Thomas Vasquez

Tom provides management consulting services for private sector companies in a wide array of industry sectors. The services include identifying methods to (1) increase company stock price or value, (2) leverage a firm’s brand asset, (3) assist underperforming companies, and (4) provide valuation services. He has assisted the US government and foreign governments in the development of tax, expenditure, and regulatory policy, including the development of large-scale micro-economic models to allow policymakers to determine individual and company behavioral reactions to tax and regulatory policy.

He has also provided expert testimony, depositions, and analytical support on litigation matters for a broad spectrum of issues involving statistical techniques, computer simulation, economic behavior and economic models, forecasting, valuation, and liability estimation, including:

• Using statistical models to forecast a company’s future liability from lawsuits related to its former production of asbestos, including the following representative assignments: National Gypsum Corporation, the Fibreboard Corporation, Owens Corning, Congoleum, Western MacArthur, Burns and Roe, Inc., and Specialty Products Holding Corp.
• Using statistical models to determine the settlement value of bodily injury and financial loss claims resulting from exposure to a wide range of hazardous or defective materials or activities.
• Performing a statistical analysis of the determinants of supply and demand in certain industry segments for use in business valuations before the bankruptcy court.
• Analyzing the impact of regulation and tax policy on prices, sales, and production and the allocation of liability from a state’s superfund tax.
• Performing a statistical analysis of reasonable officer compensation levels in closely held companies.

Over the past 20 years, Tom has focused on evaluating economic and noneconomic loss from bodily injury claims. He designed the algorithm for determining the damage from the BP Gulf oil spill, the NFL Concussion Settlement, the General Motors Ignition Failure Settlement fund, as well as the algorithm used for all the major asbestos settlement trusts.

Prior to joining Ankura, Tom was vice president of Analysis Research Planning Corporation (ARPC). Before that, he was president/CEO of Yankelovich Partners, Inc. where he was responsible for engagements designed to determine the best approach to maximize the value of the client’s firm. These engagements involved understanding the source of the value components of the firm —brand, product/service lines responsible for increasing (decreasing) stock price, the role of joint products, and other key components of the firm’s value.

Earlier, he was the national partner in charge of Corporate Transactions Services for KPMG Peat Marwick where he led four of KPMG’s national practices. One practice area was litigation support. This involved almost exclusively the use of highly trained professionals in providing expert testimony in a wide range of litigation issues. The second practice area involved providing consulting services in bankruptcy and troubled company matters. This involved analyzing the condition and prospects of a company in financial distress, generally involving recommendations for expense control, revenue growth, elimination/sale of product and distribution lines, and the elimination/sale of production sites. The third area was investment banking. In this, he focused on three major components: (1) buying and/or selling of companies for middle-market clients, (2) advising nonpublic clients preparing an initial public offering, and (3) advising clients on methods to increase share price and/or cash flow in anticipation of sale. The fourth area was business valuation. Here, Tom focused on the valuation of businesses in a wide range of settings including bankruptcy, fairness opinions, mergers and acquisitions, estate planning, and other venues requiring valuation services. He served on KPMG’s board of directors and served as chairman of the board’s Strategic Planning Committee.

Prior to that, Tom was the founder and president of the Policy Economics Group, which he ultimately sold to KPMG. He specialized in database development and tax simulation modeling for federal and state government clients in the United States, as well as for foreign governments including Egypt, Pakistan, Hungary, the former Soviet Union, Trinidad-Tobago, the Virgin Islands, Guam, El Salvador, and Guatemala. He developed similar models using specialized industry databases to determine tax impacts and behavioral responses for commercial firms, industry associations, and law firms. These models were also used to formulate the client’s strategic direction, market initiatives, and value maximization strategies.

Before establishing the Policy Economics Group, Tom was the deputy director for the US Department of the Treasury Office of Tax Analysis. While there, he guided US tax policy analysis and designed large microsimulation models and databases for the Department of the Treasury and the Joint Tax Committee of the US Congress. He appeared before Congress to provide testimony on tax issues. He also designed numerous specialized models and databases for analyzing policy issues at the company, industry, and individual levels.