About Richard

Professor Richard Puntillo’s Expert Witness practice draws on a unique background that combines a distinguished teaching career as a University of San Francisco finance professor with two decades of high-level executive experience in investment and commercial banking.  He also has over 20 years of board of directors service in SEC-reporting companies, including serving as Chairman of the Board and Audit Committee Chair.

Professor Puntillo has been an Expert Witness in 75 cases, prepared Expert Reports in 66 cases, given deposition testimony 48 times and testified in court on 9 occasions, including 2 jury trials, 4 bench trials and 3 arbitration hearings.  He has served as a due diligence expert opining on the standard of care and custom and practice in the following capacities: custom and practice for underwriter due diligence (including IPOs, equity follow-on offerings and debt offerings); custom and practice for mergers & acquisitions due diligence; and custom and practice for private equity and venture capital investment due diligence.  He has also served as an Expert Witness on customary practices in the investment banking industry (including customary practices for IPOs, equity follow-on offerings and debt offerings); customary practices in the private equity and venture capital businesses; and customary practices in the commercial and mortgage banking businesses.  Moreover, he has served as an Expert Witness on corporate governance custom and practice for boards of directors and executives related to mergers and acquisitions and various financing transactions, including opinions on customary practices regarding conflicts of interest, the role of special committees and fair price/fair process.

Before becoming a full-time professor at the University of San Francisco’s Business School in 1990, Richard Puntillo spent nine years as an investment banker and 11 years as a commercial banker.  His experience includes significant SEC-reporting responsibilities and extensive transactional experience in securities and commercial lending transactions, including conducting and overseeing numerous due diligence investigations.  During his career, he has been directly involved as a corporate officer or director in negotiating, structuring and approving over a dozen M&A transactions.

Before transitioning to Emeritus Professor in 2014, Professor Puntillo taught MBA finance courses covering capital markets, investment banking, private equity and venture capital.  He was made a tenured, full professor in 1998 and has been recognized as one of the Business School’s top teachers, winning a total of six awards for distinguished teaching.