Elliot A. Fishman, PhD, ASA
Founder and CEO

Dr. Fishman is the lead professional for both the firm’s valuation and expert witness practices. Over the past decade, he has performed hundreds of valuations for a range of industries. He is an expert in valuing early-stage companies and intellectual property, as well as esoteric securities, complex capital structures, and closely held corporations. His broad and extensive Wall Street background includes venture capital investing, mergers and acquisitions, securitizations, recapitalizations, intellectual property monetization, and spin-off transactions.

Prior to establishing Astrina, Dr. Fishman founded and managed the New York office of Advantage Capital Partners, a venture capital firm with $440 million under management. Before joining Advantage, he was a senior member of the management team of venture-backed Doubleclick, Inc. where he was instrumental in positioning the firm’s initial public offering (IPO). He held key management roles at Technology Management & Funding, LP and National Semiconductor, Inc. Dr. Fishman sat on the boards of six venture-funded technology companies, and he has been a successful angel investor.

Dr. Fishman is also an experienced college professor and has published numerous papers on corporate valuation and intellectual property management. He was Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business where he taught courses on Entrepreneurship, Technology Management, and Innovation. Previously, he was Industry Associate Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology’s Howe School of Technology Management where he developed and taught courses in Intellectual Property Valuation, Technology Management, and Corporate Finance.

Dr. Fishman has a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master in Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Duke University. He holds the professional designation of Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) as conferred by the American Society of Appraisers.

Jan Klein
Senior Managing Director

Jan Klein plays a lead role in the firm’s valuation and financial advisory services practices. For the past four decades, Mr. Klein has held senior financial positions in corporate finance, public accounting, capital markets, venture capital, and university teaching, which collectively provide him with an extraordinary knowledge base on valuation, deal structures, FASB guidelines, and SEC compliance. His extensive financial background extends to Wall Street, where was an Institutional Investor-ranked public company analyst in the telecommunications sector for Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter. Prior to that, he spent many years as an executive at AT&T, where he rose to the position of CFO of AT&T Wireless and was the financial lead on AT&T’s $18 billion acquisition of McCaw Cellular.

Mr. Klein is also a seasoned venture capital executive, where he has been an active investor, board member, interim COO, and CFO of over a dozen development stage start-ups. In working with various private companies over the past 25 years, he has raised over $250 million in equity and debt financing. Mr. Klein continues to work actively with MCT Worldwide, LLC and other private companies in which he retains an equity interest.

Throughout his career, Mr. Klein has maintained part-time university professorships—while at AT&T as Adjunct Professor of Finance at Farleigh Dickinson University, and then later as Executive-in-Residence at the School of Business at Stevens Institute of Technology. At Stevens, he established and taught all of the school’s undergraduate finance courses in Corporate Finance, Equity Valuation, Investment Management, and Capital Markets. Mr. Klein is also actively involved in ACTUS, a non-profit Financial Research Foundation promoting increased transparency and more effective risk management in the banking sector. Mr. Klein has a Master in Business Administration from George Washington University. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Penn State University and is a CPA in New Jersey (inactive).

Raj Rakshit
Senior Analyst

Raj Rakshit has extensive experience in the field of corporate and private equity valuations. He has valued companies ranging from small start-ups to IPOs. His valuation expertise includes Purchase Price Allocation, portfolio valuations, IRC 409As, special situations, distressed debt, and other complex modeling assignments.  Prior to Astrina, he held key positions at SVB Analytics (now part of eShares). At SVB he won the Best Analyst award, having designed industry-standard valuation models that have now been adopted by eShares and major audit firms worldwide. Mr. Rakshit also worked for The Brenner Group (now part of Armanino LLP) as a corporate securities analyst. Mr. Rakshit also founded Sharp 409a Software LLP, a software valuation firm. Mr. Rakshit’s training extends to capital markets, fundamental analysis, and portfolio allocation. He holds a Master in Computer Science from Indian Institutes of Technology, Bombay and has completed advanced coursework from the CFA Institute. He is presently a Chartered Financial Analyst candidate.

Joseph Horvat
IT Initiatives Director

Joseph Horvat has over a decade of corporate experience managing IT projects, corporate websites, VPN applications, and network infrastructure. He is in charge of all of Astrina’s IT operations, fail-safe systems, virtual collaboration, document management, secure archiving systems, and cybersecurity. He also brings his special expertise in computer forensics to Astrina’s litigation support practice. Mr. Horvat has a BS in Computer Science from New York Institute of Technology. In addition, Mr. Horvat has over ten IT certifications, including Microsoft Technology Professional, Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE), Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP), and Certified Information System Manager (CISM).

Laura Baird
Communications Director

Laura Baird has over 20 years’ experience managing and creating integrated communications solutions for companies ranging from small start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations. Her synergistic combination of marketing, design, project management, and technical talent helps Astrina take a multipronged approach to tailor its offerings to the unique needs of all of its clients. Ms. Baird is passionate about optimizing client experience throughout all phases of contact, and about presenting information clearly, concisely, and beautifully. Ms. Baird is a graduate of the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering.