Donald Wiggins

C. Donald “Don” Wiggins is chairman of Heritage Capital Group, Inc., a Jacksonville-based middle-market investment banking firm. Heritage announced on January 25, 2024 that Wiggins stepped down as president and CEO and became chairman of the board, with Bill Sorenson appointed CEO and Alex Kellison appointed president. The Jacksonville Daily Record reported that Wiggins founded Heritage more than 30 years earlier and grew the firm with Howard Serkin, now chairman of Heritage’s advisory board.

Wiggins’s work centers on mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, business valuation, strategic planning, value enhancement, exit planning, sales and divestitures, and capital placement. Heritage says he has more than 30 years of experience advising domestic and international clients and has led transactions across business services, healthcare, distribution and logistics, and manufacturing. Oaklins describes him as chairman of Oaklins Heritage in Jacksonville and Savannah and a principal focused on strategic consulting, exit advice, sell-side and buy-side transaction services, especially for logistics and supply chain clients.

Before and alongside his advisory career, Wiggins had a substantial academic career. He is Professor Emeritus of Accounting and Finance at the University of North Florida, taught at Clemson University for nine years, and has more than 25 years of university teaching experience across corporate finance, investments, and accounting. He received B.B.A. and M.B.A. degrees from Georgia Southern University and a D.B.A. from Louisiana Tech University in 1976.

He holds professional designations including ASA, CVA, CEPA, and CPA/ABV, is a CPA, and Heritage states he is a licensed real estate broker and registered securities principal. Heritage says he has conducted more than 3,000 valuations of closely held companies; Oaklins states he has provided strategic advice, valuation, and related services to more than 4,000 companies over 35-plus years.

• Wiggins is best understood as an M&A, valuation, and capital advisory professional rather than a conventional angel investor; I found no primary-source evidence of a personal seed-stage investment program.
• His current Oaklins focus is logistics and supply chain, including distribution, storage, trucking, moving, rail service providers, local delivery, logistics technology, manufacturing, and related supply-chain companies.
• Heritage’s client profile is privately held companies, including owners preparing to sell, companies acquiring businesses for growth, and companies exploring private capital markets.
• Heritage’s capital-raising work includes growth capital for projects, investments and expansions; acquisition advisory; financing for strategic growth; sale-leaseback; refinancing; restructuring; alternative capital providers; and distressed or special-situation investor sourcing.
• Wiggins’s valuation lens emphasizes reducing risk before a transaction. In a 2026 Oaklins valuation webinar, he stated: “Identifying and addressing value killers in a company is the single most valuable process for an owner to go through, whether the company will be sold in six months or held for 20 years.”
• Practical factors he highlights through Oaklins include customer stability, operational discipline, people, innovation, the owner’s role in the business, customer concentration, financial reporting quality, owner dependency, sales structure, and technology adaptation.