Business Description
An interesting thing happened one day back in 2004. Marshall Fant and I, the two co-owners of Transpacific Management Service, looked at each other and said, “So, what should we do with the rest of our lives?” From that simple conversation began the greatest and most rewarding professional journey either of us had ever embarked upon. But first, a bit of backstory. Marshall and I had been partners since 1995 and had grown Transpacific into one of the premier community management firms in Southern California. Both of us brought quite a history to our partnership. He began his community management career in 1966 with Management Service Company, and I began my own in 1986 with Transpacific Management Company. After experiencing years of solid growth together and, more specifically, both of us reaching certain milestone birthdays, it was time for that fateful conversation. We explored many options for the company, but once we learned of this thing called an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), we immediately knew that was the answer. What better way to honor our employees, all of whom contributed to the success of the company, than by giving them ownership in the company? Simply put, employee ownership felt morally right. But then, things got really interesting. It hit me that I now was responsible to all these new employee owners to grow the business and increase the value of their shares in it. One of the ways to achieve both objectives was to invite more companies to join in this new adventure of ours. So, through 2005 Marshall and I shared our vision with a few trusted industry friends for a company that would be national in its scope and impact, and one that would represent- through our collective employee ownership- a paradigm shift for our industry. Because we are picky about whom we consider friends, we offered our vision only with like-minded company owners whom we knew to have the highest integrity, and shared our philosophical approach to corporate culture, employee ownership values and the community management industry. Just like that, a mere 18 months after forming our ESOP, The Management Trust was born. The Management Trust brought together under a single employee ownership structure some of the most well-respected community management firms in the Western United States. After surviving the inevitable bumps and bruises that accompany merging six firms into one, we decided it was time to expand the family further and haven’t looked back since.
