A Culture of Connecting

IIn 1989, when Jack Maier landed at Drexel Burnham Lambert, a major investment banking firm on Wall Street, he thought he had found his dream job. But a year later, it all evaporated in front of him.

He said, ‘Under the Warren Act, we’re required to give you notice that you’re being terminated.’

“I was only a year out of school at that time,” he recounts today. “I’ll never forget how the head of investment banking at Drexel called all of the employees into the auditorium. He said, ‘Under the Warren Act, we’re required to give you notice that you’re being terminated.’ I was one of those kids on TV carrying a box of personal effects out of my office. I had a lot of student loans, and Drexel was viewed as being somewhat toxic. Goldman Sachs wouldn’t even interview Drexel employees.”

It was a defining moment in Jack’s life, and thanks to his ability to connect with the people around him, he was able to turn it into a transcendent success.

It was a defining moment in Jack’s life, and thanks to his ability to connect with the people around him, he was able to turn it into a transcendent success. At Drexel, employee surveys had consistently ranked him as the person everyone most wanted to work with on their next transaction. Roy Abbott, his boss, had taken note, and was struck by Jack’s work ethic, presence, and ability to communicate effectively. When Roy joined a firm called Rodman & Renshaw, he offered a VP position to Jack, the first person he reached out to.

Now, decades later, Jack is the Head of Investment Banking at Headwaters MB, where he still prioritizes connections and relationships as the true driving force behind a productive and successful environment. “Our firm has three partners—the CEO, the President & COO, and myself—that work together very well,” he explains. “Our styles are night and day in some respects. But because of those differences, we have a chemistry that works, allowing us to come together to make the best decisions for the firm.”

I believe in bringing people together and building trust and cooperation, treating people like adults and assuming they’ll make the right decisions in the best interest of the client and the firm.”

This emphasis on teamwork extends beyond the top ranks of leadership at Headwaters, and is something Jack proudly cultivates throughout the business by encouraging a culture of transparency, communication, and flexibility. “Through my career, I’ve seen acquisitions go bad, mergers crumble, and profits suffer at the hands of cultural conflicts,” he affirms. “But a good culture can foster low turnover, high job satisfaction, and phenomenal results. For me, a great culture comes from a focus on consensus-building. I believe in bringing people together and building trust and cooperation, treating people like adults and assuming they’ll make the right decisions in the best interest of the client and the firm.”

Transparency is also a key part of this equation. “Everybody at the firm knows what transactions our partners are working on,” Jack says. “We have an Investment Banking Committee that reviews all transactions prior to approval, and then distributes a memo to all 110 employees at Headwater for their awareness. If somebody has previous experience they can use to add value to that transaction, they can pick up the phone and call me. Beyond these foundational principles, we also genuinely appreciate each other and believe its important to have fun together.”

Jack believes so strongly in the importance of a good business culture because, after 30 years in the investment banking industry, he’s seen what can happen in its absence. He started his own firm, Legacy Partners in 2003, and while the venture was successful, their eventual sale to FBR Capital Markets was less so. “We effected the merger and lived through three painful years,” he recalls. “It was a cultural mismatch, and we thought we could change things. But at FBR, I learned that cultural shifts are a multi-year process.”

When his contract with FBR finally ended, Jack connected with Phil Seefried, one of the original founders of Headwaters. “He asked me to think about becoming a part of his organization, so we met at the Metropolitan Club in DC,” Jack recalls. “Instead of spending one hour together, our business meeting stretched on for five hours, we got along so well. I came onboard in October of 2011, and it feels like my ideal fit. I’ve had a long and winding career with plenty of landmines along the way, but things happen for a reason, and I feel I can say I’ve grown from those experiences.”

Today, after six years at Headwaters, Jack’s tenure as Head of Investment Banking has completely transformed the structure of the business, for the better. For starters, he and his team led the charge to maximize the value of the firm’s, referral agreements with large Wall Street banks like UBS, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. “I had had experience with these agreements while running Legacy Partners,” he recounts. “In that situation, growing personal relationships was key to taking full advantage of the agreements. We traveled all over the country to make presentations to the regional offices, explaining how we could be helpful to them.”

Jack’s strategy of courting the big banks with personal attention and customer service paid off in spades. Business that came out of Headwaters’ referral agreements used to make up a mere 10 to 15 percent of their total business. Today, it makes up a full two-thirds. “The beauty of the business is that it’s annuity-like in nature,” Jack points out. “Merrill Lynch is not going away, and they pick up the phone once a week to call us about various opportunities they come across that would be good fits for us.”

These relationships do more than provide a consistent flow of business via the referral deals—they also help the firm attract and retain top talent. “It creates a stickiness for our investment bankers,” Jack explains. “Deal flow is the lifeblood of an investment bank, and at Headwaters, two-thirds of the deals bankers are working on have come from someone other than themselves. They might be referred in by one of our referral partners, or they might come from another partner in the firm that’s run across something that falls outside his or her expertise. It’s a dream come true for an investment banker, resulting in very low turnover.”

