Administration August 4, 2002

CRA Reacts To BARRA RogersCasey Defections

April 8, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Reacting to the defection of key staffers after its purchase of BARRA RogersCasey (BRC), Capital Resource Advisors (CRA) points out that most of the consultancy's staff and business in fact stayed put. In a formal statement released to PLANSPONSOR.com, CRA said that the loss of some employees was inevitable: "There is always attrition in deals like this but better than 85% of the original BARRA RogersCasey staff remains in place, along with virtually 100% of the business."

Reported by

Nicole Halsey

Last week, PLANSPONSOR.com reported on the defection of 16 senior BRC personnel. The ex-staffers were led by Ron Pellish, chief executive, and included a number of the firm’s senior consultants and research and analytics staff.

CRA said in the statement that it ‘strongly encourages’ former BARRA RogersCasey employees not to violate the terms of their non-competes. Indeed, one of the ways it is ‘encouraging’ these employees is to sue them, according to sources; late last week a number of the defecting executives found themselves on the receiving end of individual law suits from CRA, sources say. As of press time, neither CRA nor former BRC executives would comment on this.

CRA purchased Darien-Connecticut-based BRC from BARRA for $14 million. It was common knowledge that a group of the firm’s senior consultants had desired to strike out on their own through a management buyout from BARRA.

“Looking to the future, we already see signs that our business will be highly successful,” CRA further said in its statement. “Our combined team stands stronger than ever, ready to provide our clients with a depth and breadth of services unmatched in the industry.”