NKSFB has lived and thrived through an incredible 40 years of history. Fred Nigro, Michael Karlin and I started at a kitchen table in June of 1981 and began to formulate what we believed would be our future in the business. What a ride it has been.
Beginnings
We established guidelines on how we would practice and work together to build the firm. By July 1, 1981, we had a signed partnership agreement and a signed lease. We gave notice to our employers that day, and we started operations on August 1, 1981. We had a 1,500 square foot office – the three of us and an assistant, and our first clients: David Letterman, Van Halen and Joan Rivers… on the road to becoming a legendary firm in the business management space.
Hyper-growth times
Our growth was uncontrollable. By 1990, we were 60 people and moving into an entire floor that would house up to 110 people. We thought that would be sufficient for a long period of time. However, by 1999 we were 175 people, and we had taken another entire floor in the building at 10100 Santa Monica Boulevard.
In 2007, we added Rich Feldstein as a partner, changing the firm to NKSF. We were about 200 people then and began another period of hyper-growth.
Getting to today
Over the next 10 years, we added a name partner, Dave Bolno, to make the firm NKSFB, and we would grow to 350 people before the acquisition of the firm by Focus Financial Partners in April 2018.
After the closing of the Focus deal, we immediately acquired GSO to be our partners. That took the firm to over 400 people. Then, on January 1, 2019, we closed the purchase of David Weise & Associates. We were now over 525 people, and, in March of 2019, we acquired Harley Neuman + Associates – bringing us to over 560 employees.
Staying true to who we are
During these 40 years of growth, our firm never forgot the goals we started with: namely, quality service to our clients in a family atmosphere where employees are important assets who should be properly equipped with training and cared for as if they were our own family.
We have over 60 people that have been with the firm over 20 years. That’s an incredible testament to our respect for our employees and their committed service to our clients.
In July of 2020, we added New York-based CRM Management to our firm, now making us about 600 people with some internal growth.
NKSFB Proud and sincere thanks
Today, we are the largest business management firm in America and maybe the world. We continue to grow at an unprecedented pace each year.
I’m so proud of what has been accomplished over these 40 years, and we look forward to establishing our place as the industry leaders as we move forward.
A sincere thank you to all employees and partners for their leadership and dedication to our clients. NKSFB could not have grown to this level without our greatest assets – our people.
