Dr. Ma is a Managing Director and Head of Houlihan Lokey’s Portfolio Valuation and Fund Advisory
Services practice, focusing on
illiquid
and complex securities valuation. She has over 20 years of extensive training,
academic expertise, and hands-on experience in commodities, derivatives,
securities, foreign exchange, fixed incomes, structured transactions, hedging
strategies, and risk management issues. She is a member of the firm’s Technical
Standards Committee and is also a member of the Standards Board of the
International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC).
Since
the start of the global credit crisis that began in July 2007, Dr. Ma has been
focused on valuing illiquid securities, including asset-backed securities,
collateralized debt obligations, collateralized loan obligations, mortgage
derivatives, auction rate securities, distressed debt instruments, and private
equity investments for financial reporting, transaction advisory, restructuring
alternatives, and litigation support purposes.
On
October 29, 2008, she served as a panelist in the Securities and Exchange
Commission’s roundtable concerning mark-to-market accounting. Dr. Ma
participated as the valuation expert, focusing on potential improvements to the
current accounting model and implications of possible changes.
Dr.
Ma joined Houlihan Lokey from NERA Economic Consulting, where she established
and led the Employee Stock Options Valuation practice. Before that, she was a
partner at Ernst & Young. She directed a number of significant litigation
and dispute resolution projects related to derivatives valuation, securities
trading, hedging, and risk management. She also advised
the boards of directors of energy and financial companies on risk management,
valuation, and corporate governance issues. For over five years, she traded
derivatives and designed new risk management products for a global commodity
firm.
Dr.
Ma served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where she taught an
MBA-level course in futures and options. She also developed several corporate
training programs on the complex aspects of capital markets. Dr. Ma has
qualified and testified as an expert witness in U.S. District Court, U.S.
Bankruptcy Court, and arbitration and deposition proceedings. She has also
worked as a consulting and testifying expert for the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission.
Dr.
Ma graduated from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business with a
Ph.D. in Finance and from Indiana University with highest distinction with a
B.S. in Accounting. She holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst.
She obtained her CPA license (now inactive) in the State of Colorado. She was
also a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Option Valuation
Group. Dr. Ma has published numerous articles on energy, derivatives, risk
management, valuation, and corporate governance, and she is a frequent speaker at industry
conferences and on
academic panels.
Her Ph.D. thesis addressed energy futures and options markets. She also
co-authored a college textbook on futures and options.