SAN FRANCISCO Adams, Harkness & Hill, an independent Boston investment bank, has opened an office here to target emerging-growth companies and hired a local banker to run it.
Sam A. Wilkins 3d, 41, formerly a managing director at the San Francisco brokerage and investment banking unit of Bank of America Corp., has the same title as head of the office.
Mr. Wilkins, who joined Banc of America Securities predecessor, Montgomery Securities, in 1996, has spent the bulk of his investment banking career covering leisure and consumer industries, most recently covering hospitality investment banking and a set of companies in the e-lodging and e-hospitality sector. At Adams Harkness, he said, he plans to focus on the information technology and Internet sectors.
The office is Adams Harkness first outside of Boston. About one-third of its business stems from the West, the company said, and it plans to have about 12 employees in San Francisco by early next year.
