Growing up in Brussels, Belgium, Nevin Sanli, a 1986 School of Social Sciences graduate with a BS in Honors Economics, dreamed of advancing his education in the United States and starting his own business. He was drawn to UC Irvine, not just by its geographic desirability, but also by its Economics program.

After graduating, Sanli went on to realize his second dream. As President and Co-Founder of Sanli Pastore & Hill, Inc., a Los Angeles-based business valuation and valuation advisory company, his business grew from a fledgling operation with no clients or revenues, run from his one-bedroom apartment, to a growing concern of 25 employees with 4 offices throughout California that do business nationwide.

Today the SP&H client roster reads like the who’s who of California governmental entities, along with Fortune 500 clients and privately held firms. As an independent provider of business valuation and valuation services geared to “withstand the most stringent third-party scrutiny,” Sanli’s firm proved that the market recognizes, and rewards, what he calls, “the desire of three people to create a better widget.”

Using his education from the School of Social Sciences—from research and survey techniques to statistical analysis, econometrics, and financial theory, Sanli and his partners built a cost-effective valuation service backed with airtight research and justifications made in jury-friendly English that better filled client needs.

Emphasizing the quantitative strengths of his education at the School of Social Sciences, Sanli’s research assistantships and independent studies with faculty proved especially relevant to his career, enabling him to analyze business and life situations in innovative ways. He believes that the fact that faculty at the School took him under their wings—pushing, promoting, and helping him—exemplifies a spirit that thrives today in both the School and University. Sanli advises all students “to maximize every moment of your education by seeking out those one-on-one opportunities while in school.” That those unique relationships are available to earnest students is, according to Sanli, what differentiates UCI from other institutions.

According to Sanli, once in the workforce, a graduate should “focus on developing a product or service that is the best he can create, that he feels pride in, that stimulates him, and evokes his passion.” After close to 20 years in business valuation, it’s clear Nevin Sanli is still passionate about his work. In describing how his company grew, Sanli says he lives in “a constant state of dissatisfaction, with a sense of urgency. That business model can frustrate co-workers,” he points out, “until they see its payoff in rapid improvement and continual expansion.”

What all three partners sought in starting their new venture was primarily intellectual satisfaction, or what Sanli calls “psychic income.” The rest followed naturally. “Those whose focus is on money make the biggest mistake—they get in their own way. Ultimately, the goal is to be a good neighbor, citizen, co-worker, and family man, creating jobs and rewarding lives for yourself and those around you.”

When asked if Los Angeles and the United States had allowed him that idealized sense of community, Sanli replied, “You find compatible people—by that I don’t mean agreeing on every point, but approaching problems and thinking along similar lines—wherever you are.” Southern California’s diversity, its openness, and progressive thinking—factors influential in Sanli’s remaining in the US after his schooling—gave him a community in which he, his business, and his family have thrived.

To give-back to the place Nevin Sanli’s American saga began, he currently sits on the Social Sciences Dean's Council, participating not only in the establishment of endowed chairs and scholarships, but also in building goodwill for the School by getting its story out.

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