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V O L . X X I I N O. X I I M AY 3 0 , 2 0 1 6 22 L ike a lot of small business own- ers, e VIA Agency founder and Chairman John Coleman didn't relish the prospect of a giant out-of-state operator swallow- ing advertising agency he spent years building. An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) o ered a promising alternative. But the ESOP also o ered another important promise: it could help recruit and retain the kind of creative, motivated and independent thinkers Coleman needed on sta . " e ESOP is a very powerful aspect to attracting the best talent," says Coleman. "Over time, employees will have the freedom to be involved in the direction of the company, plus they'll have the economic upside in participating in the value that's cre- ated. For our associates, it's a won- derful compromise between going to work for a big agency and having your own shop." Portland-based VIA is Maine's largest ad agency, with million in revenues. Clients include Perdue, People's United Bank, Klondike, Paci c Life, Facebook and Unilever. In Ad Age named VIA "best small agency." To Coleman, VIA's ability to maintain that momentum hinges on the agency's capacity to compete for top talent in major metro areas, including New York and Chicago, as well as technology companies like Google and Apple, which are now luring the best and the brightest from the ad world. More than half of VIA's sta is from out of state. "Every pitch is extraordinarily competitive. e biggest point of di erentiation is your talent," says Coleman. "So how you take care of that talent determines how well they can perform in any given situation." And how long they stay with the company. After all, clients value a sta with longevity. "Clients want stability, and people with institutional knowl- edge about their company," he adds. VIA joins the growing ranks of Maine businesses that have converted or are converting to an ESOP structure, including Landry/French Construction Co., Kennebec Technologies, GAC Chemical Corp. and Sargent Corp. In Maine, many ESOP transactions have been facilitated by Susan Scherbel, a principal at Bellview Associates, which has o ces in Chicago, New York City and Ellsworth. She says that there has been growing interest in ESOPs from business owners who want to ensure the continuity of their businesses, but don't want to sell to a competitor, private equity rm or an out-of-state operator. Firms like VIA are seeing ESOPs as a powerful retention tool. "Increasingly, business owners are saying that if we don't do this, we can't be competitive because it's a very di cult environment to attract and retain good people," she says. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Ad agency retools its recruiting VIA uses recent ESOP to attract and retain top talent F O C U S The VIA Agency CEO Leeann Leahy and founder and Chairman John Coleman at the agency's of ces in the Baxter Building, which dates to 1888 and was the original site of the Portland Public Library. The of ces are just one aspect of VIA's recruiting strategy.

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