CHICAGO -- The three-member public finance staff at Hutchinson, Shockey, Erley & Co. left the firm to open a Chicago office for Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co.
Baird said yesterday that Thomas Gavin, Warren Creamer 3rd, and Allan Ambrose joined the firm this week from Hutchinson's Chicago office.
Keith Kolb, a senior vice president and director of public finance at Baird, said the three bankers will start a Chicago office, which will be the firm's first public finance office outside of Milwaukee.
Gavin was named first vice president and manager of the Chicago office, while Creamer was named first vice president and Ambrose became a vice president.
Kolb said the bankers will work on deals in Illinois and Michigan, markets the firm has earmarked for expansion.
"It's a great fit for us," Kolb said. "We're trying to get into two markets and we found one team that will really increase our activity in both markets."
In addition to covering the two states, Gavin said he hoped to continue various financial advisory relationships with governments in Maryland that he had while at Hutchinson.
Gavin, Creamer, and Ambrose joined Chicago-based Hutchinson four years ago from Van Kampen Merritt, according to Gavin. He said the three bankers constituted the entire professional public finance staff at Hutchinson.
Officials at Hutchinson did not return phone calls.
Kolb said putting a public finance team in Chicago made sense given that Baird already has a brokerage and corporate finance office in the city. The firm has 13 branch offices in Illinois and Michigan, according to a press release.
Baird had an indirect public finance presence in Chicago since 1984 through a joint venture that formed Kane, McKenna and Associates. Baird had a 51% interest in the firm. However, in January Philip McKenna, a principal of the firm, bought out Baird and Donald Kane, another principal of the firm, to become its sole owner.
Two years ago, Baird attempted to buy Chicago-based Clayton Brown & Associates. The deal fell through when employees at Clayton Brown said they wanted to eventually make the firm employee-owned.
According to Securities Data Co., Baird ranked 54th as a senior manager in 1993 with 173 deals totaling $709 million. Hutchinson ranked 89th as a senior manager last year with 48 deals totaling $338 million. Baird was 77th last year as a co-manager with 239 deals totaling $3.8 billion. Hutchinson was 128th with 117 deals totaling $1.7 billion.
