ACG National Capital
Last week, ACG National Capital celebrated 25 years of middle market growth at the 25th Anniversary Celebration and Networking Event. In celebration of 25 years of driving middle market growth, Corporate Growth, Capital Style has been posting interviews with past ACG presidents.
In our last post in the series, we featured an interview with former president Clark Childers. For our next conversation, we sat down with the chapter’s first president, Andrew Sherman, who served from 1989 until 1991.
Mr. Sherman has served as a legal and strategic advisor to a number of Fortune 500 companies and hundreds of emerging growth companies. He has represented U.S. and international clients from early stage, rapidly growing start-ups, to closely held franchisors and middle market companies, to multibillion dollar international conglomerates. He also counsels on issues such as franchising, licensing, joint ventures, strategic alliances, capital formation, distribution channels, technology development, and mergers and acquisitions.
He has written 24 books on the legal and strategic aspects of business growth, franchising, capital formation, and the leveraging of intellectual property. Mr. Sherman has also appeared as a guest commentator on CNN, NPR, and CBS News Radio, among others, and has been interviewed on legal topics by The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and other publications.
Here is what he had to say to Corporate Growth, Capital Style:
CGCS: Can you describe something significant that happened during your time as chapter president?
Mr. Sherman: There were four of us that helped get ACG National Capital Chapter started in 1987-1988. I served as the first President and Chairman of the Board until we hit critical mass in the early 1990’s.
Early board meetings and planning sessions were held at my kitchen table at my home in Rockville and my secretary served as our acting chapter administrator. It was an amazing experience and none of us could have anticipated – what seems like a few short years later – that we would be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the chapter!
CGCS: What changes have you seen in the DC business community in the last 25 years? How has the business climate changed? Any new industries to take note of?
Mr. Sherman: The Washington DC business community has evolved significantly since the chapter launch.
We struggled in the late 1980’s to find company leaders and professional deal makers that would identify with the ACG value proposition. Many of the government contractors had their own professional organizations and the tech/telecomm boom of the mid to late 90’s had not yet hit.
But persistence paved the way and a foundation was laid to allow ACG to be very well-positioned when the tech boom did hit DC and the chapter has been vibrant ever since.