Today, Headwaters is a national enterprise headquartered in Denver, with offices spanning from the Southeast, to the West Coast, to the Southwest, to New York. Servicing wide range international clients, it has no geographic limitations whatsoever. The team focuses on middle-market enterprise value clients ranging from $25 to $250 million, forming a complementary relationship with the bigger firms. They serve ten industry verticals, with an emphasis on technology, consumer, healthcare, aerospace, defense and government services, and industrials.”

Jack’s stunning success as an investment banker speaks to a natural talent and single minded ambition, but growing up in Greensboro, North Carolina, he instead planned to become a lawyer, like his father. “My dad instilled in me a very strong work ethic,” Jack says. “I would watch him go to work every day in a suit, and sometimes he’d let me come with him.”

“I love being reminded of who I am and where I come from.” Centuries later, his father was a patent attorney, while his mother stayed home and took care of Jack and his two younger brothers. “They were very loving parents,” he remembers. “I never heard them quarrel, which is amazing after 60 years of marriage.”

Proud to come from a hardworking, deeply Christian family that came to the U.S. in 1835, Jack treasures an old book with the letters his family wrote while crossing the Atlantic. “The deep faith in God and prayerful letters helped them make it through,” Jack reflects. “I love being reminded of who I am and where I come from.” Centuries later, his father was a patent attorney, while his mother stayed home and took care of Jack and his two younger brothers. “They were very loving parents,” he remembers. “I never heard them quarrel, which is amazing after 60 years of marriage.”

Greensboro was an idyllic, calm, affordable area to grow up, surrounded by rolling foothills and accessible to hiking trials. Jack fondly remembers riding bikes, playing baseball, and getting into trouble with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood. “Our lives were so much simpler,” he notes. “They weren’t wrapped around technology. We’d run around until we heard my dad’s dinnertime whistle. My childhood days were filled with freedom and activity.”

His mother emphasized the importance of faith, and the whole family attended Catholic Church together on Sundays.

In the summertime, Jack learned to appreciate the value of a dollar, taking on all manner of neighborhood jobs like mowing lawns, painting houses, cleaning gutters, and washing cars. His mother emphasized the importance of faith, and the whole family attended Catholic Church together on Sundays. At school, he developed an interest in soccer, eventually playing on the state championship team in high school. And his brothers were always up for a wrestling match on the porch or a football game in the living room.

“When I was a kid, I remember my dad telling me I was the only one he could talk about business with because my brothers weren’t interested,” Jack recalls.

Jack also began showing an interest in business early on. When he was ten, he began to voraciously read the business magazines his father brought home from work, taking a particular liking to Forbes and impressing parents with his knowledge. “When I was a kid, I remember my dad telling me I was the only one he could talk about business with because my brothers weren’t interested,” Jack recalls. “It was in Forbes that I learned about this job called investment banking. I knew about lawyers, consultants, and accountants, but I didn’t know there was a job called investment banking, where people made transactions happen.”

By the time Jack made it to college at Wake Forest University, he was planning to get both a J.D. and an MBA. As time went on, and he took a job at the Wake Forest business school library, he decided to just go for the MBA and head straight to Wall Street. “I ended up majoring in economics, and the more I learned, the more I became passionate about business,” Jack says. “I knew I wanted to be in finance, but I didn’t want to go work for the North Carolina National Bank, so I thought one way out was to go to a graduate school with a national reputation.” When he was accepted at Georgetown University, he went directly from college to graduate school.

Jack graduated from Georgetown in 1986 and successfully landed a job on Wall Street as an associate at a firm called Dunlevy & Co. “I was a young pup, working long hours and on weekends,” he recalls. “Back then, it was a thing of honor to pull all-nighters and say you hadn’t slept in 48 hours. There was no such thing as a work-life balance back in the 1980s and 1990s. You worked like a dog, and if you couldn’t do it or didn’t want to do it, you weren’t going to make it.”

After a couple of years at Dunlevy, Jack moved over to Drexel, a year before the firm declared bankruptcy in dramatic fashion. Yet even after he landed on his feet at Rodman & Renshaw, the value of his year at Drexel never faded. “People never forgot their time at Drexel, and it was an instant bond,” he says. “It gave me access to this vast network of relationships across Wall Street—even people I never met while there. If we share that Drexel connection, their face lights up.”

Gradually, Jack and Roy built a nice middle-market Mergers & Acquisitions practice, but the times were challenging. The Savings & Loan crisis was underway in Texas, and Jack recalls that the deal environment was anemic. When he got a call from Kemper Securities a few years later, he was ready to listen. “I heard from Paul Haigney, a former managing director at Drexel that had become head of M&A at Kemper,” Jack recalls. “He asked if I had any interest in helping him build an M&A practice out on the West Coast.”

