We’re Saltare, Your Dedicated Team of Intangible Valuation Experts.
Our Mission
We’re here to help business owners understand and extract value from their intangible assets – the true drivers of enterprise value, business performance, and competitive advantage.
Saltare is an intangible asset advisory firm that delivers IP identification, protection, and valuation services to privately-held companies. Understanding your intangible assets is a critical first step for business owners looking to sell their business, raise capital, or simply increase ROI.
With more than 90% of today's business value derived from intangible assets, Saltare exists to help business owners understand and extract value from these assets – the true drivers of enterprise value, business performance, and competitive advantage.
“Saltare is a savior for companies looking to understand the intangible assets they have and how to build on them.”
-Michael Lachowicz, Owner of George Trois Group
Meet Your Team of Experts:
Laura Yunger
Laura serves as CEO of Saltare. As a valuation enhancement expert, Laura drives growth for business owners and C-suite level executives by improving an organization’s intangible asset value. With the majority of today’s business value derived from intangible assets, Laura understands the importance of helping businesses to recognize, capture, and communicate these assets. She has unique experience as a business practitioner who has run both large divisions of Fortune 500 companies as well as small businesses. Her areas of practice include: strategic planning, market strategy, thought leadership, employee engagement, and change management.
Previously, Laura held senior roles in various discipline areas for several global banks, brokerage, and investment management firms. Most recently, Laura was Head of Strategic Initiatives for BMO Private Bank, where she oversaw national programs to increase revenue and employee productivity.
Prior to BMO, Laura served as President of institutional brokerage firm Cheevers & Company, LLC, the Chicago Stock Exchange’s largest member by trading volume. Laura also held executive-level positions with Wachovia Corporation and Bank of America in Charlotte, NC, in their areas of strategic marketing, asset management, and corporate finance.
Laura currently serves as President for Chicago’s Ellevate Network, a global professional women’s organization, and is a founding board member for Chicago’s Exit Planning Exchange, an association of advisors who work with business owners in all stages of the private company life cycle: business value growth, business value transfer, and owner life and legacy. She is also qualified to act as a licensed securities professional with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), holding the Series 7, 24, and 63 licenses.
Athan Demakos
Athan has more than 25 years’ experience in corporate communications, investor relations, and finance. Athan’s specialty is helping organizations harness the value of their intangible assets to drive growth and build sustainable competitive advantage. As the President & Chief Strategy Officer of Saltare, his practice areas include: thought leadership, reputation management, strategic planning, corporate positioning, and crisis communications.
During his career, Athan has assisted business leaders with a wide array of challenging situations across multiple industries. He has advised numerous Fortune 500 companies and international organizations to develop results-focused communication strategies. The hallmark of Athan’s work focuses on linking communications activities to corporate goals, with the ultimate objective being to engage stakeholders, improve corporate reputation and maximize shareholder value.
Prior to joining Saltare, he held senior positions with several global public relations agencies, including Ketchum, Burson-Marsteller, and Fleishman-Hillard. He also formerly served as founder and SVP of Marketing for StreetFusion, a San Francisco-based professional services company.
Athan began his career as a stock analyst with Prudential Securities in New York. Athan has received a number of public relations industry awards for his communications programs, including the Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil and the Silver Trumpet.
Suzanne Hart
Suzanne has more than 25 years’ experience in marketing analytics, strategy, and brand development. She has served as a customer champion and change agent, leading large-scale programs in growth-focused environments. As Chief Marketing Officer of Saltare, her practice areas include: product development, market strategy, and sales effectiveness.
Suzanne has held senior management positions in banking, trust, and capital markets businesses. Most recently, Suzanne served as Director of Corporate Marketing for BankFinancial N.A. Prior, Suzanne was with William Blair, LLC, where she focused on strategic initiatives, providing greater efficiency with better data and metric analytics. Suzanne also spent 10 years with steadily increasing responsibilities at BMO Harris Bank, N.A. For her introduction of Premier Services, a banking and investment program targeting the mass affluent market, Suzanne earned the elite "BMO US Excellence Award."
Suzanne began her career with advertising industry leaders Gannett Media and J. Walter Thompson rising to management and partner positions. Plus, she founded and managed a Michigan Avenue agency serving blue-chip clients.
Our Clients
We strive to significantly contribute to our clients’ success. We partner with companies to help them become more competitive and generate more revenue. We also help businesses understand and focus on the intangible assets such as human capital, intellectual property, innovation and thought leadership that play a critical role in their valuation. Below are a few examples of how we work with our clients to create the success they deserve.
