Sam Adams | FinTech Magazine

Playing a major role in the IPO and private equity programs of some of the world’s largest companies was not originally in the career plan for Sam Adams.

The Los Angeles native originally had aspirations of entering the interior design industry, as her family owned a textile cleaning and restoration business. “I felt like it was part of my DNA,” she says.

But fate had other plans. After a post-college move to San Francisco that followed the 2008 financial crash, Adams ended up working for a small startup company that inadvertently set her on the path to being a shareholder and guiding companies and employees through major liquidity events.

“It was just me and eight other guys. As an office manager, I did bookkeeping and payroll, I made sure there were snacks, I helped with shipping logistics – things like that. They gave me stock options and I had no idea what that meant.”

After the birth of her daughter, Adams landed a role as assistant to the CFO at another startup, this time a real estate technology company. When she joined, they were six months away from going public, and Adams was thrown in at the deep end.

“It wasn’t an equity team, it was a two-person legal team, and it was the first time everyone had gone through an IPO. It was incredibly exciting and at the same time very disorganized. The CFO asked me to help with different things to make me ready for IPO: planning board meetings, taking minutes and helping to set up a share management system and transfer agent services.”

Leads IPO processes

The event resulted in her leading the equity function once the IPO was complete, “because it wasn’t really owned by anyone and it seemed very important”. The company then hired a consultant, who acted as Adam’s mentor and taught her all the crucial elements of running an equity plan. “At that point in my career I was just learning so much; every day was a new adventure.”

After finding his career, Adams then moved on to MuleSoft to lead their equity program and prepare for an IPO. After the IPO, MuleSoft was acquired by Salesforce. She was offered the opportunity to stay, but she “had that itch”.

“What I really wanted to work on was that IPO journey. So I took some time off, did some consulting, and about a year later I ended up leading the equity function at DoorDash and leading them through their IPO.”

When the opportunity at Morgan Stanley at Work presented itself, Adams knew she had found the perfect fit for her skills. “I had been asking myself since MuleSoft, ‘What does the next phase of this career look like?’ Is it always going to be an internal role with a pre-IPO company, and every two to four years you just end up going somewhere else, or is this an actual business in itself?”

Joining Morgan Stanley on the job

From there, Adams met with the Morgan Stanley at Work team, which was keen to set up a business unit that could help companies navigate the Private to Public process.

“Given the volume of IPO activity at the time, they were very concerned with establishing a business unit focused on transaction readiness, how to make the transition from private to public seamless for corporate issuers, and then just figuring out how to implement all the resources that Morgan Stanley has to offer a corporate client and their participants.”

It was the perfect solution because it allowed Adams to use all of her skills while helping to build a tangible framework for businesses to follow. It also meant that she could continuously be part of the IPO and private equity program, without always having to change companies once the job was done.

Improving employee wealth through equity

Today, she is both proud and satisfied in her role, because it also comes with a great deal of personal satisfaction in that she can financially empower other people.

“I’m a single mother and I’ve had to learn all these things on my own and I take it very personally that through my work I can help other people who are probably in the exact same position I was in 10 years ago.”

She adds: “It’s great to be able to recognize the value potential in a growing company. It is also important to have a great degree of responsibility and gratitude for these things as well. It really gets me up in the morning knowing that the work we do ends up creating an experience for an end user we probably never talk to.”

Read the whole story HERE.