Sawing a burl

[Engineer]

Got a friend who is receiving a shipment from Oregon of a big Oregon bigleaf maple burl.  He said it's 72" diameter and 24" tall, picture a big jelly donut.  He wants to know the best way to saw it to get caps, slabs and some table tops, and I honestly don't know.

What we have in mind is to somehow cut it in half (like you were gonna cut a donut in half) - lay each half cut side down on the mill bed,and start cutting off pieces.  I have a chainsaw with a 25" bar and my Woodmizer with fresh new blades, so I can handle the cutting, but I want to know if there's any ideas floating around about how to maximize value and minimize waste in cutting this monster.  I imagine this thing costs a couple bucks a pound, so I really don't wanna screw this thing up.