Self-Study: Employee Ownership for Business Brokers

Colby Mayberry, Edward Jones

Colby is a financial advisor with Edward Jones in Washington state, where he works closely with supply chain professionals and small business owners to build and manage their financial strategies. He holds multiple professional designations including CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®), Certified Exit Planning Advisor® (CEPA®), and Accredited Asset Management Specialist™ (AAMS®). Known for his client-focused approach, Colby is committed to helping clients achieve their long-term financial goals through thoughtful planning and ongoing guidance.

Emily Bergstrom, Meliora Cleaning Products

Emily is the Director of Manufacturing Operations for Meliora Cleaning Products. Before that she served as the Senior Manager, Investments & Partnerships at Project Equity for several years. At Project Equity, she advised owners on the benefits of transitioning their company to an employee-owned structure. Emily has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with a focus on operations and economics. She received a Fulbright scholarship and spent two years abroad in Latin America, becoming fluent in Spanish. She earned her undergraduate degree at Michigan State University and comes from a long line of hard-working Detroiters.

Hunter Arwood, Falco Sult

Hunter manages Falco Sult’s business brokerage and business valuation engagements. He joined the team in July 2019 after a brief hiatus from the firm. Hunter brings valuable insights to clients that he has gained from over nine years of professional experience serving local business owners in the Pacific Northwest, since graduating cum laude from Western Washington University in 2015.

As both a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Valuation Analyst, Hunter leverages his expertise in business valuation and fluency in financial analysis to provide clear answers to clients who are seeking to either understand what their business is worth or for those who are considering a sale or transition of their business. He is skilled in producing valuation reports on closely held businesses and he has direct transactional experience from successfully marketing, brokering, and ultimately closing several business sales. His deal experience helps to inform his approach in providing clients with detail on the potential market value of their closely held businesses.

He has consulted with a diverse range of business owners, typically local businesses ranging from $5M to $20M in annual revenues, but he has also consulted with many clients who have businesses generating up to $50M in revenues annually. His experience with business brokerage transactions ranges from deals that include many stakeholders, including a recent business sale into an ESOP that resulted in over 100 employees becoming new owners in the business, to main-street business transactions where the sale simply transitions the business to a new owner-operator.

His valuation and deal work have spanned many different industries, including construction, retail sales/e-commerce, restaurants, distributors, manufacturers, wholesalers, investment holding companies, and a wide variety of service businesses.

Within the construction industry, he has worked with both general contractors and those in specialty trades. With retailers, manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers, he has worked with clients with an extensive range of product offerings, including those that are proprietary in nature, agricultural products, and even specialty industrial machinery. In the service industry, he has worked with professional service businesses, along with commercial and residential service businesses.

Outside of the firm, Hunter is enthusiastic about motorcycles and video games, he frequently complains about having four different motorcycles that all need to be ridden.

Stacey Smith, Project Equity

Stacey has spent most of her career helping businesses examine their impact and aligning it with their values. She started as a CPA with Arthur Andersen, then moved into strategy and organizational development. Seeking to devote her financial expertise to social and environmental issues, she was an early mover in the field of sustainability and corporate responsibility in the US. She joined Business for Social Responsibility in 2001 to build their business consulting practice and spent the next decade guiding Fortune 500 companies to address their negative impacts. Recently, Stacey began consulting to nonprofits and foundations to strengthen their strategy, management, and governance practices. Through her work with the Public Equity Group and her own independent practice, she explored the structural barriers to wealth and other drivers of generational poverty. At Project Equity she is helping grow our team of professionals to accelerate the adoption of employee ownership as a key to building wealth and high-quality careers in communities. In addition to having been a licensed CPA, Stacey has a degree in Business Administration from the University of Vermont and has done coursework in International Business Studies at the University of Copenhagen. When she is not working, you can find her hiking the Bay Area hills, indulging in the restaurant scene, and playing with her family.