Summary: Narrator: Welcome to “Own the Promise,” a CLA podcast created to share what guides every decision we make and every relationship we cultivate.<br> [00:00:15]<br> Denny: Good morning, CLA, this is Denny coming to you again this month, actually, from St. Paul, Minnesota at the private industries conference. Having a wonderful time. I hope everyone enjoyed the livestream that we conducted. It seemed to go over very well for the firm. I’ve heard great responses. And thank you for everybody’s participation. Not only those that attended, but also those that attended via the livestream itself.<br> [00:00:41]<br> What I thought I would do, because we had the opportunity with people attending, is address something that we never really address too often within the firm in a public way. And that is really individuals throughout the firm that are interested in investing into the firm. In other words, becoming part of the ownership of CLA. We just went through that process and just completed it recently, and I just wanted to share some thoughts with you.<br> But before I do that, I want to introduce everyone that’s at the table with me today that I’d like to have give some input on this issue, the thought process that goes behind it, and just share some of their thoughts. So, before we get started, Jeff.<br> [00:01:26]<br> Jeff: I’m Jeff Servais, and I’m with the Minneapolis office in the private equity industry.<br> [00:01:32]<br> Heidi: I’m Heidi Hillman. I’m the CFO, and I reside in the Minneapolis office.<br> [00:01:38]<br> Nick: Hi, my name is Nick Nielsen. I’m in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and I’m part of the construction group.<br> [00:01:45]<br> Dan: Hello, my name’s Dan Thieret. I’m in the manufacturing industry in St. Louis.<br> [00:01:51]<br> Scott: Scott Engelbrecht. COO of CLA from St. Louis.<br> [00:01:55]<br> Denny: Scott, let’s start with you just because we all know this is a board of directors process. This is not a management issue that somehow management handles. And, traditionally, what has happened is the board has delegated this responsibility to a smaller group. Really, a subcommittee, in effect, of the board of directors. Could you tell us a little bit about how you led that and that process?<br> [00:02:21]<br> Scott: Absolutely. Thank you, Denny. Yeah, the board appointed a nine-member group, which I chair, the evaluation committee, and we really pretty much go through this process year-round. There’s really very little time we take off during the process.<br> But we go through and get connections and collaborations from people around the country– people that have raised their hand and said, “I have interest in investing in CLA; people that have raised their hand by virtue of their industry and service affiliations–and really spent a lot of time with MPOS, MPIS, CIOs, CSOs, and really finding out all about Nick Nielsen or finding out about Dan Thieret or others.<br> And really taking the process to a point of making sure, one, people are educated as to what ownership means in CLA and how that is different in a lot of ways than the principals in CLA and the differences around investment and return on investment and expectations. And we try to bring that all together each year in late summer, early fall to really come to a decision and a recommendation to the board of a group of people that we think deserve an invitation to ownership.<br> And that process is really culminated, again, in the collaboration I talked about earlier, but also, we wanna make sure we’re doing that fiscally responsible, and we really take our ten-year-vision model very much into play as well. So, thanks, Denny.<br> [00:03:49]<br> Denny: Thank you. And we all know, although sometimes we have to be reminded, that the ownership is not part of the career paths of CLA.
