The Pearl Creek Story

So, what’s in a name, The following explains why I started my new company, how it got its name, and what it stands for and hopes to accomplish.

I was studying in our apartment in married student housing on the University of North Carolina campus on January 28^th, 1986 when the phone rang. It was my wife Elizabeth telling me to turn on the television.  She told me that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded shortly after takeoff, killing all seven crew members aboard. At first, I did not believe her.  However, when I turned on the television, there it was – the Challenger breaking apart 73 seconds into its flight.  As I sat alone in my small apartment on that Tuesday watching and listening, I could not imagine how my former colleagues at NASA were coping.

Before attending graduate business school, I had been a Systems Engineer at NASA supporting the Space Shuttle Program.  During my two-year stint, I had supported eleven missions, including four with the space shuttle Challenger.  So, I had more than a casual interest in the Space Shuttle Program.  The United States at that point was launching a Space Shuttle into outer space at a pace of one per month.  It had become almost routine. And although supporting the Space Shuttle Program was exciting, I knew I was not cut out to be an engineer. So, I decided to leave engineering and my job at NASA to pursue an MBA.

When I matriculated to business school at Chapel Hill, I did not know exactly what I wanted to do.  However, after my first year, I knew that I wanted to run my own company one day.  It would take me thirty-two years to realize that dream by creating Pearl Creek Advisors.  Why did it take so long? As fate would have it, I stumbled into a career that not only allowed autonomy, but also exposed me to an industry that has become my passion.

I did not seek a career in investment banking serving nonprofits. It found me. Following business school, I spent two years at an accounting firm as a general management consultant.  I did not like the work because there was no closure.  And I hated keeping track of hours.  My boss, Scott, one of the many angels in my life, realized I was not happy and asked if I might be interested in public finance.  He had a friend who worked at the investment banking firm Wheat, First Securities, Inc. and they had an opening in the healthcare group in the public finance department.

At the time, I did not know what public finance investment bankers did, but one of my friends from business school was a public finance banker at Alex Brown & Sons, a white-shoe investment banking firm in Baltimore, Maryland.  So, I called Jim and he told me to interview for the job and that I would love it.  I interviewed and got the job.  Six months later, I walked into my boss’s office and told him, “I love this job and I was born to do this!” Cam, who was to become another angel in my life, just shook his head and said, “Franklin, you are something else. Go back to your office and get back to work.” And I did, for thirty years.

During my long career serving the nonprofit senior living and healthcare industries, I moved companies twice due to mergers, and each time I thought about starting my own advisory firm.  But I had a great team and I really enjoyed working with them. So, our team would just leave as a group each time. When my last employer, BB&T, decided to merge with SunTrust to become the sixth largest bank in the country, I decided that the third merger was the charm, and left to pursue my dream.  

The dream and vision for Pearl Creek Advisors is “To empower non-profits through sound financial advice.”  The firm’s mission is to be the best at creating optimal financing outcomes to advance our clients’ vision and mission. And Pearl Creek will adhere to the following values to do so:

• Advocacy – doing what is right for the client
• Passion – caring deeply about what our clients do
• Knowledge – promoting intellectual curiosity 
• Creativity – cultivating unique approaches and solutions
• Collaboration – engaging with others through mutual respect
• Wisdom – creating reality-based decision making

Following those core values, Pearl Creek Advisors’ mandate is to:

• Leverage our more than thirty years of Healthcare and Senior Living Services experience to create stable, efficient and flexible capital structures for our clients.
• Cultivate creative and realistic solutions, develop sound strategies and tactics, and demonstrate effective transactional leadership.
• Embrace unwavering client advocacy.
• Pursue a collaborative approach to leverage the collective wisdom of the entire financing team.

Some people ask, “Why Pearl Creek Advisors? You have a lot of personal brand in the industry. So, why not include Franklin in the name? And where did Pearl come from?”  I have a well thought-out and elegant answer.  The making of a pearl is an apt metaphor for the capital formation process – A Pearl is formed when an irritant (problem or goal), works its way into an oyster (organization). As a defense mechanism, a fluid (effort) is used to coat the irritant. Layer upon layer of this coating (results), is deposited until a lustrous Pearl is formed (a vision).

But the above explanation is not the real reason “Pearl” is used in the name.  The real answer is sentimental. My mother’s maiden name was Minnie Pearl Hairfield, and I wanted to honor her.  My mother left my father, who was an abusive alcoholic, when I was ten years old. With only an eighth-grade education and forced to go on welfare, she raised four children on her own.  I grew up with no indoor plumbing and hand-me-down clothes, but I did grow up with something much more important – unconditional love from my mother.  So, it was either Minnie, Hairfield, or Pearl.  Yes, it was an easy decision. 

So, why is Creek in the name?  Again, I have a very elegant answer that uses another metaphor – A Creek is a small tributary (non-profit), serving as a habitat for life (agent), and aiding in the circulation of water (resources) on the surface of the earth (community).

Again, that is not the real reason.  Another woman who has been an angel in my life is my wife, Elizabeth.  She has the gift of hospitality and pastoral care.  And she has always wanted to own a bed-and-breakfast, and if possible, to have a large enough space to host weddings.  Before I knew I was going to leave BB&T Capital Markets to start my own company, we bought a run-down farm that we are retrofitting to become a bed and breakfast and wedding venue.  We have named it Poor Creek Farm.  So, putting Creek is in the name of my company is a nod to my wife. For some reason, the names “Elizabeth”, “Taliaferro” and “Dickerson” did not seem to work.

What about the logo? The logo itself is very personal and intentional.  Purple is the primary color in the logo because it was my mom’s favorite color.  The three mountain peaks honor each of our adult sons, who have grown up to become fine young men.  And the tributary? It represents Elizabeth, who has fed me emotionally and spiritually for the past forty-one years, thirty-five of which we have been married.  So, as Pearl Creek Advisors, LLC embarks on a journey to serve the nonprofit senior living and healthcare industry, the vision is to be more than a financial advisory firm.  The vision is to be a strategic partner to not onlyempower our clients through sound financial advice, but to also provide thought leadership in the areas of programing, enterprise strategy, leadership and board development.  We live and honor that commitment by not only providing client specific advice, but by giving to the industry by authoring white papers that have and will continue to influence positive change in the nonprofit senior living and healthcare industry. This is our story.