Conscious of the value of personal relationships and transparency, Jack met with Roy and discussed the offer with him before taking it. Roy encouraged the move, pointing out that he planned to retire soon anyway. “He taught me that the secret to success is surrounding yourself with smart people,” Jack recalls. “And Paul Haigney is a very, very smart and capable guy.”

Although Jack planned to stay in California only briefly, he and his then-wife remained on the West Coast for ten years, where their son and daughter were born. After several years at Kemper, Paul Haigney took an offer to lead the Los Angeles office of a firm called Wasserstein Perella & Co., and asked Jack to come along. Four years later, Jack was in the process of moving to San Francisco to open up a technology-focused office for Wasserstein, when he received another interesting offer. “In 1998, I got a call from a Drexel alumni at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jennette (DLJ), who wanted to build a West Coast M&A business from scratch,” he says. “I had always thought of DLJ as a premiere platform, so I accepted.”

By 1999, Jack was tapped to run the firm’s middle market advisory practice, which meant moving to the New York area. Then, while he was relocating his family to Greenwich, DLJ announced it was being acquired by Credit Suisse First Boston. “It was literally as we were driving the moving van across the country,” he recalls. “I stayed with Credit Suisse for two more years and was one of the last DLJ guys standing after the merger, which is generally regarded as one of the worst mergers in the history of Wall Street. The firms were culturally incompatible, which was very sad for me to watch, since the team I’d built was the best around. We were consistently ranked number one, and watching them systematically dismantle the group was a painful experience. The benefit, though, was that it created a vast network of DLJ alumni, and we still get together for lunch. It’s a connection that people are very proud of and cherish.”

When Jack’s contract ended in 2003, he was more than ready to strike out on his own. He asked a coworker from DLJ/Credit Suisse, Jim Frawley, to come along and serve as a partner in the venture. Legacy Partners Group ultimately grew to employ about 30 people before selling to FBR Capital Markets after four successful years of growth. “We realized the world was changing pretty rapidly,” says Jack. “There was a lot of crazy stuff going on in the markets—new derivatives, companies at insanely high valuations. We knew it couldn’t last and felt it was going to come to a bad end. Of course, we had no idea just how bad it would be. We thought we’d be better off as part of a larger ship than as a small boutique firm.”

Legacy’s cultural mismatch with the buyer, FBR, was compounded by brutal markets and near-zero deal activity. Meanwhile, Jack’s professional worries were compounded by the personal difficulties of going through a divorce. But although it was a troubled time, he used the turmoil to re-evaluate his priorities in a positive way. “Since my divorce, I’ve tried to talk to my parents every day,” Jack says, “I wasn’t as appreciative of them as I should have been in my younger years, but I see things differently now, and am so grateful for how they shaped me. It’s easy to take things for granted through life, but I try not to do that anymore.”

“Faith is a very important part of my life,” he affirms. “I try to thank God every day for all the gifts he’s given me.

Jack also began to reconnect with his Catholic background. “Faith is a very important part of my life,” he affirms. “I try to thank God every day for all the gifts he’s given me. I pray for guidance continually, and I’ve become much more grateful for what I have, instead of being annoyed by what I don’t have in life. I’m proud that my children know that I’m prayerful.”

“Jennifer is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he says.

Things quickly began to turn around for Jack. In 2011, he joined Headwaters, where he has thrived, and in 2015 he remarried to become a committed husband and happy step-father to two high-school aged boys. “Jennifer is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he says. “We get each other, and we have these terrific conversations about life and business. She supports me in everything I do, and she provides good counsel, because she is very successful herself. We have a tremendous, loving relationship, and our kids see that. I think they’re happy for both of us that we found each other.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Jack counsels hard work, patience, and careful decision making. “Life goes by very quickly,” he says. “Start saving money when you’re young, and save as much as you can. Before you know it, you’re going to be 65, and you’ll want a nest egg to retire on. Also, choose your mate carefully. Life is long, and it presents many challenges. There will be bumps in the road, but keep going.”

Beyond that, Jack’s journey is a balance of loyalty to the firms that made him, measured against the ambition that led to the firm he made. “I had great runs with my past employers, like the time I took over the role of Co-Head of Middle Market Advisory at DLJ and Credit Suisse,” he recounts. “We became number one in the league tables. My objective is to get to that spot one more time with Headwaters before I hang up my cleats.”

It’s about creating a culture of collaboration that magnifies your impact for greater good.

Numbers aside, he’s even prouder of the personal impact of the equation. “M&A is often the most significant transaction my clients will ever make in their lives,” Jack affirms. “Our work isn’t just about those transactions—it’s about building businesses, recruiting people, and mentoring them to success. It’s about serving entrepreneurs, and especially family businesses, where we can help people navigate treacherous waters to a successful outcome. It’s about creating a culture of collaboration that magnifies your impact for greater good. It’s what gets me out of bed in the morning, eager for the next breath and the next step.”

‍