FEATURED ARTICLE
CMAC Partners Turns to Crummer to Build on its Success
At CMAC Partners, a financial solutions company in Winter Park, half of the staff are Crummer MBA graduates.
As a small company on the cutting-edge of commercial real estate financing solutions, CMAC Partners can only afford to hire the best. It’s no surprise the first place they look is the Crummer Graduate School of Business.
Since it was founded in the early 2000’s by Managing Partner Greg Warren, CMAC partners (an acronym for Capital Markets Access Company), has evolved from a company primarily dealing with bonds, into a company providing commercial financing solutions for physician-owned medical real estate. After more than doubling in size over the past four years, growing from four employees to ten, the Winter Park financial solutions company often turns to Crummer for recruitment.
“If a medical practice needs a new building, or if they need to refinance on their existing building, we’ll come in and create the optimal financing solution. There’s a great deal of analysis and financial modeling involved in that process. That’s our niche focus,” said Andy Johnson ’13MBA, Principal and Lead Financial Analyst for CMAC Partners.
In an environment with a niche focus, CMAC Partners relies on every single member of its team to produce at a consistently high quality in order to keep growing. On CMAC’s ten-person team, five are Crummer graduates. That’s not a coincidence.
“The thing I love about Crummer is its collaborative work process. The reality of business is that you have to delegate. I look for complementary people on whom I can rely on and know they won’t let me down,” said Liz Allport ’91MBA, Principal and Director of Finance for CMAC Partners.
Allport, who came to CMAC Partners with financial experience at a large corporation on Wall Street, credits Crummer for teaching her valuable entrepreneurial skills.
“There’s more to running our business than securing financing for our clients. Crummer provided me with an education on business strategy, risk management, human resources, advertising, and all the facets of running a business and overseeing staff,” said Allport.
In the wake of CMAC’s growth over the past four years, she and her team continue to look to Crummer when hiring for new positions. They have found Crummer Grads are high-achieving, well-rounded, and ideal for the driven atmosphere at CMAC. As an added benefit, the recruiting process is made simple by the Career Resource Center.
“I really like going to Crummer events, first off because there’s no charge,” laughed Allport. “But Jane and the Career Resource Center are fantastic. There’s an open-door policy, and they always refer us to new talent who could be a great fit for us.”
Events like the Career Resource Center’s Meet and Greet have led to several full-time hires. Over the years, CMAC has brought on board more than a dozen Crummer and Rollins employees and interns.
Elizabeth Cvercko ’18MBA, approached the CMAC Partners team at one of the Meet and Greet events, and ultimately secured a marketing internship with the company.
“You can predict how people handle real-life situations from the way they handle a meet and greet,” said Allport, who said she was impressed by Cvercko.
As an intern, Cvercko excelled. Eventually, Allport and the team decided to create a full-time position for her as the Marketing Manager for CMAC Partners.
“I think the whole team sees the benefits of having someone full-time on the marketing side,” said Cvercko.
Allport agreed, adding that she’s noticed a big difference in CMAC’s branding and communication since Cvercko joined the team full-time in 2018.
“Elizabeth has been great in filling that marketing role for us. We have been so busy closing finance deals, that things like email blasts and social media posts were an afterthought. Now we receive many compliments from our clients about our communications. There’s been a big improvement in the consistency of our message,” said Allport.
The entire team can agree that Crummer helps mold future employees who enter the real-world work environment prepared to produce and get results, which is vital at a company like CMAC Partners. This has been further proven with Crummer hires Chris Tollinchi ’18MBA, Finance Strategist, and James Winchester ’18MBA, Associate Analyst.
“This isn’t a huge corporation where you’re a cog in the wheel, living in a cubicle where you never have the spotlight directly on you,” said Tollinchi. “Coming to a smaller company, the spotlight is always on you. You are a difference-maker and Crummer grads have proven they are up to the task.”
Allport says everyone at CMAC Partners knows if they want to keep sustaining and growing, the only option is to continue to close deals, hold each other accountable, and understand that everyone’s efforts matter to the overall success of the company.
“That’s why we can be tough on each other: because we’re building something. Four years ago, we were four people and now we have ten. In order to keep building, we need to make sure we create work and revenue to keep all ten people productive,” said Allport.
In an “eat what you kill” environment, you only want the best. That’s why CMAC Partners looks to Crummer.