Team

Principals

Josette Ferrer – Managing Director linkedin_icon

0a1587-message-outline-16  jferrer@clairent.com

0a1587-phone-16  (415) 658-5589

Josette Ferrer is the founder and a Managing Director of Clairent Advisors. Since 1993, Josette has been assisting clients with the valuation of closely held businesses and business interests, intangible assets, intellectual property, equity grants including stock options, debt instruments, capital equipment / fixed assets, and other assets.

While Josette has extensive experience serving clients in many industries, areas of specialty include high technology, early stage ventures, telecommunications, service companies, consumer products, agriculture and related food sectors, manufacturing, and financial services companies. Josette is a frequent presenter and guest speaker on valuation issues at continuing education and similar events.

Click here for more

Experience

Josette has been responsible for over 1,000 significant valuation engagements to date, with specific expertise in the following areas.

  • Valuation analyses for financial reporting purposes, including allocations of purchase price related to business combinations, asset / goodwill impairment analyses, valuations related to equity grants (including stock options, performance units, and Total Shareholder Return units), and portfolio company investment valuations.
  • Valuation consulting related to tax planning and compliance, including appraisals performed for domestic / international tax planning and estate and gift tax reporting.
  • Valuation analyses associated with shareholder, contract, and other disputes including calculations for negotiation purposes as well as the preparation of Rule 26 expert reports.
  • Evaluation of intellectual property, including patent and technology monetization, analysis of economic contributions, the development and assessment of strategic alternatives, and patent portfolio mining.
  • Development of financial opinions such as fairness opinions, solvency opinions, and comfort letters for corporate boards, special committees, and other parties.
  • Financial advisory services related to companies in the process of restructuring or emerging from bankruptcy, including work for creditors’ committees (determination of asset and business values, evaluation of potential purchase agreements, and analysis of cash flows / other operating activities) as well as debtors (development of reorganization values and appraisal work for fresh start accounting).
  • Development of replacement cost estimates for insurance reporting purposes related to a variety of facilities and equipment types.

Prior to founding Clairent Advisors, Josette was the U.S. Practice Leader of Marsh’s Valuation Services Group (formerly Kroll’s Valuation Services Practice). Her career includes serving as the Managing Director in charge of the San Francisco Valuation Services Group of WTAS, Inc. (“WTAS”, now operating as Andersen). At WTAS, Josette’s responsibilities included developing and overseeing all technical, operational, marketing functions for the San Francisco valuation team. Prior to WTAS, Josette was a Director with Huron Consulting Group and a Senior Manager at Arthur Andersen LLP.

Education and Affiliations

B.S. in Business Administration, University of California, Berkeley

Financial Executives International, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, President, 2020 – present; Board Member, 2012 – present

American Society of Appraisers, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, 2019 – present; NorCal Chapter Business Valuation Discipline Director, 2020 – present; NorCal Chapter Women’s Affinity Group Leader, 2020 – present

How Women Lead, #GetOnBoard Leadership Committee, 2020 – present; Silicon Valley Executive Board Member and How Women Give Committee, 2018 – present

ProVisors, Member (PA1 Group and Silicon Valley Women’s Affinity Group) and Executive Committee Member (Bay Area Middle Market Group)

Business Valuation Training Council, Member, January 2017 – December 2017

Fair Value Forum, Member

Finance Scholars Group, Professional Affiliate

Presentations and Seminars

“Private Equity/Mergers & Acquisitions”, Ivy Family Office Network, San Francisco Forum, June 2023.

“What Is It Worth? Valuation”, Pocket MBA 2022: Finance for Lawyers and Other Professionals, Practising Law Institute, September 2022.

“An Update on the Impact of COVID-19 on Valuations”, ProVisors – Bay Area Middle Market Group, November 2021.

“What Is It Worth? Valuations”, Pocket MBA 2021: Finance for Lawyers and Other Professionals, Practising Law Institute, September 2021.

