ZS | 25: Getting Close to US Clients-15

ZSAssociates

Below is the fifteenth installment in the ZS history message series.

Getting Close to US Clients.

In 1995, ZS opened the Princeton and San Francisco offices.
The Princeton office was launched by a team led by Jaideep
Bajaj, who joined ZS in 1986 as one of the firm’s first
operations research associates. The team also included
Craig Stinebaugh, Rob Sederman, Murali Venkatesan and others.
In addition to being responsible for buying the refrigerator
and dishwasher for the office, Murali helped Chuck Taite
(a network administrator then with the firm) build the
office’s computer network in Chuck’s house, driving it to
the office in the back of a pickup truck.

 

The new office brought ZS closer to many of its customers
in the NY/NJ/Philly corridor. Coincidentally, two clients
that worked with the Princeton team were going through mergers
and moving to New Jersey at the same time the Princeton
office was opening. Needless to say, the move was quite
hectic on both business and personal fronts!

 

That same year, the West Coast office was opened by a team
led by Art Cook and Art Mandell, two new principals, and
Ty Curry, a consultant from Evanston. Art and Art joined ZS
after their prior firm. The first West Coast office was
located in Palo Alto. As the office rapidly grew from an
initial headcount of five, it was relocated to Menlo Park
and then ultimately to San Mateo. The West Coast office
focused on new practice areas, especially forecasting and
ZS services targeted to biotechnology companies.

 

Once again, the approach of securing work first and opening
offices later reinforced the firm’s client-focused growth
strategy.

 

To be continued...