Bjorn Steinholt, CFA is an affiliated Managing Director with 35 years of experience providing capital markets consulting, including financial and economic analyses relating to mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, fairness opinions, private placements, venture capital investments, structured finance, portfolio risk management, market structure, performance measurement, option and warrant valuations and shareholder disputes.

For more than 20 years, Mr. Steinholt has provided expert testimony in numerous state and federal courts. His testimony frequently involves analyzing market efficiency, price impact, materiality, loss-causation and economic damages, using both fundamental valuation methodologies and financial econometrics.

In Gruber v. Gilbertson, he provided trial testimony, and following a verdict in favor of plaintiffs, the Court found that “Steinholt offered the jury a basis to conclude that these non-fraud but company-specific factors were not what was causing Dakota Plains’ stock price decline,” and that “Defendants do not identify any single company-specific event over the relevant time period that Steinholt ignored.” In Chabot v. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., which has since settled for $192.5 million, the Court explained that “Defendants’ read of Steinholt’s report misses the forest for the trees. … It is not the factual developments themselves that Steinholt assumes should have been disclosed, but what they reveal – the unlikelihood that the deal would close given the FTC’s serious skepticism.” In Purple Mountain v. Wells Fargo, which has since settled for $300 million, the Court stated that Steinholt has “presented a good evidentiary basis for concluding that Wells Fargo stock traded in an efficient market during the class period,” “[n]one of [Defendants] points is well taken,” and that Steinholt has “shown by a preponderance of the evidence that damages are capable of measurement on a classwide basis consistent with its theory of liability.” In Georgia Firefighters’ Pension Fund v. Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, the Court found that “Steinholt easily clears the Daubert hurdle,” and his report “reliably highlights the flaws in the report by … the expert for Defendants.”

Mr. Steinholt has also provided litigation services in cases relating to Lehman Brothers, the collapse of the Cheyne SIV, UnitedHealth Group options backdating, Countrywide Financial, AIG, AOL-Time Warner merger, HealthSouth International accounting fraud, Enron Corporation, Worldcom, Tyco International, NASDAQ Market Makers antitrust case and Lincoln Saving and Loan. In addition, Mr. Steinholt has significant financial valuation experience relating to common stock, warrants, options, preferred stock, debt instruments, partnership interests and structured investments.

Mr. Steinholt was a founding principal at Financial Markets Analysis (FMA), focusing on capital market consulting and litigation support primarily in shareholder disputes. Prior to FMA, Mr. Steinholt was a Principal with Business Valuation Services (BVS), where his work included valuations of businesses and financial securities generally for SEC reporting purposes. Prior to BVS, Mr. Steinholt was a senior vice president at Princeton Venture Research, where his work included identifying and evaluating prospective emerging technology companies in need of venture capital funding.

Mr. Steinholt holds a Master of International Business degree from the University of San Diego, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Engineering from California State University, Long Beach. He has also earned the designation Sivilingeniør from the University of Trondheim, Norway, and the designation Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) from the CFA Institute.