“How Business Valuations Have Changed Since the Pandemic Hit the Economy”, Institute of Management Accountants, Diablo Valley Chapter, April 2021.

“Have COVID-19 Impairments Gone Viral? COVID-19 Valuation Considerations and an In-Depth Case Study”, TaxForward 4th Annual Conference, October 2020.

“What Is It Worth? Valuations”, Pocket MBA 2020: Finance for Lawyers and Other Professionals, Practising Law Institute, September 2020.

“Have COVID-19 Impairments Gone Viral?”, ProVisors – Bay Area Middle Market Group, July 2020.

“Will COVID-19 Impairments Go Viral?”, Financial Executives International – San Francisco Chapter, May 2020.

“Audit Review Process – View from the Independents”, panel moderator, ASA Fair Value Conference, November 2019.

“What Is It Worth? Valuations”, Pocket MBA 2019: Finance for Lawyers and Other Professionals, Practising Law Institute, September 2019.

“Beyond the Valuation Black Box – A Pre-IPO Company Case Study”, Financial Executives International – San Francisco Chapter, March 2019.

“Case Study – Unlocking Differences Behind Diverse Valuation Opinions”, panel moderator, ASA Fair Value Conference, November 2018.

“FASB Goodwill Impairment Test: Significant Changes You Should Know”, co-presenter for The Knowledge Group webinar, November 2017.

“Beyond the Valuation Black Box”, Financial Executives International – San Francisco Chapter, April 2017 and Hawaii Chapter, October 2017.

“Hot Topics in Business Valuation – The Pitfalls of Audit Review”, American Society of Appraisers, Northern California Chapter, May 2016.

“Valuation: Looking Behind the Curtain”, Institute of Management Accountants – Diablo Valley Chapter, March 2015.

“The Evolution of Valuation Issues Through A Company’s Lifecycle”, Financial Executives International – San Francisco Chapter, March 2015.

“Trends and Practices in Business Valuation”, Knowledge Group, November 2014.

“The Price is Right … Or Maybe Not? The Extended Version”, Contra Costa County Bar Association, September 2014.

“The Importance and Value of ‘Squishy’ Intangible Assets”, Financial Executives International – San Francisco Chapter, April 2014.

“The Price is Right … Or Maybe Not? The Extended Version”, CalCPA East Bay Chapter, March 2014.

“The Price is Right … Or Maybe Not?”, Fall 2013 Financial Executives Technical Forum, Financial Executives International – Silicon Valley Chapter, September 2013.

“The Price is Right … Or Maybe Not?”, Financial Executives International – San Francisco Chapter, March 2013.

“Fair Value – Theory and Practice”, Institute of Management Accountants, February 2013.

“New FASB Fair Value Disclosure Requirements (ASU 2011-04)”, panel participant, The Knowledge Congress Webcast, January 2013.

“Impairments and Intangibles”, Institute of Management Accountants — Controllers’ Forum, August 2012.

“Business Combinations and Purchase Price Allocations”, Institute of Management Accountants — Knowledge Synergized Conference, August 2012.

“Joint Ventures, VIEs, and Consolidation”, panel participant, Institute of Management Accountants — Knowledge Synergized Conference, August 2012.

“Qualitative Goodwill Impairment Assessment (ASU 2011-08)”, Institute of Management Accountants, December 2011.

“Wine Industry M&A Outlook” presentation which involved a discussion on fair value issues, Financial Executives International, December 2011.

“The Impact of Volatility on M&A and Valuation”, panel participant, Financial Executives International, September 2011.

“Entrepreneurship” discussion focusing on female entrepreneurs, panel participant, Institute of Management Accountants, August 2011.

“Latest Trends in Valuation”, panel participant, Financial Executives International, October 2010.

“IP Discussion”, panel participant, BIOCOM, October 2009.

“Monetizing Intellectual Property”, panel participant, BIOCOM, February 2009.

“Silicon Valley Technology Roundtable” Marsh event, panel participant – discussed IP valuation issues, December 2007.

