History of Juniper Advisory
Founded to be fundamentally different.
Having worked on corporate transactions early in their careers, Jamie Burgdorfer and David Gordon both came to not-for-profit mergers & acquisitions after noticing that these important institutions central to our society lacked knowledgeable and experienced advisors. The two met across from each other on a California transaction and became quick friends when they realized they both lived in the same small town outside of Chicago. Jamie decided to leave his large Wall Street bank and join David at Nuveen, known for issuing the first tax-exempt revenue bond in the hospital industry.
Together, Jamie and David built Nuveen’s hospital M&A practice into the market leader until the firm decided to change focus into asset management and exit the investment banking business. Leaving Nuveen together, the two recognized the conflicts and distractions that larger organizations asserted on their M&A practices and began exploring a new approach to advising not-for-profit organizations on mergers, acquisitions and other forms of business combinations.
Expert, Honest & Conflict-Free Advisory Solutions
Juniper was designed specifically to provide senior M&A counsel free of conflict and distraction. Unlike other investment banks that would cobble not-for-profit transaction teams together from their municipal bond groups and corporate M&A departments or consulting firms where strategic planning or operational specialists would moonlight on a transaction in the hopes of winning the integration work at the end, from its start Juniper’s entire team spent all of its time evaluating and executing transactions for not-for-profit organizations. Juniper quickly gained a reputation for its expert and honest advice as its rivals repeatedly led their clients to questionable decisions that were later revealed to have advanced the interests of the advisors rather than the interests of their clients.
Build your relationship with dedicated senior advisors.
Another central tenet of Juniper’s approach is dedicated senior advice. From the start, Juniper stands out for its structure as an inverted pyramid. Multi-service investment banks rely on teams of young analysts and newly minted MBAs for most of their work products, with senior bankers managing multiple projects. Similarly, consulting firms are known for approaching transactions with the same hourly-billing mentality that they apply to revenue cycle engagements – teams of fresh college graduates learn on the client’s dime as they bill hundreds of hours and distracted managers jet in for the occasional meeting. Instead, Juniper has the luxury of choosing its projects, selecting those that appear interesting and where the firm can offer an outsized impact. We staff those engagements with a senior team that derives great satisfaction of working alongside mission-driven executives and volunteer boards serving their communities.
