Chris M. Mellen, ASA, MCBA, CVA, ABAR, CM&AA is the President and founder of Delphi, specializing in the valuation of closely held businesses, professional practices, pass-through entities, and intangible assets. His experience includes completion of over 2,500 valuations of such entities and assets. He has performed business valuations over nearly 24 years in a wide range of industries for such purposes as tax planning and compliance, strategic planning, financing, mergers and acquisitions, post-acquisition purchase price allocation, financial reporting, estate planning, buy-sell agreements, marital dissolution, shareholder disputes, and appraisal review. Chris currently serves on the Editorial Board for Business Appraisal Practice. He also is a member of the Appraisal Issues Task Force, a voluntary group of professional appraisers who meet three times a year to interpret existing and proposed rules set forth by the FASB and the SEC, and evaluate proposals and recommend methodology, assumptions and approaches as they relate to business valuation matters.
Chris has served as Governor of the Northeast Region (including New England, New York, and Eastern Canada) for The Institute of Business Appraisers (“IBA”) for six years, as President of the Boston Chapter of the American Society of Appraisers for one year, as Chairman of the Business Valuation Committee for the Boston Chapter of the American Society of Appraisers for six years, as Managing Director of Ambus Appraisers, LLC d/b/a American Business Appraisers National Network for two years, on the Board of Ambus for six years, on the professional faculty of the IBA for eight years, on the Qualifications Review Committee for the IBA for six years, and as national Chairman of the Business Valuation Committee of BKR International, serving approximately 35 accounting and consulting firms across the country, for over four years. He has held senior level positions in the valuation departments of two major accounting firms – as practice leader of the Valuation Services Group within Tofias, P.C., a large regional accounting and consulting firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as a director of valuation services in KPMG’s Boston office prior to that.
Chris is co-author of the book, Valuation for M&A: Building Value in Private Companies, published by Wiley in 2010. He is co-recipient of the 2010 AM&AA Middle Market Thought Leader of the Year Award, in recognition of writing this book. In addition, Chris has published several articles on valuation-related matters, led numerous seminars, and provided expert testimony in court.
Chris earned his Master of Business Administration (“MBA”) degree with a concentration in Finance from Babson College and his Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Relations and Economics from McGill University. He has attended over 1,700 Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Credit Hours in specialized valuation-related courses, seminars, and conferences. He is accredited by: (i) the American Society of Appraisers as an Accredited Senior Appraiser in business valuation and in intangible assets (“ASA”), (ii) The Institute of Business Appraisers, Inc. as a Master Certified Business Appraiser (“MCBA”), (iii) the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts as a Certified Valuation Analyst (“CVA”), (iv) The Institute of Business Appraisers, Inc. as Accredited in Business Appraisal Review (“ABAR”), and (v) the Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors as a Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor (“CM&AA”).