Mr. Canessa is the President of CE Financial Economics, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in providing and supporting expert testimony relating to valuation and other economic issues in business dispute matters. Mr. Canessa has consulted on more than 170 business disputes involving litigation, with 27 of those cases going to trial. He has thirty years of experience in the mergers and acquisitions field. Mr. Canessa has advised attorneys in business litigation matters on M&A transactions and other valuation assignments with an aggregate deal value of approximately $266 billion. He has performed comprehensive valuations of companies in Delaware appraisal proceedings, hostile takeovers, going-private leveraged buyouts, minority squeeze-outs, stockholder challenges to negotiated transactions, bankruptcies and the taxation of estates. The disputes in these engagements have ranged in size from $7 million to $46 billion and include both public and private companies, valuations of subsidiaries and divisions, start-ups to mature businesses, minority and controlling interests, and derivatives such as warrants, call options, put options, convertible preferred securities and convertible bonds. Mr. Canessa has been retained by both plaintiffs and defendants, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice and the Ontario Securities Commission in Canada. He has also advised the special committee to the board of directors of a publicly traded company and testified at trial and deposition on matters relating to valuation and lost profits. In addition, over the past two decades, he has consulted on issues pertaining to market efficiency and the analysis of stock price responses to public information in securities fraud lawsuits.
Prior to cofounding CE Financial Economics in 2023, Mr. Canessa spent two decades at Forensic Economics, Inc., where he provided and supported expert testimony. From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Canessa worked for Sonus Corp., the largest audiology-based retailer in North America. As Director of Corporate Development and Head of Mergers and Acquisitions for this publicly traded consolidator, he valued and negotiated 60 acquisitions.
Mr. Canessa holds an M.B.A. in Finance (2002) from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester where he graduated Beta Gamma Sigma and was awarded the Edmund D. McGarry Fellowship. He also holds a B.S. in Finance (1993) from the University of Oregon. Mr. Canessa has also been awarded the designation of an Accredited Senior Appraiser in Business Valuation by the American Society of Appraisers (“ASA®”).