Tiger, she served as a Client Solutions intern at FactSet Research Systems in Boston, where she trained in coding and FactSet’s proprietary platform.

Chapin also demonstrated her skills in financial modeling and analysis as a business student by finishing runner-up in the highly selective Chartered Finance Analyst Institute equity research challenge for the state of North Carolina.

Chapin earned her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Finance from Elon University.

Brett DeGemmis is the Senior Manager of Financial Analysis for Tiger’s Retail appraisal practice, and is responsible for all aspects of Tiger’s retail valuation reports. He oversees the review of financial data, conducts industry analysis and helps manage other analysts dedicated to understanding retail businesses and assets in order to build models to determine their value in a hypothetical liquidation scenario.

Before becoming a manager, DeGemmis was a Financial Analyst in Tiger’s retail appraisal division, covering all manner of asset categories for major retail operations across North America.

Before joining Tiger in 2019, he interned for State Street Bank’s US Investment Services, where he worked with clients to streamline reconciliation and trained in database management.

DeGemmis is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, where he earned his BS in Energy Business Finance.

Nicole Hietikko, Tiger’s Manager of Financial Analysis for Machinery & Equipment, is a data analytics professional with more than 14 years of experience specializing in consulting, data analysis and visualization, supply chain, and project management. At Tiger, she leads the M&E valuation team’s data analysis strategy and technical processes for inventory valuation and reporting.

Hietikko’s experience in inventory valuation comes from her time at Liquidity Services, where she created her first role as Project Manager/Inventory Analyst in Asset Management and managed investment projects with inventories up to $500mm. She then went on to become a Senior Data Informatics Analyst at the company, employing complex visualization tools for reporting and identifying key business trends through data-driven solutions.

Hietikko’s experience also includes serving as a Reliability Specialist at Pinnacle Reliability, where she assisted clients as a subject matter expert on database and project management.

Prior to that, she was a Senior Data Analyst and Consultant for her own company, Hietikko Consulting, where she managed inventory and reporting for the liquidation of a top ten healthcare distributor. She was also a Senior Project Management Consultant at Sparkhound, providing the Business Transformation Team and IT departments with project managerial guidance, training, and technical expertise.

Hietikko received her bachelor’s in Supply Chain Management from the University of Houston.

Sam Mikell is a Manager of Financial Analysis for the Consumer Goods sector of Tiger’s appraisal division.

Prior to becoming a Manager, Mikell served as an Analyst for Tiger Valuations. Before joining Tiger, he developed skills in financial forecasting, market research and data visualization as a Financial Analyst Intern at GlobalFoundries. He also employed data analysis to develop an award-winning operative product design for efficient local water treatment while attending the University of Vermont.

Mikell holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Management from the Grossman School of Business at UVM.

Cole Kahmann is a Manager of Financial Analysis, assisting in the valuation of assets in the Consumer Goods division of Tiger’s appraisal practice.

Kahmann comes to Tiger Valuation Services most recently from Riskalyze, where he served as a Financial Planning & Analysis Intern building budgets, creating variance and trend reports, and driving short- and long-term forecasting analysis for the executive board. Kahmann is passionate about data analytics and has also held positions as a Peer Consultant for the UC Berkeley Data Science Department, as well as VP of Business and Treasurer for the school’s Sports Analytics Group.

Kahmann earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California Berkeley.