The Mentor Group, Inc. was founded in 1987 by Davis Blaine. His vision was to perform high value preeminent services for clients, utilizing senior professionals with superior experience and expertise. That philosophy and culture thrive today, creating an unmatched capability in valuations and appraisals, financial consulting, and litigation support services.
We have served thousands of clients, small and large. Many of these clients have been with us from early on, trusting us to deliver results year after year.
Who We Are
Davis R. Blaine, ASA
Davis Blaine, Chairman of both The Mentor Group, Inc. and Mentor Securities, LLC (FINRA registered), is expert in the accounting, tax, and financial aspects of acquisitions, recapitalizations, valuations and appraisal. He has frequently lectured and written on technical valuation issues. Mr. Blaine has counseled many clients on buying, selling, or raising capital. In addition, he has prepared companies for public and private investment, strategic partnership, and joint ventures.
D. Justin Blaine, ASA
Justin Blaine is a Senior Managing Director of Mentor Securities and The Mentor Group, Inc. He has provided investment…buying. His experience includes performing business and IP valuations, including Monte Carlo simulation. These valuations have ranged from medical service firms to car dealerships…from Internet advertisers to construction companies…and from consumer goods to aerospace, and many more.
Tristan D. Blaine, J.D.
Tristan Blaine is a Director with Mentor Securities, LLC (MS) and The Mentor Group, Inc. (TMG). His experience includes business and IP valuations, as well as providing advisory services to business buyers and sellers, and for capital raises. Business clients include digital marketing and agencies to healthcare; from retail to data centers; from consumer goods to aerospace; and software to entertainment media.
Brad M. Cashion, CFA, ASA
Brad Cashion is a Senior Managing Director with The Mentor Group, Inc. and Mentor Securities. He has extensive experience in valuing and preparing private companies for sale and capital raising. In addition, he has participated in financing of real estate and business assets. Among the investment banking transactions completed by Mr. Cashion are sellside, buyside, restructuring, strategic partnerships, private placements, spinoff, and senior and mezzanine debt. He has counseled many public and private companies regarding carried interests, fairness opinions, stock options for IPO's, and acquisitions.
Jon S. Epperson
Mr. Epperson is Senior Manager at The Mentor Group, Inc. He has nearly thirty years of professional experience preparing numerous personal property appraisals and cost segregation studies. These appraisals have significantly increased depreciation and reduced taxes for clients in industrial, retail, theatres, restaurants, office, medical, residential rental, refineries, auto dealerships, broadcast facilities, high-tech operations, and others.
Bert Jones
Bert Jones is a Senior Appraiser with The Mentor Group, Inc. He manages and performs appraisals for a wide variety of equipment and machinery - from computers and peripherals to steel making and MRI’s. On numerous occasions he has testified in court as an expert witness.
Mark Justmann, MAI
Mr. Justmann is a Senior Real Estate Appraiser with The Mentor Group. His experience spans multi-state and international appraisals for all types of commercial, industrial, multi-family, vacant land, and special purpose facilities. Most of his appraisals have involved the Western U.S. - California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Colorado. Mr. Justmann has performed expert witness testimony in numerous state and federal courts.
Gary E. Lotzer, CPA
Gary Lotzer is a Senior Managing Director with Mentor Securities and The Mentor Group. A Certified Public Accountant, Mr. Lotzer is expert in business and IP valuation, business and marketing plans, industry research and financial modeling. His valuations have been used for partner dissolutions, IRS estate tax support, litigation damages, business sales, financings, bankruptcy, and more. Mr. Lotzer has provided his expertise to numerous investment banking engagements, including sales of businesses and business assets and all forms of structuring debt and equity capital.
Rhett Plotner
Rhett Plotner is a Managing Director of Mentor Securities and The Mentor Group, Inc. At Mentor Securities, his investment banking expertise spans numerous sell-side, buy-side, and capital sourcing engagements. He has also advised early-stage companies via venture and angel funding and consulting. Industries served range from food & beverage to high-tech SaaS, healthcare to cybersecurity, manufacturing to industrial services, and many more in-between. As part of The Mentor Group, he has managed and performed valuations of businesses, common and preferred shares, intellectual property (IP), and derivatives.
Wesley E. Romberger III
Mr. Romberger is a Senior Managing Director with The Mentor Group since 1996. He manages our Whittier, California office. He has diverse and substantive expertise in the valuation of public, private and closely-held companies. Engagements have involved various classes of common stock, preferred stock, debt, options or warrants, derivative securities pricing and intangible assets. Clients have relied on his expertise to provide support for mergers/acquisitions, tax negotiations, expert witness testimony, buy/sell agreements, financing, and financial consultation.
George H. Ruth
Mr. Ruth is a Senior Real Estate Appraiser with The Mentor Group, Inc. A certified general appraiser in California, the experience of Mr. Ruth spans nearly every type of real property: commercial, industrial, multi-family, vacant land, and special purpose facilities. In addition, he has testified as an expert witness.
M. Mark Sarchet, ASA
Mark Sarchet is a Senior Managing Director with The Mentor Group, Inc. He has valued and sold many businesses in a variety of industries. The breadth of his practice includes financial advisory, business and IP valuation, and valuations of financial derivatives and debt instruments. These analyses have involved public and private companies in numerous industry segments, from hedge funds to high tech…from medical instruments to food distribution … from aerospace to software development, and more.
Fritz Strehlow, CSBA
Fritz Strehlow is a Managing Director with The Mentor Group and Mentor Securities with expertise and extensive experience in business valuations, mergers and acquisitions, raising equity, and business management. His work has involved private and public entities - corporations and partnerships. In addition, he is an expert witness in financial valuations.