BLAIR WILLIAM & CO/IL

William Blair & Company was originally founded as Blair, Bonner & Co. by William Blair and Francis Bonner in 1935. The firm focused on raising capital through its own issues for fast growing Midwestern companies in its beginning. When Bonner left the company in 1941, the firm would have Blair and five other managing partners and be renamed to its current name of William Blair & Company. Five years later, Edward Blair, son of William Blair, would take the leading position of the company. The company would experience some difficulties throughout the 1960s and 70s, but expand to international locations such as London and Liechtenstein by the 1980s. By the 1990s, the company would be growing at a fast pace, adding bond financing and bond trading services and expanding its client base to healthcare facilities, higher learning institutions, and transportation. William Blair & Company would continue to expand through the 1990s and into the 2000s, opening up offices in Zurich, San Francisco, Boston, and Shanghai as well as increasing the presence of its other branches. The company is currently employee-owned and offers its wide array of services to individuals, institutional, and issuing clients. William Blair Capital Partners was its investment division, but since 2004 it has spun out into Chicago Growth Partners, focusing on growth capital and buyouts from lower middle market growth companies. William Blair & Company’s current line of products and services include investment banking, equity research, institutional and private brokerage, asset management, portfolio management, mutual funds, and venture capital financing. The company offers 25 funds, including its range of Growth Funds, Global Leaders Fund, International Equity Fund, Emerging Markets Growth Fund, Bond Fund, Income Fund, Ready Reserves Fund, and Macro Allocation Fund, among others. William Blair & Company currently has 355 employees that manage a total of over 11 thousand accounts, totaling an estimated $69 billion in total assets under management.