An "independent expert" is someone who is paid in cash and does not receive an equity-based payment for his opinion.
It's nothing to do with whether his opinion is biased. I haven't seen an IE report yet that isn't heavily biased towards the preferred option. Always take what these reports say with a pinch of salt. No board would commission a report which states an outcome different to their strategy. IE reports are worth about as much as WNI script, indeed some would say they are worth less.
BRM Price at posting:
$2.24 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held