Sarah von Helfenstein
Founder & Managing Partner
Sarah von Helfenstein, has created, launched, managed, and consulted to new initiatives inside/for established enterprises and on a stand-alone basis for most of her professional life.
For the past twenty-eight years, she has specialized in financial valuation and served as valuation professional, educator, and change agent in her own and public accounting firms and for the AICPA and American Society of Appraisers. During this time, she also participated in several tech startups as part of the founding team or consultant. In addition, she performed seminal research for the Department of Defense Office of Force Transformation in the valuation of information systems and human capital.
Her experience includes the valuation of business enterprises, business interests, and intangible assets for operating companies in all stages of life cycle, ESOPs, holding companies, and private equity. Covering a full range of valuation purposes across a wide spectrum of industries, she has developed a significant focus in STEM and manufacturing enterprises.
Sarah publishes/presents extensively in the U.S. and internationally on theoretical finance and valuation, real options (theory and practice), new city design, and complex systems. She has authored and edited valuation courses and exams, developed valuation curricula and conferences, and edited a number of key valuation books.
She currently is the Immediate Past Chair of the Business Valuation Resource Panel of The Appraisal Foundation and sits on the Appraisal Issues Task Force. In the past, she has played an active role in a number of committees and boards within NACVA.
Sarah received her MBA from DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and her B.A. from Randolph-Macon Women’s College. She has been a designated member of the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts since 2005, of which she was named Outstanding Member in June 2018. Currently she is fulfilling her three-year CPE requirements to allow her to list her CVA designation on public materials.