DOWNLOAD BIO

DOWNLOAD HEALTHCARE BIO

DOWNLOAD CV

EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science -
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Master of Accountancy - University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

ASSOCIATIONS
AICPA
ACFE
ASA
TSCPA

SECURITIES LICENSES
7, 24, 63, 79 

LICENSES
Licensed in Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, New York, South Carolina and Florida

Mike Costello is a board member and principal with Decosimo Advisory Services, a division of Joseph Decosimo and Company. He is also a managing principal of Decosimo Corporate Finance, LLC a mid-market investment bank specializing in sell-side advisory, which is a member firm of FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority)/SIPC. Mike is a certified public accountant (CPA), accredited in business valuation (ABV), certified in financial forensics (CFF), an accredited senior appraiser (ASA), a certified fraud examiner (CFE), and a consultant with more than 30 years of training and experience in business valuations, forensic accounting, business acquisitions and divestitures, exit planning, and related fields. Mike's experience includes extensive consulting work and testimony in tax, accounting, financial, economic, and business issues of commercial litigation, with emphasis on business valuation, economic damage and forensic accounting issues.

Mike writes articles for professional publications and speaks at a variety of professional conferences about forensic accounting and valuation issues. He has served on the accounting adjunct faculties at Tennessee Temple University, Tennessee Wesleyan College and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). He was recognized by UTC as Accountant of the Year, by the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants (TSCPA) for Article of the Year, by the Small Business Administration as the Tennessee SBA Accounting Advocate of the Year, and by the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce as the Small Business Person of the Year. He also received the Chattanooga Jaycees Distinguished Service Award and was interviewed by the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts in their Conversations with the Masters series. Mike is a mentor for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ ABV Mentor Program and a member of the AICPA ABV Exam Review Task Force.  

Mike has served as president of the Chattanooga Chapter of CPAs and chairman of the TSCPA’s Ethics and Small Business Services Committees. He is a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the American Society of Appraisers (ASA), the AICPA and the TSCPA. Currently, he is the chairman of the TSCPA’s Forensics and Valuation Services Task Force. He is also a member of the Consultants’ Training Institute’s (CTI) 2013 Annual Conference Planning Committee. 

Mike is qualified to serve as an expert witness in U.S. District Courts, Circuit Courts, and Chancery Courts. He has been appointed by the Hamilton County Circuit Court as a Special Master to resolve an accounting dispute, as a Custodian to liquidate and appraise a business, and by the Hamilton County Chancery Court as a Custodian/Receiver to manage and sell a medical practice and by a Federal Bankruptcy Trustee to sell a business. 

Mike's appraisals have been used in various courts and in connection with buy-and-sell transactions between corporate shareholders. In a case involving two business valuations, Mike’s appraisals were upheld by the Tennessee Court of Appeals. He has testified in cases all over the United States, but most frequently, he testifies in courts in Nashville, Knoxville, Memphis, and Chattanooga, Tennessee; Atlanta and Dalton, Georgia; and Cincinnati, Ohio.

Mike earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and a Master of Accountancy degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.