Group Sets Up Shop Along Corridor

Group Sets Up Shop Along Corridor Non-Profits Best Newcomer: ACG 101 Corridor By BRAD SMITH Staff Reporter Want to know what political, economic, and demographic developments are driving growth along the Highway 101 corridor? How about how to orchestrate growth in retail sales nationally, even when your market has traditionally been regional? How about some wisdom from the man who built Kinko’s from a single copy shop into a nationwide chain? The place to find out may be the regular monthly meetings of the 101 Corridor Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. The newly-formed business advocacy group has tripled in size since the chapter was founded earlier this year. “It’s only five months old and two of those months we were in hiatus over the summer,” said Alex Auerbach, a Sherman Oaks-based public relations practitioner and spokesman for the group. “We are already outgrowing our room (at the Westlake Village Inn) but that’s okay; the hotel has bigger rooms.” The 101 chapter was formed in 2004 as a local branch of the ACG, an Illinois-based business networking organization. The non-profit association has 7,000 members, representing 5,000 companies, in North America and Europe. There are chapters in 46 nations, including the United States and Mexico. “It’s designed to bring in both company owners as well as advisors, to both educate and create awareness of business within the community,” said Tracy Albert, an ACG board member and director of corporate finance with the Los Angeles office of the investment banking firm of Houlihan, Lokey, Howard & Zukin. The organization is designed for professionals involved in corporate growth, corporate development and mergers and acquisitions. Members tend to be executives of middle market or growing corporations, as well as private equity firms, investment bankers, lenders, attorneys and accountants. “There is a need for an organization that is really geared toward providing business owners, as well as business service providers, an outlet for not only networking, but also education,” Albert said.