Highlights William Blair & Company
William Blair & Company is a global investment banking and asset management firm. We are committed to building enduring relationships with clients and providing expertise to meet their evolving needs. William Blair’s investment banking group combines significant transaction experience, rich industry knowledge, and deep relationships to deliver successful advisory and financing solutions to our global base of corporate clients. We have a highly experienced group of senior professionals, as evidenced by our average partner tenure of more than 15 years.
We serve both publicly traded and privately held companies, executing mergers and acquisitions, growth financing through public or private markets, special situations and restructuring, and general advisory projects. This comprehensive suite of services allows us to be a long-term partner to our clients as they grow and evolve. In 2010, the investment banking group completed 65 merger and acquisition transactions worth more than $9 billion in value, involving parties in 22 countries, and was an underwriter on 20% of all U.S. initial public offerings.
William Blair is a global firm delivering sound, conflict-free advisory services to clients around the world. The firm has about 1,100 employees and is based in Chicago, with office locations including Boston, London, New York, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Zurich. Our investment banking business has fluency in more than 14 languages.
People. We offer a unique work environment for people who are intelligent, driven and articulate. We strive to foster an entrepreneurial, collegial atmosphere and believe that our employees are our single greatest asset. We are committed to investing in people who are not only talented, but who also display a spirit of teamwork, client-service and collaboration across businesses, geographies, and cultures. Our performance-based compensation system enables us to hire, retain, and reward high-achieving professionals who provide outstanding client service and make valuable contributions to the team’s success.
Growth. We have a mandate to help companies grow. Our clients rely on us from the time they are an emerging enterprise looking to gain access to private or public capital until they become an industry leader looking to complete a transformative acquisition. Our global footprint, industry expertise and local market knowledge enable us to assist our clients in both meeting their growth objectives and connecting with an international strategic buyer and investor network. We work with high-growth companies across a broad array of industries and consistently help them complete a wide range of strategic transactions.
Independence. William Blair & Company has remained privately owned by active employees since the firm’s founding. Our independence and entrepreneurial spirit resonates throughout the firm. We have a flat organizational structure that facilities teamwork and collaboration. As a firm that consistently provides cutting-edge business solutions to our clients, we depend on innovative thinking and a practical approach to problem solving. We expect every member of our team to provide insight and new ideas.
Community Service. Contributing to the community is an important part of our culture at William Blair. In 2010, the William Blair & Company Foundation gave nearly $1.4 million to 250 organizations. Beyond financial support, our employees contribute their time, energy, and leadership to hundreds of organizations. The firm brings high school interns to work in the summer; employees tutor elementary students in reading and mathematics; and employees organize groups that devote time to paint a school or build playground equipment. This is just a small sample of the ways our employees contribute to their communities. William Blair is a global firm with a continuing commitment to meeting urgent needs around the world.
Future. For over 75 years, William Blair has prospered by remaining true to the words of our founder, William McCormick Blair: “When our clients succeed, the firm’s success will follow.” We are excited to have the opportunity to continue fulfilling this mission for the next 75 years and beyond. By adhering to our core values of independence, performance, and a commitment to long-term relationships, we will continue to grow and expand our capacity to serve our clients. Achieving this vision depends on our ability to hire talented, dynamic, and motivated people who share our commitment to working together on behalf of our clients. William Blair is dedicated to hiring, training, and developing the best and brightest people to help us meet the challenges and opportunities before us.
For more information, please visit www.williamblair.com.
