Grand Rapids investor relations firm expands to California, adds five West Michigan jobs

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

This year, Grand Rapids-based Lambert, Edwards & Associates celebrates its eleventh anniversary with the company’s first satellite office. The new location, in Los Angeles, Calif., has the potential to bring on as clients any number of the 2,600-plus publicly traded companies in the state.

LE&A, 171 Monroe Ave., handles client marketing and public relations, but its focus is on investor relations for public companies, acting as liaison between the company and its Wall Street investors and handling investor targeting to find investors for the clients.

The firm assigns teams of three or four people to handle each client account. And even though the California office is currently a one-person operation, that operation will have an impact on the Grand Rapids office.

“As we develop new opportunities and new clients, they will require a team of folks,” says CEO and President Jeff Lambert. “The relationship and the opportunity to spend time with them are important, and we can do the work from anywhere. So we’re doing national work from Grand Rapids.”

The 25-person company added three employees last year and logged $4.3 million in revenue, a 20 percent revenue growth.

Plans are to add at least two employees in 2009, Lambert says. In addition, the company is actively seeking an out-of-state company to acquire, and predicts double-digit growth.

“In an industry that’s forecasting flat to down results, we intend to grow through the downturn,” Lambert says. “We are not giving up on 2009. We believe the strongest companies will not only survive but thrive, and that’s our goal.”

Source: Jeff Lambert, Lambert, Edwards & Associates

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].

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