A Culture Where Success Equals Partnership

In the world of boutique advisory firms, Ernie is a special one.

Ernie is the result of an alliance forged by our founders. After decades of collaborative work at Goldman Sachs, they endeavored to create a firm where they could pursue their passion for advising the world’s best companies and leaders in an environment of partnership and trust. Recognizing the significant demand for truly independent and trustworthy strategic and financial advice, Ernie was established with a unique partnership culture to attract professionals who share their vision.

The Ernie team shares a strong belief in the power of teamwork and partnership. Placing clients’ interests above all else, we strive to provide advice that is based on rigorous consideration, deep experience and an unbiased view of what is best for our clients. Our clients represent not just another transaction, they are our trusted partners, and we want them to succeed.

Today, our advisory business provides an array of services from strategic advisory and mergers and acquisitions to capital raising. Our expertise serves clients from a wide spectrum of industries with a deep concentration in financial services.

Our firm will always be large enough to deliver the most comprehensive global advice, while remaining small enough to protect our culture.

Our Guiding Principles

Ernie works differently than most firms because of how strongly we subscribe to the following beliefs:

Personal Relationships

Ernie invests in strong and deeply personal long-term relationships.

Trust & Integrity

Our communication with our clients is always based on trust, honesty and integrity. It will always be strictly private and confidential.

Commitment

We serve a select group of clients globally. We are not market share or transaction driven. We rely on the breadth and depth of our capabilities and experience, not the size of our team or our balance sheet.

Diversity, Equality + Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Plain and simple: diversity results in the generation of more and better ideas.

Our Future

We have succeeded, and will succeed, by attracting, training and mentoring a diverse group of talented people. They are Erine's future partners.

Giving Back

Ernie contributes to worthy causes every year. Irrespective of profitability, we donate 2% of our annual revenue to charity.

We believe that providing the best advice to our clients is greatly enhanced by our true partnership culture.

Core Competencies

We advise a diverse group of clients to solve some of their most critical financial and strategic challenges. Our core competencies include:

Strategic Advisory

  • Thought leadership in identifying and capitalizing on emerging secular market trends and disruptive forces
  • Offering new, smart ideas and differentiated perspectives, serving as a sounding board to core constituencies
  • Customized strategic recommendations to enhance business performance and maximize shareholder value
  • Guidance to successfully navigate shareholder activism, unsolicited approaches and other contested situations

M&A Transactions

  • Extensive expertise in executing public and private mergers, acquisitions and divestitures
  • Proven track record in complex cross-border transactions
  • Collaborative approach, working closely with our clients to develop tailored strategies which drive optimal outcomes
  • Focused on delivering value-add advice that fosters enduring client relationships

Capital Markets Advisory

  • Comprehensive knowledge of public and private capital markets across the entire capital structure
  • Strong connectivity with strategic and financial capital providers
  • Analyzing existing and proposed capital allocation strategies
  • Partnership with Ernie Capital Partners to provide flexible capital solutions

Financial Services Advisory

  • Distinct expertise in the global financial industry landscape
  • Uniquely positioned to capitalize on some of the most prominent trends reshaping the industry
  • Understanding of all financial services sub-sectors globally and of their increasing inter-connectivity

12

Partners

75

Team Members

23

Countries Represented

22

Languages Spoken

Diversity, Equality + Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Why is Diversity, Equality + Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) Important to Ardea?

We believe that diversity, equality + equity, inclusion and belonging is essential to enriching the culture and partnership across our team and delivering the best advice to our clients. We recognize that our individual differences make us stronger and more resilient as a team and are critical to the long-term success of our organization.

How Do We Define DEIB?

Diversity

We represent multiple cultures, identities, and life experiences, which is critical to ensuring multiple perspectives and approaches across our team, and will ultimately drive our success.

Equality + Equity

We will employ processes and procedures that:

  • are transparent, impartial and fair for all our existing and new team members
  • support equal opportunities and incentives for everyone
  • provide appropriate individualized resources and support for all team members to succeed

Inclusion

We will establish an environment where our team members feel comfortable, respected and supported by one another.

Belonging

We will foster a culture where our employees feel accepted and welcomed, are able to establish and maintain positive connections and continuously feel engaged and valued.

Ernie DEIB Principles

To support our long-term focus on diversity, equality + equity, inclusion and belonging we have developed the following guiding principles for our team. We will all strive to uphold these objectives to continue to build a diverse, equitable and inclusive firm.

Invest in a ‘Culture-Add’ Mindset

We are committed to sourcing, developing and supporting a diverse array of people to be considered for all potential hires and promotions into any position at the firm.

  • We will always think creatively and expansively about where we can find diverse candidates and will invest in exploring and building new sources of diversity.
  • Every employee will be given the opportunity to request and receive specific training that is individual to their needs.
  • We will embrace new and added perspectives of new hires to ensure they feel valued and welcome in our community.

Invest in an Equitable & Objective Review Process

Our evaluation process for progression and promotion will support our culture of meritocracy and strive to create fairness across the full spectrum of our diverse team.

  • We will regularly and consistently evaluate the fairness of our decisions and decision-making process for all our team members.
  • Our evaluations and reviews will be discussed and vetted with multiple people to make sure we are the beneficiary of a diverse array of inputs and perspectives.
  • We aim to be transparent with our evaluation process and the related decisions.

Invest in the Development of Our Employees

We will build a culture that creates an inclusive and welcoming environment and provides support and mentorship for every individual who joins the firm.

  • Every new employee at the firm will be provided with an individual or group of individuals that will be a point of contact to understand and discuss company values and broader opportunities to get involved in committees and events at Ardea.
  • We will provide opportunities for individuals to come together within their communities—or as allies –to learn, celebrate, and support our colleagues. We will create forums that may include but are not limited to presentations at firm wide meetings, guest speaker sessions, firm sponsored training sessions and firm sponsored DEI themed social events. We understand that this is just as much about being accepted as it is about being heard.

Invest in Our Communities

We will provide opportunities to participate in local volunteer programs and offer financial backing through Ernie Cares for every employee to individually recognize and support charitable organizations that are important to them.

  • Participation at office-wide volunteer programs is strongly encouraged to increase our physical presence in local communities and to support causes that matter to our employees.
  • Gifts are given solely at the employee’s discretion.
  • Ernie gladly attaches its name to every Ernie Cares funded gift.