“Hot Topics in Valuation – Issues Impacting Commercial Practices”, Sedgwick LLP, October 2006.

“Licensing Portfolio Evaluation”, Practising Law Institute, June 2004.

“Partnership Discounts”, Barristers Club, San Francisco, January 2004.

“General Valuation Techniques”, Arthur Andersen PCS Group, January 2001.

“Acquired In-Process R&D”, Santa Clara University, May 1998.

Leo Fang – Managing Director linkedin_icon

0a1587-message-outline-16  lfang@clairent.com

0a1587-phone-16  (415) 658-5814

As a Managing Director, Leo leads Clairent’s quantitative finance practice and assists clients with valuations of complex securities such as options, warrants, preferred and common stock in privately-held companies, management incentive plans (including those with performance-based and market conditions), convertible bonds, financial derivatives, and other contingent assets and liabilities.

Leo brings considerable experience in the modeling of complex algorithms using analytical tools such as Matlab. He also has extensive expertise in technology valuation and has been a part of several mergers and acquisitions on both the buy and sell sides. Since 1995, he has worked extensively in technology modeling and development, is a veteran of multiple Silicon Valley startups with successful exits, and has been on the executive team of several entrepreneurial ventures.

Click here for more

History and Experience

Leo’s operational experience includes serving as President and CEO of Accupoint Systems, an early pioneer of in-store mobile advertising. Prior to founding Accupoint, Leo was Executive VP of SBE, Inc., a NASDAQ-listed embedded systems and storage software company. At various points of Leo’s tenure at SBE, he led the marketing and engineering organizations and helped successfully conclude merger negotiations with Neonode, Inc. an innovator of touchscreen technologies. Leo arrived at SBE as part of the successful sale of PyX Technologies, a leading Internet Storage Area Network software startup, where he was the Chief Operating Officer and brought about its first major engagement with a Fortune 1000 technology firm.

Leo’s technical modeling and engineering expertise includes serving as the Director of SERDES (Serializer/Deserializer) and USB Development at LSI Logic. At LSI, he was granted one U.S. patent and led a large, multi-disciplinary design engineering department focused on high-speed data communications with annual design win revenues of over $400 million. Leo previously held several senior level engineering positions in the hard disk drive and communications arena including DataPath Systems (acquired by LSI Logic) where he was a Principal Engineer and Systems Architect.

Education

B.S. in EECS & Material Science Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University

Patents and Publications

Kai Keung Chan, Jung-Sheng Hoei, Pankaj Joshi, Leo Fang. Automatic Delay Matching Circuit for Data Serializer. LSI Logic Corporation, assignee. Patent 6677793. 13 Jan. 2004.

L.L. Lee, D. Laughlin, L. Fang, D.N. Lambeth, “Effects of Cr Intermediate Layers on CoCrPt Thin Film Media on NiAl Underlayers”, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 2728-2730 (1995).

L. Fang and D.N. Lambeth, “A New High Coercivity Cobalt Alloy Thin Film Medium Structure for Longitudinal Recording”, Applied Physics Letters, 65, pp. 3137-3179 (1994).

Team and Affiliations

Our team includes consultants with experience ranging from ten to over twenty years – with expertise in various areas – including specific valuation engagement purposes (e.g., financial reporting), asset types (e.g., options and derivatives, equipment, etc.), as well as specific industries.

Clairent is affiliated with Finance Scholars Group (“FSG”), a national consulting firm which provides litigation support, expert witness, valuation, accounting, and other consulting services. FSG has professional staff in California, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Washington D.C. As an affiliate of FSG, Clairent collaborates with FSG’s team, which includes over fifty seasoned professionals and academic experts. Click here to learn more about FSG.

Josette Ferrer is a member of the Fair Value Forum.

Clairent is affiliated with Starnet, LLC, a management services firm which for over 20 years has helped executives design and manage research and development partnerships, consortia, and alliances to meet innovation objectives. Click here to learn more about Starnet.

Clairent is a corporate sponsor of the San Francisco chapter of Financial Executives International.