Staying green: they could have simply retired. Instead, they formed the Southeastern Consulting Group - Consulting

South Florida CEO, Jan, 2004 by Rochelle Broder-Singer

After a lengthy and successful career, when you're approaching retirement age but not ready to retire--what do you do next? For the partners in Boca Raton-based Southeastern Consulting Group, the answer was to join with colleagues from other industries and create a virtual firm, then pick projects that play to the partners' strengths.

SCG managing director Elaine T. Azen's career included operating a college, advising (for 15 years) the Broward County Cultural Affairs Division, publishing arts magazines, and serving on the boards of several South Florida cultural organizations. She found that even at 70, she was not ready to retire from her consulting and marketing work. A number of friends and professional colleagues, all in their mid-60s to 70s, felt the same way. In January of 2003, four of them invested with her to form SCG--"for those of us who are at the other end of our careers, but don't want to stop working," says Azen.

Each of SCG's four directors/partners brings a wealth of community and business experience to the organization: Hayward Benson, Jr., a former member of the Broward County School Board, was also director of the county's public service department, a Lauderhill City Council member, and CEO of two transportation companies; Jean Fitzgerald ran shipping firm Hvide Marine (now known as Seabulk International), and served as chairman of the Port Everglades Authority; Jack Latona was a former Fort Lauderdale city commissioner and think-tank founder; and Roy Rogers, once Arvida's top South Florida government relations and planning official, is still chairperson of The Nature Conservancy for the State of Florida.

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Most of the partners maintain commitments outside of SCG, so the firm remains virtual. There is no central office, and weekly meetings rotate among locations. "We stay in touch with computer and faxes and e-mail," says Azen.

The partners bid for projects that interest and engage them--"It's how you stay green at the end, like a bud," says Azen--from conducting a study for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau to helping Nova Southeastern University do a feasibility study for a new center. One distinct advantage SCG has over competing firms is that at least one partner has had experience with most of the institutions they bid on work for, so projects begin with a head-start on research and an inside connection.

The project leaders can then bring in one or more of the other four partners, or one of the firm's three associates, as their expertise fits. "It's kind of like when an infection occurs in the body, and all the right stuff gathers around," says Rogers. "We're loose, we're flexible, and we're mobile, and we can move in to do whatever the customer needs."