About
About ASA San Diego
The American Society of Appraisers is a multi-discipline, non-profit, international organization of professional appraisers representing all appraisal disciplines. Our mission is to foster the public trust of our members and the appraisal profession through compliance with the highest levels of ethical and professional standards. ASA San Diego:
- Fosters professional excellence in its membership through education, accreditation, publication and other services with an emphasis on professional ethics to protect the public
- Establishes and maintains principles of appraisal practice and a code of ethics for the guidance of our members
- Provides valuation education to practicing appraisers and others
- Awards professional designations to qualified members
- Strives for universal recognition that members are objective, unbiased appraisers and consultants of values
- Promotes the exchange of ideas and experiences among members
- Seeks to attain recognition of the appraisal profession by both public and private enterprise
- Cultivates a community of interests amongst users of and members of the appraisal profession
- Promotes research and development in all fields of the appraisal profession
- Helps the public and professionals find an ASA accredited appraiser
ASA San Diego Leadership
President
Kathleen Turner
Kathleen Turner is an Accredited Senior Appraiser from the American Society of Appraisers and a Certified Graduate Gemologist from the Gemological Institute of America with over 20 years of experience in the jewelry industry. She is the founder and owner of Cal Coast Jewelry Appraisers Inc., an independent gemological laboratory and mobile appraisal service in North County, San Diego, downtown Carlsbad Village. Cal Coast Jewelry Appraisers features a team of qualified jewelry appraisers who adhere to the current Uniform Standards for Professional Appraisal Practices (USPAP). We value education and require our team to maintain a minimum of 20 accredited hours of continued education every five years. Her company specializes in jewelry and watch appraisals for insurance, estate tax, charitable donation, equitable distribution, liquidation, expert witness, and litigation support.
Treasurer
Cheryl Kessler
Cheryl Kessler is a Director in CBIZ’s Forensic Consulting Group. She specializes in valuation opinions for marital dissolutions, gift and estate tax purposes, partner buyouts, and mergers & acquisitions. For over 25 years, Ms. Kessler has helped closely-held companies large and small, in many industries, determine the value of their equity.
Ms. Kessler presents a credible, defensible and easy to understand analysis of financial and complex valuation issues in concise reports and/or via expert testimony. Cheryl has the experience, knowledge and expertise to perform business valuations, income for support analysis and forensic accounting for family law and civil litigation cases. She has significant experience as a §730 neutral expert, §639 Special Master, and a CA Corp Code Section 2000 expert. In addition, she has been qualified as an expert in San Diego and El Centro Superior Courts.
She is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University with a Masters of Business Administration (Finance and Entrepreneurship) and a graduate of Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science Electrical Engineering.
CREDENTIALS:
- Accredited Senior Appraiser, Business Valuations (ASA – 2001)
- Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA)
- Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA – 2001)
- Formerly held Series 7, 24, 63 NASD Licenses
Secretary
Elsie Arredondo
Elsie Arredondo, a seasoned professional with a Master's degree in Regulatory Affairs, combines her regulatory expertise with a deep passion for the arts with over a decade of market-related experience. She is an accredited member of the International Society of Appraisers, specializing in late 19th-century to contemporary artwork, including paintings, sculptures, sketches, and limited-edition prints.
A member of the Estate Planning Council of San Diego and the American Society of Appraisers, Elsie brings her unique skills to the intersection of estate planning and art valuation. As the owner of ENA Art Group in San Diego, California, she also provides a platform for artistic expression and appreciation.
Vice President / Past President
Brandon Steele
Brandon began his valuation career in 2010 after joining AR International, which provides equipment and inventory valuations. He is an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) in the Machinery & Technical Specialties discipline and in the Business Valuation discipline. In 2014 he founded Steele Advisory Group which provides business valuation and consulting services for clients which include investors, private companies, CPA's, attorneys, venture capital/private equity, lending institutions and financial planners/wealth managers.
Vice President
Gary Raichart
Gary Raichart is a managing director in the Strategic Value Advisory practice at Kroll (formerly Duff & Phelps), based out of San Diego. He has over 15 years of consulting experience focusing on the strategic analysis of value, risk and uncertainty. He has extensive experience valuing assets and liabilities, business opportunities, contractual obligations, and transactions that involve substantial uncertainty, including early-stage intellectual property (IP), patent portfolios, digital assets, guarantees, warranty obligations, employee stock options, earn-outs, and other contingent assets and liabilities for strategic decision-making, collateral, financial reporting and tax purposes. Gary served as a subject matter expert on The Appraisal Foundations' Working Group on the valuation of contingent consideration. Gary has also developed financial projections for new product launch decisions, strategy evaluation, IP strategy analysis, and R&D investment prioritization, and vetted financial projections for both buy-side and sell-side commercial due diligence. Gary led the development of the model used to project future professional golfers' performance and endorsements value as part of Kroll’s Future Career Value Study. Gary received an MS in management science and engineering and a BS in mathematical and computational science with honors and distinction from Stanford University.