Top 100: Lee & Associates

Lee & Associates Illinois was founded by eight principals in ?02, each part owner in the company (an offer extended to many new principals). The incentive works: It's grown to 35 employees and spilled into a new downtown office. (Makes our handshake-for-a-good-story incentive look less groundbreaking.)
 

L&A has had a national presence for 30 years, to annual revenues of $131M in 39 offices. Locally, it's the third-largest industrial producer.John Sharpe, C.J. Kuehl, June Simonian, Amanda Seward,Brian Vanosky and Ellen Steinbrecher met us at their downtown office yesterday, where they informed us they're expanding and have no debt.

June, C.J., Amanda and Ellen started the downtown operation on LaSalle St. when it outgrew the O'Hare office in late ?08. We?d love to tell you who's in charge, but we can't: L&A shuns a highly compensated manager model in favor of principals collectively managing their offices. Has it devolved into Lord of The Flies? Nope, in part because most commission splits (some of the industry?s highest) go straight to brokers? pockets and not a manager's salary.

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