Our Story

The Early Years

I was studying in our apartment in married student housing on the University of North Carolina campus on January 28th, 1986 when the phone rang. It was my wife Elizabeth telling me to turn on the television.  She told me that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded shortly after takeoff, killing all seven crew members aboard. At first, I did not believe her.  However, when I turned on the television, there it was – the Challenger breaking apart 73 seconds into its flight.  As I sat alone in our small apartment watching that awful image, I could not imagine how my former colleagues at NASA were coping. 

Before attending graduate business school, I had been a Systems Engineer at NASA supporting the Space Shuttle Program.  During my two-year stint, I had supported eleven missions, including four with the space shuttle Challenger.  So, I had more than a casual interest in the Space Shuttle Program.  The United States at that point was launching a Space Shuttle into outer space at a pace of one per month.  It had become almost routine. And although supporting the Space Shuttle Program was exciting, I knew I was not cut out to be an engineer. So, six months before the Challenger catastrophe I decided to leave engineering and my job at NASA to pursue an MBA. 

When I matriculated to business school at Chapel Hill, I did not know exactly what I wanted to do.  However, after my first year, I knew that I wanted to own my own business one day.  It would take thirty-two years to realize that dream in the form of Pearl Creek Advisors.  As fate would have it, I stumbled into an industry that would became my passion.

I did not seek a career serving nonprofits. It found me. Following business school, I spent two years at an accounting firm as a general management consultant.  But I did not like the work. My boss, Scott, one of the many angels who entered my life, realized I was not happy and asked if I might be interested in public finance.  He had a friend who ran the healthcare group at an investment banking firm.

The investment banking years

At the time, I did not know what public finance investment bankers did, but one of my friends from business school was a public finance banker. So, I called my friend and he encouraged me to interview for the job.  I interviewed and got the job.  Six months later, I walked into my boss’s office and told him, “I was born to do this!” He just shook his head and said, “Franklin, you are something else. Go back to your office and get back to work.” And I did, for thirty years.

During my long career serving non-profits, I changed companies twice due to mergers, and each time I thought about starting my own advisory firm.  But I had a great teams and I really enjoyed working with them. So, each time our team would leave as a group and join a new firm. And to be quite honest, starting a company seemed intimidating.  However, when the firm, whose municipal banking group I had been leading for 17 years decided to merge with another firm, I decided that the third merger was the charm, and left to pursue my dream.  

Our mission and purpose

The vision for Pearl Creek Advisors is “To empower non-profits through sound advice.”  The firm’s mission is to be the best at creating optimal outcomes to advance and enhance our clients’ vision and mission. And Pearl Creek will adhere to the following values to do so:

·      Advocacy - doing what is right for the client

·      Passion - caring deeply about what our clients do

·      Knowledge - promoting intellectual curiosity 

·      Creativity - cultivating unique approaches and solutions

·      Collaboration - engaging with others through mutual respect

·      Wisdom - creating reality-based decision making

Following those core values, Pearl Creek Advisors’ mandate is to:

·       Leverage our experience to create stable, efficient and flexible capital structures for our clients.

·       Cultivate creative and realistic solutions, develop sound strategies and tactics, and demonstrate effective transactional leadership.

·       Embrace unwavering client advocacy.

·       Pursue a collaborative approach to leverage the collective wisdom of the entire financing team.

our name and logo

Some people ask, “Why Pearl Creek Advisors? There is an elegant answer.  The making of a pearl is an apt metaphor for the capital formation process - A Pearl is formed when an irritant (problem or goal), works its way into an oyster (organization). As a defense mechanism, a fluid (effort) is used to coat the irritant. Layer upon layer of this coating (results), is deposited until a lustrous Pearl is formed (a vision). A Creek is a small tributary (non-profit), serving as a habitat for life (agent), and aiding in the circulation of water (resources) on the surface of the earth (community).

So, putting Pearl and Creek together in a name is a very powerful metaphor.

But the above explanation is not the real reason “Pearl” is used in the name.  The real answer is sentimental. My mother’s maiden name was Minnie Pearl Hairfield, and I wanted to honor her.  My mother left my father for very good reasons when I was ten years old. With only an eighth-grade education and forced to go on welfare, my mom raised four children on her own. With no indoor plumbing and wearing hand-me-down clothes from cousins, I grew up very poor, but grew up with unconditional love from my mother.  So, Pearl became a part of the name.

Another woman who has been instrumental in my life is my wife, Elizabeth.  She has the gift of hospitality and pastoral care.  And she has always wanted to own a bed-and-breakfast, and if possible, to have a large enough space to host weddings.  Before I knew I was going to start my own company, we bought an old farm that we retrofitted to become a bed and breakfast and wedding venue.  We have named it Poor Creek Farm.  So, putting Creek is in the name of my company is a nod to my wife.

And what about the logo? The logo itself is very personal and intentional.  Purple is the primary color because it was my mom’s favorite color.  And the image itself honors my wife and sons. The three mountain peaks in the background honor each of our adult sons, who have grown up to become fine, morally strong men.  And the tributary? It represents Elizabeth, who has fed me emotionally and spiritually for the past 40+ years, thirty-six of which we have been married. 

advice and thought leadership

So, as Pearl Creek Advisors, LLC embarks on a journey to serve the nonprofit senior living and healthcare industry, the vision is to be more than a financial advisory firm.  The vision is to be a strategic partner to not only empower our clients through sound financial advice, but to also provide thought leadership in the areas of programing, enterprise strategy, leadership and board development.  The firm lives and honors that commitment by not only providing client specific advice, but by giving to the industry by creating white papers that have and will continue to influence positive change in the nonprofit senior living and healthcare industry.

This is our story.