CHICAGO — New Jersey-based Acacia Financial Group Inc. announced Tuesday the expansion of its Chicago office and a new Alaska outpost with the hiring of two former Scott Balice Strategies LLC financial advisers, Phoebe Selden and Debbie Schnebel.
The two were offered positions with Public Financial Management Inc., which acquired Chicago-based Scott Balice on Monday, but opted instead to join Acacia — a much smaller shop than the top-ranked PFM but one they believed offered a more congenial culture and business model, sources said.
The hires mark the Marlton, N.J.-based advisory firm’s latest move in a slow but steady expansion of staff and locations. “We are strategically growing the firm with people we believe are experts in the field and fit in with our culture,” said Acacia co-president Kim Whelan, a former PFM managing director who founded the firm with Noreen White in 2006.
Selden and Schnebel come aboard as senior vice presidents. Selden joins Courtney Shea, also a senior vice president, in the Chicago office, while Schnebel is based in Anchorage. The firm first established a presence in Chicago in late 2009 with the hiring of Shea.
Scott Balice hired Selden in 2003 not long after the firm opened its doors. Selden left Ernst & Young to join Chicago’s finance team in 1990, and was named comptroller in 1998. She left in 2002 and opened Moody’s Investors Service’s office here. Selden headed Scott Balice’s transportation group.
“We were very interested in Phoebe because of her vast experience on everything from public-private partnerships to transportation issues to general government credits,” Whelan said.
Schnebel, a former public finance banker and lawyer, established an Alaska presence for Scott Balice and led its energy initiative in addition to working on project finance and transportation issues. She practiced law at Jones Day and at Gardner Carton & Douglas, and she was a banker at the former PaineWebber Inc.
“Debbie complements our existing capabilities, and as an energy expert brings new resources. She has an extensive resume,” Whelan said.
Acacia now has offices in Alaska, Chicago, Columbus, and New Jersey, with an eye towards opening ones in Philadelphia and New York later this year. The firm hopes to expand into California next year. Nationally, it ranks 20th so far this year among financial advisers after an 11th-place finish last year, according to Thomson Reuters.
The firm ranks 11th so far this year in Illinois and finished fourth last year. In the Midwest, it ranks ninth so far this year after finishing last year in fifth place. In the Northeast, it ranks 11th so far this year after a ninth-place finish last year and is second so far this year in New Jersey after finishing second last year.
Selden and Schnebel’s departure from Scott Balice stems from its co-founder Lois Scott’s decision to become Chicago’s new chief financial officer.
After her appointment was made public last month, she began talks with various firms and employees over the company’s future since she was required to sever her ties. Some employees reached out to competing firms as they worried over their fate, sources said.
Scott said Monday she believed PFM provided the best opportunity to keep the firm’s team together and enhance their services and that the cultures would mesh well, but some think that’s an optimistic assessment, given PFM’s size.
