{"id":1206,"date":"2021-07-17T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-17T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trccompanies.com\/insights\/how-vali-cooper-associates-and-trc-came-together\/"},"modified":"2024-12-13T11:01:42","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T11:01:42","slug":"how-vali-cooper-associates-and-trc-came-together","status":"publish","type":"news-and-insights","link":"https:\/\/www.trccompanies.com\/fr\/insights\/how-vali-cooper-associates-and-trc-came-together\/","title":{"rendered":"How Vali Cooper & Associates and TRC Came Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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The decision to sell a business you\u2019ve worked so hard to build isn\u2019t an easy one. I learned this first-hand when our company, Vali Cooper & Associates (VC&A) decided to put itself on the market earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The process over the last six months has been challenging, exciting, stressful, interesting and educational. In the end, I know we made the right choice in joining the TRC team in a deal that closed June 25. And I\u2019m so proud that our leadership team was able to maintain such a sharp focus on doing what was best for the VC&A family.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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But let me back up a bit and provide a little history. Our company was named after its founder, Vali Cooper, a native Californian [pictured, right]. Vali grew up in Martinez, where she gained her passion for the engineering industry through her father\u2019s surveying and engineering firm. She started her career there as a surveyor and went on to work for various public agencies and a local consulting firm. In 1987 she founded VC&A as the sole proprietor.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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VC&A grew from a WBE\/DBE firm into a highly respected and successful construction management company \u2013 one that has appeared in Engineering News-Record\u2019s annual ranking of the top 50 CM firms in the U.S in each of the last 16 years.<\/p>\n

When Vali unexpectedly passed away in 2009, her husband Gary Bedey was appointed CEO. He and the strong leadership team in place worked hard to remain true to Vali\u2019s vision for the company and have succeeded in executing on it.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n

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Attracting Interest<\/h3>\n

Over the last 30 years VC&A has shown consistent growth and become a significant player in the transportation, water\/wastewater and rail markets. Because of our growth, success and strong reputation \u2013 attributable primarily to the skill and hard work of our superb employees \u2013 we\u2019ve been actively pursued by a number of potential buyers looking to increase their presence in California. We resisted these offers for a host of reasons.<\/p>\n

But in 2018 there were new factors to consider. One was that Gary wanted to retire and phase out of his involvement with the firm. The second was that it was the perfect time to fulfill Vali\u2019s ultimate dream for her firm.<\/p>\n

Vali\u2019s vision was always to be part of something \u201cbigger.\u201d Gary once remarked to me that Vali\u2019s original plan was to continually grow the firm\u2019s reputation and services until we could merge with a national firm. She wanted to ensure that her employees would be able to continue developing their skills and embrace new opportunities.<\/p>\n

VC&A\u2019s leadership realized the time had come to take that next step to ensure continued success for our employees and increase the services we could provide our clients. The best way to do that was to merge with another firm.<\/p>\n

So we retained Matheson Financial Advisors, a well-respected merger and acquisition consultant for the AEC market, to explore opportunities. And we were flooded with responses. Initially we had more than 25 companies express interest in acquiring VC&A. The leadership team spent countless hours in meetings and discussions vetting and analyzing what would be best for the future of the VC&A team.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n

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Evaluating the Suitors<\/h3>\n

From the initial list of companies, we narrowed it down to a handful of firms that we felt would value our employee-first culture. VC&A has always felt more like a family than a firm. We\u2019re a close-knit group, and we wanted to ensure that whoever acquired us shared and respected our corporate values, understood the importance we place on our employees (the lifeblood of our company), and how we consider our work with clients a true partnership. That was paramount in developing our short list of potential suitors.<\/p>\n

But we were also focused on:<\/p>\n