Transaction Advisory
Transaction Advisory
The McLean Group leverages its combined valuation and M&A expertise to provide niche transaction advisory services. On behalf of buy-side clients, our team performs valuation due diligence to assess the value of acquisition targets and formulate the valuation terms in letters of intent. In addition, we utilize our technical expertise and experience to develop tailored business and forecasting models for our clients..
Team Leaders
Ryan Berry
Ryan Berry is a Managing Director at The McLean Group and heads up the firm’s Valuation Advisory practice. Ryan has over 20 years of financial and accounting experience and has performed and overseen thousands of valuation engagements. During the course of his career, he has advised clients on valuations leading up to their IPO, provided fairness and solvency opinions for M&A transactions and recapitalizations, and worked with clients and their auditors on valuations for financial reporting purposes such as purchase price allocations, impairment testing, and complex security valuations. Ryan has also written and contributed to numerous articles on valuation topics and spoken at various conferences and webinars.
Ryan started his career as a financial analyst at Booz Allen Hamilton. While at Booz, Ryan maintained a TS/SCI clearance and worked in both the DoD and Intelligence Agency divisions where he provided financial and operational support to program managers overseeing several mission critical contracts.
Ryan earned a BA in Economics with a minor in Technology, Management, and Policy from the University of Virginia. He also received an MBA from Johns Hopkins University’s Carey School of Business. He’s a CPA accredited in business valuation through the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Professional Credentials
- Certified Public Accountant (Virginia)
- Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) through the AICPA
Ryan Berry
Managing Director
Valuation Advisory
Scott Sievers
Mr. Sievers is a Managing Director with The McLean Group’s Valuation Services Group. As a Managing Director within the firm’s business valuation practice, he ensures the completion of business valuations for public and private companies for transaction, financial reporting, equity incentive plan, tax, and other purposes.
Since joining the firm, Mr. Sievers has completed over 1000 valuation engagements, which include business valuations, fairness opinions, solvency opinions, portfolio valuations, purchase price allocations, goodwill impairment tests, long-lived intangible asset tests, and equity incentive plan analyses.
Mr. Sievers is one of the leaders of the firm’s ESOP Practice. In addition to attending several ESOP training seminars and conferences, he has completed the full spectrum of ESOP-related valuation engagements ranging from transaction advisory, fairness opinions, feasibility analyses, annual valuations, and solvency opinions. Moreover, Mr. Sievers has the relevant experience dealing with complex ESOP-specific topics, such as transaction structuring, Fair Market Value of debt, repurchase obligations, follow-on transactions, and minority interest discounts.
He is also one of the leaders of the firm’s valuation analytics team, which specializes in valuing complex derivatives typically through applying option-pricing models, binomial lattice models, or Monte Carlo simulations to comply with IRC 409A, ASC 718, ASC 805, and ASC 815 reporting purposes.
Professional Credentials
- CPA (Virginia)
- Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) through the AICPA
- Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) through NACVA
Scott Sievers
Managing Director
Valuation Advisory
Selected Transactions
Related News
Q1 2026 Mergers & Acquisitions Market Update
The McLean Group’s Q1 2026 M&A Insider Report tracks deal activity across Defense & Government, Physical & Cyber Security, Critical Infrastructure, and Maritime. Q1 was the strongest quarter on record for Defense M&A with 104 closed transactions, headlined by Arcline’s $2.2B acquisition of Novaria Holdings and VSE Corporation’s $2.15B acquisition of Precision Aviation Group. Cyber Security saw $57B+ in transaction value led by Google’s $32B acquisition of Wiz and Palo Alto Networks’ $24.6B acquisition of CyberArk Software, with Cyber/Technology EBITDA multiples reaching 41.3x LTM. Critical Infrastructure closed 48 transactions including Constellation Energy’s $28.9B acquisition of Calpine, while Maritime rebounded to 24 transactions in Q1. The full report includes sector commentary, EBITDA valuation multiples, public company benchmarks, and representative transaction data for each sector.[…]
What Is a 409A Valuation and When Does Your Company Need One?
A 409A valuation is an independent appraisal of your private company’s common stock, and if you’re issuing equity incentive awards to employees, it’s a legal requirement, not a formality. Get it wrong, and employees face immediate income recognition, a 20% federal penalty tax, and potential state penalties that can push effective tax rates well above 50%. In this article, The McLean Group’s Valuation Advisory team breaks down exactly how 409A valuations work, when your company needs one, which IRS safe harbor methods apply at each stage, and the common mistakes that create tax exposure at exactly the wrong time: during fundraising, M&A due diligence, or an IRS audit.
EBITDA Only Tells Part of the Story. Does Your QofE Provider Reveal the Rest?
Normalized EBITDA shows clean profitability, but it doesn’t tell you whether that profitability is built to last. For PE sponsors, the difference between a well-priced deal and a costly mistake often comes down to whether your Quality of Earnings provider goes beyond standard adjustments and into the operational KPIs that reveal true margin durability. The McLean Group’s Transaction Advisory team explores how the right diligence partner layers in gross margin by service type, resource utilization rates, and backlog conversion patterns to give buyers a sharper view of risk, a stronger basis for negotiation, and a head start on post-close execution. […]