“The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle is perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.”
Samuel Smiles, a Scottish author & reformer (1812-1904)
Quote is from his most famous book, Self-Help
On many fronts we’re excited to bring you our Fall issue of Evergreen News. As we were planning for it, it struck us that this past Summer should have been called “the Summer of Champions.” The NHL and NBA finals, the US Open, Wimbledon, World Cup, British Open, Tour de France . . . and more. Competing in sports and business has everything in common with building an organization, creating a culture, dealing with adversity and much more.
We’re honored to have two legends from the sports and investment world, John Schuerholz, President of the Atlanta Braves, and Bill Miller, Chairman of Legg Mason Capital Management, as our guests in this issue’s Q&A with Mike. Between 1991- 2005, the Atlanta Braves won 15 consecutive division championships and Bill Miller’s Legg Mason Value Trust Fund topped the S&P 500 the same years, extraordinary achievements that may never happen again.
You might have noticed by now our new name, Evergreen Advisors. We’re enthused about it, and we feel it better defines our role as investment bankers. The road to success for our clients has many unseen and unexpected challenges. As their advisors we need to help them make smart decisions and have the resources to WIN! Along with our new name, we’re introducing a new slogan that we hope will resonate with all the Friends of Evergreen, “Realize Your Destiny.” It sums up what our most important mission is, helping our clients succeed!
Two additional features that we’re adding to our newsletter are Spotlight on Evergreen Team Members and Spotlight on an Evergreen Advisory Board Member. We hope you’ll enjoy reading and learning about Mark Gretz and Gregg Smith. We’d like to welcome Griffin Cole as our newest Evergreen team member. “Grif” majored in finance and is a May graduate of Virginia Tech. Grif interned with us in the summer of 2009 and is now a fulltime member of our team (not all recent college grads are unemployed)! He joins us as an analyst and will work closely with the Valuation and M&A teams. We’d also like to thank Matt Hellauer, a senior at Georgetown University, majoring in economics who interned with us this summer. Matt was a great addition to our team and we wish him the best in his final year.
As we head into the Fall, we’re encouraged by the activity in the marketplace. On all fronts, mergers and acquisitions, capital raise, valuation, and CFO advisory services, the market is “alive” and many companies are in a growth and expansion mode. We have also received some great press coverage with Drew and Mike being featured in a Baltimore Business Journal article about Advisory Boards. In addition, Rick Kohr was quoted in a Baltimore Sun article about technology firms in the metropolitan region.
Don’t miss reading the interview with John and Bill. It is truly fascinating.