by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
C. Donald Wiggins grew up in small town near Plains, Ga., and attended Georgia Southern University, where he was a pitcher until he tore a rotator cuff.
With his mother a teacher and his father a businessman, Wiggins focused on both areas.
He majored in business, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Georgia Southern and a doctorate at Louisiana Tech University in finance.
An experienced accounting and finance professor, he came to the University of North Florida in 1985.
He also did consulting work along the way for real-world experience.
Now he’s in that world full-time as president of two companies, Heritage Capital Group Inc. and Business Valuation Inc. He started Business Valuation in 1989 as he taught at UNF, then left the university in 2000 as a professor emeritus.
“One business tells you how much your business is worth and the other helps you sell it,” he said.
Wiggins also serves as an expert witness in litigation when someone needs to know an economic value, such as a breach of contract or a violation of a noncompete agreement.
Wiggins is president of both companies and Howard Serkin is chair of Heritage Capital Group. They’ve been working together 18 years.
The companies operate in offices at Midtown Centre along Beach Boulevard and employ about 15 people directly or as independent contractors.
Wiggins, also a founding president of the Association for Corporate Growth and founder of the M&A International organization, said the work is stressful and detailed, “but I enjoy it.”
“I enjoy selling companies. I enjoy the financial angles. I enjoy the expert witness part,” he said. He has done more than 2,000 valuations of companies.
Wiggins said his team works primarily with middle and smaller closely held companies, started by entrepreneurs.
“They are visionary thinkers,” he said, finding that some common traits are that they are smart, stubborn and hard-working.
Wiggins, 61, and his wife, Mary live in Neptune Beach. They have been married six years.
Wiggins has a box seat in watching the economy. “It’s definitely recovering,” he said, although real estate continues to struggle.
And “transactional business has picked up,” which is good for his companies. “Our bread and butter is to help people buy and sell.”
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