Steven D. Kam, ASA

Managing Director, San Francisco

Biography

Steven D. Kam, ASA, is a Managing Director in Cogent Valuation’s San Francisco office. He has more than four decades of experience providing valuation, securities structuring, recapitalization, and financial advisory services to public and private companies, business owners, fiduciaries, and their advisors.

Mr. Kam’s work spans corporate finance, ESOPs, estate and gift tax planning, fairness and solvency opinions, recapitalizations, equity allocation, pricing, economic feasibility, credit analysis, and related advisory matters. He has advised Fortune 500, middle-market, and privately held companies in connection with leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, public offerings, exchange offers, private placements, and other complex transactions.

Prior to joining Cogent Valuation, Mr. Kam was with Houlihan Lokey, where he provided a broad range of advisory and transactional services to public and private companies. Earlier in his career, he was involved in merchant banking activities at Banque Paribas, corporate finance projects and transactions at Sutro & Co., and financial opinion engagements at Underwood Neuhaus & Co. in Houston.

Mr. Kam has significant experience in estate planning and tax-related valuation matters. He has spoken before the American Society of Appraisers International Conference, multiple estate planning councils, the tax sections 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. His presentation topics have included business valuation, partnerships, estate freezes, Chapter 14, and the use of securities in estate planning. He has also testified in Tax Court, San Francisco Superior Court, arbitrations, and mediations.

Mr. Kam previously served as an instructor for the California Society of CPAs continuing education course on the Valuation of Businesses, teaching the course throughout California, Oregon, and Washington.

He has co-authored published research on the valuation of limited partnership interests and venture-backed companies, including “The Market Pricing of Syndicated LPs and the Valuation of FLPs,” published in Trusts & Estates, and “The Pricing of Successful Venture Capital-Backed High-Tech and Life-Sciences Companies,” published in the Journal of Business Venturing and the Journal of Private Equity.

Mr. Kam is an Accredited Senior Appraiser in Business Valuation with the American Society of Appraisers. He earned an M.B.A. from the University of Houston and a B.B.A. from Florida Atlantic University.

Education:

M.B.A. from the University of Houston and a B.B.A. from Florida Atlantic University.

Accolades:

• Instructor for the California society of CPAs continuing education course

• American Society of Appraisers International Conference Speaker

• San Francisco, Portland, East King County (Washington), and Tacoma Estate Planning Councils

• Tax Court, San Francisco Superior Court, arbitrations, and mediations testimony

• Co-authored a paper published in the February 1996 issue of Trusts and Estates

• Co-authored an 18-month study and article for issue of the Journal of Business Venturing

• Accredited Senior Appraiser with the American Society of Appraisers in Business Valuation

• Member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Estate Planning Council

• Resource Member of the Keiretsu Forum

• Advisor to Inner City Advisors

• Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA), American Society of Appraisers