Greenhill & Co., Inc.

ABOUT THIS COMPANY:

Unique and focused

Greenhill calls itself “a unique investment firm,” and to be sure, it follows a model quite unlike the structure of its behemoth competitors. At Greenhill, independence is the guiding philosophy—because it’s not part of a larger financial institution, the firm seeks to avoid conflicts of interest. Greenhill’s second rule is focus. It has no research, trading, or lending divisions to distract from its advisory work, which includes mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, financings, and capital raisings. The firm is a relatively young one by Wall Street standards: about 16 years old. In 1996, Robert F. Greenhill, former head of Smith Barney and former president of Morgan Stanley, struck out on his own and founded an eponymous boutique firm. He led the company for 11 years before stepping down as CEO in October 2007, but he remains chairman of the board and continues to work on deals. Today, Scott Bok is the firm’s CEO. Although Greenhill went public in 2004, it’s still closely held by its managing directors, many of who worked with Bob Greenhill during his 30-year tenure at Morgan Stanley. Greenhill is headquartered in New York, with additional offices in London, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Melbourne and San Francisco. It employs approximately 330 people.