Firm Culture and History Exceptional Values, Exceptional Service

Firm Culture and History Exceptional Values, Exceptional Service

For more than 30 years, our professionals have embodied Stout's core values: Positive & Team-Oriented, Accountable, Committed, Entrepreneurial, Relationship-Focused, Super-Responsive & Great at Communicating.

Stout - Relentless Excellence

 

Our Core Values

We have taken large strides to ensure that excellence comes from within our firm. Our people make us the great firm that we are, and the exceptional service we provide clients is directly related to how we serve our own employees. In turn, Stout fosters a culture that allows employees to grow personally and professionally.

Positive & Team-Oriented

Accountable

Committed

Entrepreneurial

Relationship-Focused

Super-Responsive & Great at Communicating

Our Core Values graphic

  • Smile and focus on opportunities
  • Put the team in front of yourself
  • Do what you say you will do (when you said you would do it)
  • Hold your colleagues to the same standard
  • Be tenacious professionally and personally
  • Relentlessly focus on the success of colleagues and the firm
  • Spend the firm’s money like it’s your own
  • Be flexible, avoid bureaucracy
  • Promote change that moves us forward; don’t create roadblocks
  • Strive for better, faster, more efficient ways to serve clients and your team
  • Demonstrate bias for action
  • Take an active interest in others
  • Celebrate, learn from, and leverage peoples’ differences
  • Be friendly
  • Exhibit grace and humility
  • Be a consummate business developer / brand ambassador (regardless of role)
  • Be a great mentor or mentee
  • Respond right NOW (or let people know when to expect a response)
  • Give status updates before you’re asked
  • Ask thoughtful questions to understand needs
  • Always set expectations you can meet (and hopefully exceed)

Our Story

The commitment to our values is reflected in the firm's rich history and has helped us grow to where we are today.

Photo of car

1991

Craige Stout founds the firm in Detroit, providing valuation services to clients. Beginning with a two-person team in a living room, the Detroit office has grown to be one of our largest in terms of both personnel and revenue.

Computer

1997

We establish our Investment Banking group, offering advice on mergers and acquisitions, private capital raising, and other services for business owners, private equity portfolio companies, and corporate divisions.

Steps to building

1998

Our Disputes, Claims, & Investigations group launches, delivering a variety of services, including expert testimony, litigation consulting, investigations, compliance, and special assignments.

Photo of building

2000

We expand our physical presence with an office in downtown Cleveland.

Theatre

2001

Our Chicago office opens. The office has become the largest at the firm in terms of both personnel and revenue.

Capital

2004

We open our Tysons Corner office in Virginia, servicing the Washington, DC, metropolitan region.

Statue of Liberty

2007

Our East Coast footprint grows with the opening of our New York office. Also during the year, we relocate our corporate headquarters to Chicago.

Palm trees

2011

We expand to the West Coast with our new Los Angeles location.

Oil rig

2012

Our growth continues as we complete our first major acquisition with the purchase of valuation and investment banking firm Howard Frazier Barker Elliott (HFBE). Through this transaction, we establish our Dallas and Houston offices, providing a solid foundation in Texas. Separately, we open offices in Atlanta and Washington, DC, strengthening our East Coast base.

Boats

2014

With the growth of our Disputes, Claims, & Investigations practice, we open our Baltimore office – our third in the Mid-Atlantic region – and expand our DC office. We also establish a Denver office to better serve clients in the Mountain states.

Chess

2016

In another year of big moves, we celebrate our 25th anniversary. We complete our acquisition of Natoma Partners, fortifying our Disputes, Claims, & Investigations services. We also open offices in Philadelphia, Grand Rapids, MI, and Irvine, CA.

Stout logo

2017

We launch our new brand – Stout – leveraging existing brand equity and expertise across our core services. We also acquire FMV Opinions, further expanding our Valuation Advisory group. In addition, we strengthen our global reach, opening a new office in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Shanghai

2018

Our global footprint expands to Asia, as we establish new offices in Shanghai, Singapore, and Hong Kong, which help broaden our transaction coverage in these regions.

Berlin

2019

We broaden our presence and transaction coverage in Europe, with new offices in Berlin and Milan. We also expand on the West Coast by opening an office in San Francisco. In addition, we launch our Transformative Change consulting practice. 

London

2020

We establish a new office in London, bolstering our transaction coverage in the Nordic and Western European markets. We launch our Accounting and Reporting Advisory practice and expand our Transaction Advisory Group with Financial Due Diligence and Tax Services. 

30 years

2021

Stout celebrates 30 years. We partner with Audax Private Equity, and acquire Secura Risk Management.  We also expand our Accounting and Reporting Advisory practice with technical accounting, public company readiness, finance integration, and internal controls consulting.

Integrate firms

2022

We integrate four firms: Genova Group, Davis & Hosfield, The Claro Group, and Vantage Point Advisors. We also open new offices in Charlotte and San Diego.

Professionals

2023

We acquire Torrey Partners, deepening our bench of expert consultants and testifiers.