There’s a youthful energy at Corient Capital Partners LLC that has very little to do with the ages of the people who work there. Though very few of the people in the office appear to have hit the half-century mark, or even the big 4-0, the boundless zest for life they all seem to share is rooted in a company culture that they say emphasizes respect, connection and most of all, camaraderie.
That’s why the independent wealth-management firm is the top-ranked small business on this year’s Business Journal Best Places to Work listing.
Corient was only founded in 2015 by Chris Copps, Gordon Hassenplug, Darren Henderson, Michael Phelps, Alex Stimpson, Jon Tenney and Greg Walters, all advisers coming from Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking and Investment Group. The company had a dozen employees when it started, including Director of Finance Cole Turner and Financial Analyst Austin Allen. It now has 19.
For Turner, the decision to join the company was, as he puts it, a no-brainer. He’d worked with Walters for two years at Merrill Lynch.
“When I met Greg, I was really struck by the way Greg and his colleagues carried themselves,” he recalls. “When Greg asked me if I wanted to join him [at Corient], I instantly said yes. It wasn’t about the job I was doing but about the people I was working with. That’s a hard thing to find, people that you really enjoy working with.”
Allen, who also came from Merrill, adds that, “One thing I knew from getting to know the partners was that they are always going to make sure employees are taken care of first before themselves. I trust these guys. I joined the team because it was the team I wanted to be with.”
Friends & Colleagues
“We’re a client services business,” Henderson says. “Our two assets are our clients and our people. If one is unhappy, then the other is unhappy. So we take care of our people, and they feel empowered.”
The company says it so far has a 100% retention rate. Henderson jokes, “We’re like Hotel California. You can check in anytime you want, but you can never leave.”
Senior Associate Kristen Cruz said that “When I was interviewing, I read on the website, ‘Our people are our greatest asset.’” “I thought, yeah, every company says that. But when I came to interview, I knew immediately it was true. You could really tell they were genuine, and they really care about the people they work with on a personal level, as well as at work.”
‘With,’ Not ‘For’
Like similar businesses in the financial services industry, professional development is key. The company offers tuition reimbursement, continuing education and training. But what makes Corient different, Walters says, is that the team doesn’t segment.
“There is no, ‘Oh, he’s my client,’” he says. “Our clients are Corient clients. That’s it. Certainly part of working at Corient is not being above anything that needs to be done.”
It’s a very flat organization, he says. “If someone says, ‘He’s my boss,’ we kind of side-eye him, because boss isn’t really a word we use. I really dislike it. Technically, I am a lot of people’s boss, but we work together. The descriptive term for us is ‘we work with.’ That’s enough. That’s all we need to know, because we are looking to achieve the same goals.”
A Second Home
Taking care of people also translates to taking care of employees’ families. “We have kids galore,” Walters says. “There must be 40 kids. When we built Corient, we wanted it to be a place where our kids could come and just hang out.”
It makes for a unique workplace. On any given afternoon, the backroom—where there’s a Ping-Pong table, video games and a wide selection of snacks and drinks—is likely to be filled with employees’ kids.
“Some kids come after school to hang out,” Turner says. “It’s like a second home. In fact, I spend more time here than I do at home. The partners wanted to make it a place where we would enjoy being for a long time. Sometimes work is work, and you have to stay a little late. It’s better when your colleagues are your friends and you’re looking forward to Ping-Pong after a long day.”
