Robert Schweihs, ASA, Willamette Management Associates (Moderator)

Mr. Schweihs is managing director of Willamette Management Associates. He has performed the following types of valuation assignments: ESOP appraisals, merger and acquisition appraisals, post-acquisition purchase price allocation appraisals, business and stock valuations, real estate valuations and evaluations, tangible personal property appraisals, real estate feasibility and investment analyses, ad valorem assessment appeal appraisals, construction cost segregation appraisals, insurance appraisals, litigation support, forensic valuation analyses, and expert witness testimony.

Before joining Willamette Management Associates, Mr. Schweihs was involved in a variety of valuation, marketing, and administrative management positions. He was founder, national partner, and national director of valuation services for Valuation Engineering Associates, a business unit of Deloitte & Touche. Before that, he was region manager of the valuation division of Arthur D. Little, Inc.

Mr. Schweihs has a Master of Business Administration, Economics and Finance, from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He is an accredited senior appraiser (ASA), certified in business valuation, of the American Society of Appraisers. He is also a Certified Business Appraiser with The Institute of Business Appraisers, Inc. He is also a member of The ESOP Association and the Institute of Professionals in Taxation and a former Trustee of The Appraisal Foundation.

Mike Hartman, Willamette Management Associates

Malcolm R. (Mike) Hartman is a principal with Willamette Management Associates and directs the firm’s national ESOP practice. He is among the best known ESOP financial advisors in the country. For ESOP engagements, he provides the following services:

• Feasibility studies
• Post transaction cash flow analysis
• Transaction financing
• Adequate consideration opinions
• Fairness and solvency opinions
• Annual update valuations
• General consulting

In recent years, Hartman has spent a great deal of time working with middle market companies on issues related to management and ownership transition. He has assisted clients in evaluating the alternatives for shareholder wealth diversification and for transition to the next generation of management. Assignments often include strategic planning with CEO’s and boards of directors to develop long term business plans that will maximize value accumulation for shareholders and insure continued growth for the company.

In connection with his ESOP work, Mike assists client companies in developing and implementing equity based compensation programs for top management and other key employees. These programs are designed to insure that management’s goals are aligned with those of the ESOP. Such programs include the use of stock options, synthetic equity, performance units and stock appreciation rights.

Mr. Hartman is active in The ESOP Association, the ESOP community’s primary trade association, and serves on its Board of Directors. He is also a member of its Board of Governors and was part of the nominating committee, a group that determines the future leadership positions within the organization. Mr. Hartman received a national award for membership recruitment in 1995 after he founded the New South Chapter of that Association in 1994.  He continues to direct the activities of this Chapter, including the planning and executing of regional ESOP meetings.  Mike is also active in the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) and speaks at many of their meetings.

Stephen Smith, JD, Krieg DeVault LLP

Since 1984, Mr. Smith has dedicated his private law practice primarily to employee stock ownership plans ("ESOPs") and structuring ESOP transactions.  Mr. Smith has been responsible for structuring over 150 ESOP transactions for public and private companies.  He also designs and implements equity and non-equity-based incentive compensation programs for public and private companies.  Mr. Smith represents ESOP sponsors, ESOP fiduciaries, including employer-appointed "committees" and independent ESOP trustees, in ESOP transactions throughout the United States, including the sale of ESOP companies and the termination of ESOPs.

Mr. Smith is a partner with the Indianapolis law firm of Krieg DeVault LLP.  He holds AB and JD degrees from Indiana University and an LLM in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.  He is a member of the American and Indiana State Bar Associations.  He is also a member of The ESOP Association and its Indiana Chapter, The National Center for Employee Ownership, Employee-Owned S Corporations of America ("ESCA") and its Advisory Board, and the Indiana Benefits Conference.

Mr. Smith was actively involved in drafting the S corporation ESOP enabling legislation contained in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997.  He was a co-author of the S corporation ESOP "anti-abuse" legislation known as the "Breaux/Ramstad Bill."  He structured the first ESOP to be sponsored by an S corporation for Liberty Check Printers of Minneapolis.  Mr. Smith also structured the first ESOP to become a registered bank holding company, the Horizon Bancorp ESOP of Michigan City, as well as the purchase by an ESOP of a major public accounting firm from H&R Block. 

From 1975 through 1980, Mr. Smith served on active duty with the U.S. Air Force as a Judge Advocate; from 1980 through 2001, he continued his service as a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve and retired in January, 2001 with the rank of Colonel.  For the last several years of his Reserve duty, Mr. Smith acted as a legal advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Under Secretary of Defense in connection with employee benefit plan matters affecting the Department of Defense.  He designed and drafted the first "401(k)" plan for members of the Armed Services and authored the related Report to Congress.

Judith L. Kornfeld, JD, ESOP Economics, Inc.

Judith L. Kornfeld is the founder and president of ESOP Economics, Inc., a firm that specializes in repurchase obligation services for ESOP companies.  The firm performs repurchase obligation studies and provides consulting services to assist companies in developing strategies for managing and funding repurchase obligations.  It also developed Telescope™, a software program for projecting ESOP repurchase obligations, which it licenses to ESOP companies that want to do their own projections.

Judy has been working with ESOP companies for nearly 20 years, focusing on repurchase obligation issues.  She has authored many articles on ESOP repurchase obligations and is a popular speaker at ESOP conferences at both the state and national level.

She currently chairs The ESOP Association’s Interdisciplinary Advisory Committee on Fiduciary Issues.  She also serves on its Advisory Committee on Finance and is a past chair of that committee. She has also served on the Board of Directors of TEA, on many committees, and as an officer of the Pennsylvania Chapter.   She is also on the Board of Trustees of the Employee Ownership Foundation.  

Judy received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, her M.B.A from the Wharton School, and her B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. 

CPE Credit Information

Earn 2 Interactive CPE Credits (Consulting Services)
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