Deborah Douglas graduated from UM-St. Louis in 1973 with a major in accounting. She got her CPA two years later and went to work for a large accounting firm for 18 years. When she hit the 19th year she split from the firm and started her own: The Douglas Group. The Douglas Group sells companies to other companies, locally, nationally and occasionally internationally. "I am a big believer of what business people do," Douglas said. "I think they are the heroes of the American economy, I mean they create jobs, better goods and services, opportunities for people to grow and they do so many good things. And we help them cash in on what is in many cases, a lifetime's work. [And] by selling really well, so that they are secure for ever more, we have done a good thing." Douglas is also the author of the recent book, "Ripe: Harvasting the value of your business." She sat down for an interview with The Current in her office in Frontenac. The Current: So what was your experience at the business school at UM-St. Louis? Deborah Douglas: It was great. I was a participant in something called the UYA (University Year for Action) program, I don't know if that is still there… [Through the UYA] I was the assistant chief financial officer for the City of Kenlock for two years. I ended up working a ton of time there for a couple of years but it was a good experience. TC: Did you always know exactly what you were going to do for work when you graduated from UM-St. Louis? DD: No I really thought I wanted to be a partner in one of the CPA firms which I did become. I was an audit partner [for Touche Ross & Co., a Big Eight CPA firm] and I became that firm's director of merger and acquisition activities. [It] was a multi-functional group, I was audit tax and consulting professional that would work in any buy or sell transaction in St. Louis. I was working a million hours. TC: And then you decided you wanted to work less? DD: No but I decided I wanted to focus more of my time on the merger and acquisition work because that's what I really loved. And I had several audit clients and it is kind of hard to escape that. So I still had the audit client responsibilities as well as all of the merger and acquisition stuff and that was heavy. Plus, CPA firms can't accept contingent fees and I wanted the opportunity to work on a contingent fee basis. We make a lot more money than in a CPA firm charging hourly rates. TC: So is that when you decided to found The Douglas Group?
DD: I did. When Touche merged with Deloitte I was a partner, I was director of merger and acquisition activities, and it was kind of a one-time chance to walk away and compete. So I just didn't sign the partnership agreement. And the firm was receptive to that. They said that if anyone wants to make a move this is your chance. I kind of tentatively raised my hand and that worked out really well. That was 19 years ago. TC: What is the primary function of The Douglas Group? DD: We sell companies. The employees here are all support functions to that sale of companies. We have people who do research about finding who the best strategic fit is for one of our seller clients. We have people who develop financial exhibits about our clients. So they have to have a pretty good accounting/financial background to do that. We spend a tremendous amount of time negotiating the structure of the deal so you get pretty competent with legal documents and that's kind of fun. We have closed…about 95% of the deals we have taken. In our industry that is really great. We also do a lot of homework also to find the buyers. It's really our biggest job. For one single client we might talk to as many as 200 buyers and we have in-depth conversations with all of them. TC: So do the companies you sell come to you? DD: Yeah, although we should be more proactive about going out and finding them. TC: Have you noticed the recession affecting companies you work with? DD: Well, in the buy/sell arena one thing that is kind of odd that people don't know is that there are a lot of buyers out there. There is still so much baby boomer money that is out in the marketplace that needs a home. The stock market is volatile and uncertain and not feeling very secure to people so there are buckets of money going into these private equity funds and there are very aggressive buyers. Now on the other hand we don't have as many sellers as we usually do. We have had I think three sellers in the past eight months who, after they have hired us and after we've began, said 'can we wait? We're not doing so well.' But for a company that is stable right now, not declining, the market is really good. TC: What advice would you give UM-St. Louis students on getting a job? DD: Well I haven't thought about that particularly recently but I'll tell ya the best hires that I have done over the years have in many cases been young people who have come to me. You know, when they call or write or they do all of the above and they tell me what their interests are, what their aptitudes are… Also I think that you do so much better when you are working in an area that you love a little bit. One of the things that UMSL students have as an attribute that they should make the most of is that UMSL has a lot of students who have worked their way, part way through school who are a little bit more driven, maybe a little bit more self-motivated I think then the average college student (Pull quote?). When I get a resume I always look what else have you done in your life? Have you gotten a little bit of experience somewhere? TC: What is the secret to success? DD: I think part of it is getting passionate about what you do. Doing something that you believe has a purpose and is meaningful to you, that really helps. At my company we have a very incentive oriented business. I like the fact that we don't profit hugely until our clients do. We have had at least one million dollar plus bonus in the last six or seven years. Those are big bonuses. Those are because we usually got a client ten million more than he thought he would get…We are real tenacious, real stubborn, real determined to get it done for our client. TC: Wow, so, is The Douglas Group hiring? DD: Not at the moment too much, but we probably will be within six months.
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