Heritage Global Partners

Ross Dove – Managing Partner

Ross Dove began his illustrious career over thirty years ago, joining his father and grandfather at a small proud family auction house in San Francisco.  During his tenure, he pioneered countless advances and industry firsts, as the firm he joined eventually climbed to become the worlds largest and most respected  industrial asset and commercial property auction company.  His success has been widely chronicled in major publications including Fortune, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and the Economist, among many others.  He is a frequent lecturer who has spoken at many business schools including Stanford and UC Berkeley, as well as industry events globally.

Mr. Dove served for decades as Chairman and CEO of DoveBid*, Dove Brothers, Koll-Dove, and Ross-Dove Company.  Under his direction, the firm piloted the concept of Theatre-style auctions, organizing an audience to sit and bid via catalog and video, versus past walk around facility sales.  This ground breaking achievement was the first step in migrating auction events onto the Internet.

His landmark signing of Osborne Computer Corp, the first ever manufacturer of personal computers, attracted thousands of bidders, and drew international acclaim as the auction sale of the decade.

Under Mr. Dove’s leadership, the firm was the first auction house to break the corporate barrier of conducting sales for successful, Fortune 500 Companies, including AT&T, Bondwell, Cray Computer, Digital Equipment Corp, Everex, General Dynamics, LSI Logic, Maxtor, Northern Telecom, Priam, Qume, Rodime, SCI, Tandon, U.S. Sprint, VLSI, and 3Com, among countless others.

He was a past director of Critical Path (Nasdaq listed), and has served on boards of several venture funded companies.  He has been a long standing member of the National Auctioneers Association, and a founding member of the International Auctioneers Association. Together with his partner, Kirk Dove, over five thousand auctions and ten thousand valuations have been completed.

Kirk Dove, ASA – Managing Partner

Kirk Dove is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Heritage Global Partners. Mr. Dove brings over 25 years of experience to the position, having served as President of GoIndustry-DoveBid*, President of DoveBid*, President of DoveBrothers, President of Koll-Dove and President of Ross-Dove Company.

During his career, he has pioneered the Industry, changing the way auction events are signed, marketed and conducted.

Mr. Dove’s  innovations included introducing corporations to sign forward flow multi-event contracts, changing the industry compensation structure from client fee, seller-based to a buyer’s premium platform;  introducing webcast style auctions, merging voice and video, and broadcasting to worldwide audiences over the internet; the origination of featured online sales; the creation of vertical sector sale events, and migrating to a paperless world of electronic marketing and notification for all events.  With these innovations, the marketplace over time indeed followed suit.

Mr. Dove has represented many of the following companies in multiple auction sales, personally contracting and conducting major events with Apple Computer, Applied Magnetics, AST Research, Bank of America, Businessland, Compaq, Computerland, Davong, ElectroRent,  FDIC, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Hughes, IBM, Janus Disc, Kollmorgan, Lockheed Martin, Martin Marrietta, NCR, Oread, Packard Bell, Quantum, Raytheon, Storage Tek, Tektronix, Vision Tech, Wang, Xerox, Zenith and many more.  These sales have generated over 3 Billion in worldwide sales of industrial Equipment.

In addition to sales of capital assets, Mr. Dove was the lead Auctioneer in scores of commercial Real Estate and Non-Performing Loan portfolio sales for the Nation’s largest  money center Banks, the RTC, and the FDIC.  These landmark sales generated over 1 Billion Dollars, garnered worldwide recognition, and took their place in the ranks of the highest grossing auctions in U.S. history.

Prior to Ross-Dove Company, Mr. Dove was employed at Merrill Lynch for several years as a Senior Account Executive, where he directed a client base of over 600 individuals and businesses.  He holds a Bachelors of Sciences degree in Business from Northern Illinois University, and is a Senior ASA Member of the American Society of Appraisers. In addition, he is a long standing member of the National Auctioneers Association.

Stephen J. Gross, Chief Financial Officer

Steve Gross has spent the past 30 years in Financial and Business Management companies, notably numerous Internet start-ups, IPO’s, and mature businesses. He has provided financial guidance to company providers of market research, food distributorships, DNS services and more. In addition, he brings over eleven years of experience in the Asset Advisory and Auction Services industry, having served as the Chief Financial Officer of Ross-Dove Company.
During his tenure at RDC, Steve helped design and implement auction accounting systems to enable the company to provide the reporting and accounting necessary to serve the growing segment of small and large corporate accounts.

Mr. Gross managed the auction operations for all FDIC and RTC sale events held by RDC, in which the company sold over 1 Billion dollars in Real Estate and Debt portfolio instruments.

He has personally supervised many large consumer auctions including Apple, AST, Compaq, IBM and Packard Bell, handling the flow from thousands of purchasers, including sales tax and VAT collection.
Mr. Gross holds a Bachelors of Sciences Degree from Cal State University, Northridge. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant.

J. Bruce Costello, Vice President of Operations

Before joining Heritage Global Partners, Bruce Costello provided consulting and advisory services to the semiconductor industry through his company, J. B. Costello & Associates. The company specialized in the marketing and sale of used semiconductor and related high technology equipment through online auctions and negotiated sales.

Prior to that, Mr. Costello served as Senior Vice President of Global Operations for DoveBid LLC, where he managed the Operations division for the world’s largest industrial auctioneer and asset appraisal firm. His responsibilities included directing a complete range of capital asset auctions, valuations, redeployments, consulting and management services. Mr. Costello also designed and managed a diverse portfolio of asset disposition solutions, including onsite, webcast and online auctions, sealed bid and private treaty sales. As a professional auctioneer, Mr. Costello has called bids in 10 countries and 30 states.  He has conducted more than 500 major capital asset auctions which have generated auction revenues in excess of $600 million.

Mr. Costello is an asset valuation and liquidation professional with more than 18 years of experience in a broad range of asset classes. He has provided capital asset valuations, inventory services, as well as liquidation and profitability analysis to Fortune 500 companies, venture capital groups, and asset-based lending institutions.

George Wandachowicz, Vice President of Business Development

George Wandachowicz began his professional career in 1978, as a graduate of Moncton Flight College in Canada. He possesses an Airline Pilots Rating and served as a pilot for 10 years. In 1988 Mr. Wandachowicz transitioned into a professional sales career spanning over 8 years with companies such as Xerox, Honeywell, & Data General.

Mr. Wandachowicz joined the firm’s predecessor in 1994 as Director of Auction Services. He managed a diverse portfolio of auction services including onsite, webcast, and online auctions, as well as private treaty sales for such clients as Allied Signal, 3M, Honeywell, Packard Bell, and Weyerhaeuser.

Over the years Mr. Wandachowicz has generated in excess of $100 million in auction sales and is currently working as Vice President of Business Development for Heritage Global Partners.

*Heritage Global Partners is not affiliated with DoveBid, Inc. or GoIndustry DoveBid PLC.  DOVEBID is a registered trademark of DoveBid, Inc.