Services

When a company is in crisis, dispute, or transition, the most valuable thing it can have is an experienced operator at the helm: someone who can take the wheel on day one, steady the organization, and make the hard calls. Scott steps in as interim CEO, COO, or operating principal to run the business directly.

He has done this across more than 250 engagements and dozens of industries: taking possession, stabilizing cash and operations, retaining the right people, and protecting the value of the enterprise while a path forward is decided. The mandate is always the same: run it well, and maximize what it is worth.

Distressed does not mean doomed. Scott restructures debt, reorganizes operations, stabilizes cash flow, and rebuilds the foundation a business needs to return to health, or, when that is the right answer, guides it to a clean and profitable exit.

As receiver of a 60-employee steel fabrication company he helped grow adjusted earnings nearly 2× over a four-and-a-half-year engagement while guiding the shareholders to settlement. The work is hands-on, financially disciplined, and measured in outcomes, not activity.

Courts across California, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado have appointed Scott as receiver, referee, and provisional director over disputed and distressed assets: from apartment portfolios and hotels to manufacturing operations, cannabis businesses, and one of the largest cannabis distributors in California.

As a court-appointed fiduciary he takes possession, operates the asset or business neutrally and competently, reports transparently to the court and parties, and sells or divides the asset to maximize proceeds. Neutrality, accountability, and value preservation define every appointment.

Scott serves as board chairman and director where a company needs neutral, experienced governance, most notably as appointed chairman of the board of a multi-generational family industrial business, where he led the board and advisors through the sale of its 80,000 SF real estate and drove maximum value for ownership.

He brings calm, decisive leadership to the boardroom: diagnosing problems quickly, aligning stakeholders through difficult decisions, and keeping everyone focused on a common goal under real time pressure. One client described the role plainly: an outsourced CEO and advisor to a business in transition.

Partner and family disputes can destroy an otherwise healthy business. Scott resolves them by protecting the underlying asset first: putting an equitable management structure in place, restoring transparency, and creating the conditions for the parties to collaborate and settle.

In a four-and-a-half-year shareholder dispute he structured a management solution that let one party run day-to-day operations while the business kept growing, then guided three settlement conferences to a mutually beneficial resolution. The goal is to separate owners without destroying what they built.

As a trustee and fiduciary, Scott administers estates and trusts that hold operating businesses and complex real estate, overseeing management, operations, and the eventual sale of the underlying assets with diligence and transparency.

Fiduciaries and trustees engage him precisely because the assets are operating businesses, not just paper: they need someone who can actually run and sell a company while honoring the duties owed to beneficiaries and the court.

Scott has acquired and disposed of more than $700M in real estate and supervised more than $100M in business sales. He markets and sells businesses, real estate, and operating assets, under court supervision or private engagement, to maximize proceeds for owners, creditors, and beneficiaries.

From an 80-acre mixed-use commercial portfolio to a 77-unit hotel, a 302-unit apartment portfolio, and one of California's largest cannabis distributors, the through-line is disciplined process and a focus on the highest achievable value.

Drawing on hundreds of engagements operating, valuing, and selling distressed businesses, Scott provides expert testimony, valuation opinions, and strategic counsel on failed and distressed ventures, including, recently, an expert opinion on the valuation of a cannabis distribution acquisition.

Attorneys and parties retain him for credibility built on direct operating experience: opinions grounded in having actually run and sold the kinds of businesses at issue.