Presenter Background

Ian Rusk, ASA
Executive Vice President, ZweigWhite

Ian Rusk oversees ZweigWhite’s Advisory Services and Management Education divisions. These groups provide client  firms in the AEC industry with consulting services and educational offerings covering a variety of management topics and disciplines, including strategic business planning, marketing consulting, project management, business valuation, mergers and acquisitions, ownership transition planning, leadership development and financial management.

Ian has provided financial advisory consulting services to hundreds of A/E firms large and small, throughout the U.S. and abroad. He conducts numerous seminars on these topics and is a frequent speaker at various industry conferences and events including the AIA Annual Convention, and the ACEC Annual Convention.

Ian holds the Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) designation with the American Society of Appraisers. Past experience includes 10 years in the banking industry as a lender and financial analyst where he provided financial services to middle market firms in many industries, including the A/E/C and Environmental industry. He holds an MBA with a concentration in finance and entrepreneurship from Babson College and a BA in economics from Tufts University.


Michael S. O’Brien
Principal, ZweigWhite

Michael is a principal in the Washington, DC office of ZweigWhite who specializes in corporate financial advisory services including business valuation, fairness and solvency opinions, mergers and acquisitions, internal ownership transition consulting, ESOPs, and strategic planning.

Michael formerly served as a vice president in the Los Angeles office of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin. Drawing on over twelve years of investment banking experience including, business valuation, corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions and strategic financial advisory, He has consulted with over 400 companies from many industries. Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, Michael was at T.D. Capital recommending mezzanine and equity investments in second and third stage start-up companies and assisted in managing $300 million investment portfolio of companies in the telecommunications industry.

Michael received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management and Bachelor of Science (BS) in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance and Real Estate from California State University, Northridge.

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