Economic and financial consulting firm advances DeCesaris, Marriott, Sancheti, Schmirer, and Zurek to vice president and Armstrong and Kovacheva to principal.
San Francisco—Cornerstone Research, a leading provider of economic and financial consulting and expert testimony, has advanced five senior staff to the role of vice president: Mike DeCesaris, Zoya Marriott, Sachin Sancheti, Gary Schmirer, and Paul Zurek. Mr. DeCesaris, who leads the firm’s data analytics practice, has been named Vice President, Data Analytics.
The firm also promoted two staff to the role of principal: Matthew Armstrong and Penka Kovacheva.
“These exceptional colleagues exemplify our firm’s commitment to excellence, to our clients and experts, and to our people and culture,” said Yesim Richardson, Cornerstone Research’s president.
“These exceptional colleagues exemplify our firm’s commitment to excellence, to our clients and experts, and to our people and culture,” said Yesim Richardson, Cornerstone Research’s president. “We are proud to recognize their leadership, and I am confident that they will continue to make lasting contributions to the success of our firm.”
Vice President
- Mike DeCesaris directs Cornerstone Research’s data analytics practice. Mr. DeCesaris has been instrumental in building the firm’s industry-leading capabilities in sophisticated data management and analysis. He oversees complex projects requiring advanced empirical analysis of big data and data science techniques such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and text analytics. He has worked with counsel and clients to efficiently manage data analytics projects in the context of litigation, investigations, merger reviews, and non-litigation consulting. Mr. DeCesaris is based in San Francisco.
- Zoya Marriott, a leader in the firm’s life sciences practice, focuses on antitrust, intellectual property, product misrepresentation, false claims, and breach of contract matters. Dr. Marriott has addressed class certification, liability, and damages questions in litigation for both branded and generic manufacturers and involving both small molecule and biologic drugs. She has particular expertise with Hatch-Waxman disputes and has provided deposition and trial testimony on commercial success issues. Dr. Marriott is based in Boston.
- Sachin Sancheti leads teams in merger reviews, as well as product misrepresentation and intellectual property disputes. Dr. Sancheti worked on the T-Mobile/Sprint merger, as well as United States v. AT&T Inc. et al. and Commercial Metals Company’s Acquisition of Certain Assets from Gerdau S.A. He has also assessed class certification claims and damages, and consulted on lost profit assessments in various industries. Dr. Sancheti is based in New York.
- Gary Schmirer specializes in financial matters arising from shareholder lawsuits, investment management disputes, and mergers and acquisitions, as well as in internal and regulatory investigations. Mr. Schmirer has directed analyses for five high-profile insider trading trials in the Southern District of New York. With particular expertise in addressing loss causation, valuation, damages, and sampling issues, his industry experience includes financial institutions, life sciences, technology, and real estate. Mr. Schmirer is based in Boston.
- Paul Zurek specializes in matters related to financial markets, securities, risk management, valuation, complex data, and statistical and econometric analysis in U.S. and international venues. Dr. Zurek has more than a decade of consulting experience, including as an expert witness testifying in civil litigation and in regulatory investigations. His industry expertise spans banking, hedge funds, investment management, manufacturing, private equity, pharmaceuticals and biotech, retail, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. Dr. Zurek is based in San Francisco.
Principal
- Matthew Armstrong specializes in securities and financial institution matters. He has extensive experience analyzing market efficiency, loss causation, and damages in Rule 10b-5 and Section 11 cases. In matters involving large, complex datasets, he has estimated damages arising from market timing in mutual funds and analyzed options trading issues at the class certification stage. Mr. Armstrong is based in Silicon Valley.
- Penka Kovacheva specializes in litigation and regulatory investigations within the life sciences and healthcare industries. Dr. Kovacheva focuses on economic and statistical issues in antitrust matters involving drug pricing and competition; reimbursement disputes between government and healthcare providers; and intellectual property disputes between drug manufacturers. She assessed upstream and downstream competitive effects of the vertical merger of Cigna and Express Scripts. Dr. Kovacheva is based in Los Angeles.
San Francisco
