It’s not often you make a major life decision at 35,000 feet, yet that’s exactly what happened after Belcourt residents Kevin and Shannon Lowther, at the time living in London, England, paid a visit to Bakersfield in the summer of 2016. These well-educated, global professionals gave up an international lifestyle to become a part of our Seven Oaks community, and since that time, both Bakersfield and the Central Valley have benefited from their personal and professional talents. 

Getting started
Shannon grew up in East Bakersfield and shared with me her ancestors were some of our area’s original settlers; part of their history includes her family donating one of the structures at Pioneer Village and her grandparents donating one of the unique neon signs that’s part of the Kern County Museum’s collection. 

 

Kevin, a New Zealander, was raised in the coastal city of New Plymouth in the Provence of Taranaki. Ironically, like their current home, that area was also known for both energy and dairy production (although Kevin shared, “The weather isn’t as hot, and it’s a lot wetter!”) Kevin graduated from the University of Auckland with a degree in Accounting and Finance and holds several post-graduate finance qualifications. He moved into the merchant banking industry and then into financial markets technology where he spent more than 20 years in management and consulting positions. His roles included product and data management with multi-national financial institutions such as Reuters, Citigroup, and Barclays.

 

On this side of the globe, Shannon had earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Redlands and an MBA in Finance from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Shannon holds the prestigious Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, one of the most highly regarded postgraduate qualifications in finance. It’s often considered the "gold standard" in the investment profession. For almost two decades, she worked in San Francisco for companies like KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers in the area of business valuation consulting. She was working as a Director of Valuation Services for Grant Thornton LLP when they offered her an opportunity to work in their London office. 

 

Here’s where their paths intersected; a mutual friend set Kevin and Shannon up on a blind date. Fast forward, they’ve now been married for 13 years. In 2016, their daughter Madeleine (“Maddie”) was born, and later that year, Kevin, Shannon and 5 month-old Maddie flew from London to Bakersfield to visit Shannon’s family. “Living in London was great,” said Shannon, “but we missed being closer to family. And from a business perspective, when we were here and learning more about this community, we recognized a gap in the Central Valley market for the type of work we do.” On the flight back to London, they began strategizing on how to make a move to Bakersfield a reality. 

 

Establishing their business 
In late 2017, the Lowthers arrived in Bakersfield, and they established Central Pacific Valuation in early 2018. Their work is focused on valuing businesses in Central California, yet they also work with clients throughout the U.S. as well as offshore. They focus on businesses with gross sales of several million dollars or more, and they also offer litigation support for non-contentious business transactions such as marital and shareholder/partnership dissolutions. “We both hold the Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) credential in Business Valuation,” Shannon added. “This is the premier credential for business valuation, and we’re two of only three individuals who hold this credential within the Central Valley.”  In viewing the company’s website, you’ll see that both Kevin and Shannon hold numerous, prestigious accreditations that support and affirm their business expertise.

I asked the Lowthers how they go about performing a business valuation. “We typically apply an income-based methodology,” said Kevin. “We look at a business’s forecasted income stream, its expected future growth, and the risks of achieving that level of future cash flow. This process leads to our concluded value of the business. If we’re valuing an interest in the business, we consider applicable discounts for lack of control (aka minority interests) and lack of marketability (meaning you can’t easily sell an interest in a private company). A misnomer, especially with an asset-intensive business, is believing the value of your company is based on what you paid for your assets, like your machinery used to produce your product,” said Kevin. “That may not be the case. We look not only at the asset itself, but we take that a step further to look at the cash flow/income stream that this asset helps to generate for the business. How does that asset help the business generate cash flow?”

 

Shannon stated they consider using multiples based on comparable industry transactions or trading multiples of comparable public companies to value businesses, such as multiples of revenue or earnings. However, whether they use this approach depends on the availability of relevant transaction data and the comparability of the subject company to much larger, diversified public companies.

 

Central Pacific Valuation works with business owners in a variety of industries including agriculture, transportation, oil and gas, medical/healthcare, manufacturing, business services, and technology. “The Central Valley and Bakersfield professional community have been very welcoming to us,” Shannon shares. “CPAs, lawyers, wealth advisors, and commercial real estate brokers refer clients to us for valuation services. On our end, we’re providing them with a needed service, taking great pride in our ability to remain unbiased in providing our services. We consider that an imperative to maintaining our business integrity.”

 

I asked them, “When would business owners want to reach out to you for your services?” The Lowthers shared that their valuation services typically fall into two categories; the first is valuations for estate and gift tax reporting, and the second is where you would traditionally think you need a business valuation: buying or selling a business. Estate work happens when an individual passes and the trustee or executor must report the value of that person’s portion of the business to the IRS.  Central Pacific Valuation also provides valuation reports for gift tax filings for estate planning purposes. When buying or selling of all or a part of a business, the transacting parties need to know what the business or interest is worth. Central Pacific Valuation works with both buyers and sellers to determine value.

 

I wanted to hear about some of their more unique valuation experiences. Shannon shared when she worked in London, she performed valuations of a Formula One Team and a United Kingdom pubs group. She also shared how she worked with a bottling entity in Cairo, Egypt on a company valuation. “From the conference room where we were meeting, I was looking out a window at the Pyramids of Giza. That was quite a view.”  

 

“What makes this kind of work so satisfying is that every day is different,” said Kevin. “Since we work with a wide range of industries and companies, there's a lot of variety. There are so many innovative businesses located here in the Central Valley; the owners tend to conduct their business more quietly. You don’t hear a lot about them, but they're out there.”

 

The Lowthers moved into our Seven Oaks community when they arrived from London in late 2017. In 2019, they moved into their residence in the Westcott community of Belcourt. They enjoy how walkable and well maintained the community is and the number of amenities Belcourt Seven Oaks offers. “We have wonderful neighbors, too,” said Shannon. “With Maddie’s education being a priority, the right school was a determining factor in where we would buy a home. We’ve been very happy with Highgate Elementary.”  Maddie, now 8 years old, enjoys swimming and playing tennis. 

 

Shannon is a member of Bakersfield West Rotary and sits on the board of the Bakersfield Symphony. When I asked them to share something about themselves that neighbors might not know, Shannon told me, “I’m a violinist, and starting at age 16 I was a Bakersfield Symphony member for two years; this was before the Bakersfield Youth Symphony Orchestra was formed. Over the years, I‘ve also played in a number of community orchestras. Kevin then shared, “As a dare from a friend who was registering at the time, I ran the Tromso Midnight Half Marathon in Norway without any training! Being in the Arctic circle, it was light 24 hours of the day.” As a matter of great pride, Kevin became a U.S. Citizen in 2024.

Life has taken some interesting, international twists and turns for the Lowthers. Yet choosing the Central Valley for the next phase of their personal and business lives is a decision our Bakersfield and Seven Oaks communities can be thankful for.