Harold Martin

Biography

Harold is an adjunct faculty member of The College of William and Mary Raymond A. Mason School of Business. He has taught forensic accounting in the Master of Accounting program for 19 years. He has also served as a guest lecturer on valuation for the M.B.A program and the Marshall-Wythe School of Law. 

Harold is also a Director in the Valuation and Forensic Services (“VFS”) Practice of Keiter, a certified public accounting and consulting firm located in Richmond, Virginia.  He was formerly the Partner-in-Charge of the VFS Practice and member of the Executive and Partner Compensation Committees. 

He is also the Managing Director of the Financial Consulting Group (“FCG”), the leading organization of independently owned business valuation, forensic, and financial consulting firms in North America. FCG provides member firms the opportunity to collaborate in knowledge-sharing, teaming on projects, practice development, and training through participation in FCG University, webinars on specialized topics, on-line discussion forums and publications.

He has over 40 years of experience in valuation, forensic and public accounting, and financial services.  He has performed over 2,000 valuation and forensic projects in over 220 industries.   He has qualified as an expert witness before U.S. District Court, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, and 22 circuit courts in five states, as well as the American Arbitration Association and National Association of Securities Dealers. He has been named as an expert in disputes subject to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He has been appointed by U.S. District Court as a forensic accountant on cases in which he collaborated with the SEC and the FBI. He has been appointed by the U.S. Office of the Federal Public Defender as a consultant on fraud cases.  He has also been retained by the U.S. Department of Justice as a consultant in a litigation in U.S. District Court.  He has presented testimony at trial, arbitration, and deposition over 95 times.  He has been appointed by various circuit courts as a neutral forensic accountant and appraiser.

He was affiliated for 13 years with two international accounting firms, serving as a Director responsible for managing the Financial Advisory Services practice for Coopers & Lybrand’s Richmond, Virginia office and as a Senior Manager in Management Consulting Services for Price Waterhouse. He also served as a Direct Loan Officer in retail banking at First & Merchants National Bank.

Harold is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Business Valuation Hall of Fame and is a two-time recipient of the AICPA Business Valuation Volunteer of the Year Award. He serves as an instructor for the AICPA National Business Valuation School and  is a former instructor of the AICPA ABV Exam Review Course and AICPA Expert Witness Skills Workshop. He is a former member of the AICPA Business Valuation Committee, former Chair and Vice-Chair of the AICPA National Business Valuation Conference Steering Committee, former commissioner of the AICPA National Accreditation Commission, former editor of the AICPA ABV e-Alert, and former editorial adviser and contributing author for the AICPA CPA Expert. He created and serves as chair of the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants Forensic and Valuation Services Conference. He is a former member of the VSCPA’s Board of Directors and former chair of the Business Valuation Committee and Litigation Services Committee. He was selected as a “Super CPA” in peer surveys conducted by Virginia Business and the VSCPA.

He has also served as a guest instructor at the FBI Academy for forensic accountants in Quantico, Virginia, as well as the National Judicial College.

He is a frequent speaker and writer on valuation and forensic accounting.  He is a co-author of Financial Valuation:  Applications and Models, 1^st-5^th ed., a contributing author to Cost of Capital:  Estimation and Applications, 2^nd-5^th ed., an Editorial Board member for Business Valuation Update, the editor of the Financial Consulting Group FCG Buzz, a former member of the VSCPA Editorial Task Force for Disclosures, and a former expert panelist for Financial Valuation and Litigation Expert. He has been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, as well as numerous other publications.

He is a graduate of The College of William and Mary and received an A.B. degree in English in 1979. He has been very active as an alumnus, currently serving as a member of The William and Mary Alumni Association Board of Directors, and formerly serving as the president and member of the Board of Directors of the William and Mary Alumni Society-Greater Richmond Chapter, a member of the Class of 1979 20^th and 25^th Year Reunion Committees, and a member of the Alumni Admissions Network.

He also received a M.B.A. degree and Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Accounting from Virginia Commonwealth University where he was a member of Beta Alpha Psi (National Accounting Honorary). 

He is licensed in Virginia as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).  He is certified by the AICPA as Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV), Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF); by the American Society of Appraisers as an Accredited Senior Appraiser in Business Valuation (ASA); and by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners as a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).

Areas of Interest/Expertise

• Valuation
• Forensic Accounting 

Publications

Co-author of Financial Valuation: Applications and Models, 1^st - 5^th ed., edited by James R. Hitchner (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2003-2024).

Contributing author to "Iterative Process Using CAPM to Calculate the Cost of Equity Component of the Weighted Average Cost of Capital When Capital Structure is Constant", a chapter in Cost of Capital: Applications and Examples, 4th ed. Workbook and Technical Supplement, by Shannon P. Pratt and Roger J. Grabowski (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010), 34-48.