Timothy Malott Channels His Abundant Energy Into Investment Deals and Helping Others
If you ask Timothy Malott to describe himself in one word, he will reply, “energetic.”
When you get to know him, you understand why.
“Energetic is not bad, I bring a lot of energy to what I do,” he says.
For the last 6 1/2 years, Malott has been focusing a lot of his energy on his San Diego-based investment banking firm, Shoreline Partners, LLC, an equal partnership shared with managing partner Phillip Currie.
At Shoreline, Malott advises privately held companies that generate between $3 million to $150 million in revenue and would like to either sell their business or acquire a new one.
When a deal is complete, a bell is rung to commemorate its closing. It’s part of an investment banking tradition. But for Malott, ringing the bell isn’t the fun part. For him, it starts in the beginning stages.
Managing between 10 and 12 clients a year, the fun part, Malott reflects, “is coming up with creative ways that make deals work for both the buyer and the seller.”
It can be a difficult task.
The average time for a transaction to be signed, sealed and delivered can range from one to three years.
In the meantime, Malott and his staff have to work at keeping their clients motivated through the ordeal, with the potential of a deal falling through or the seller backing out constantly looming in the background.
Creative Thinking
Malott believes the greatest strength he brings to the business table is “creative problem-solving” , what he refers to as finding out the needs of his clients, identifying industries that the company would be of interest to and using resources to market the business successfully to a buyer.
“I thrive on, how do I keep it moving forward? How do I make it work on both sides?” he says. “(In this business) there is a lot at stake for a business owner, such as retirement, assets we work to establish a high degree of trust.”
“I can trust him with handling any situation on my behalf without hesitation,” said Terry Grill, president of Pomona-based Industrial Insulations Inc. and one of Malott’s clients since 1994.
Initially, Shoreline assisted Grill with selling her company. When that didn’t work out, Malott advised her to grow the company and strengthen her management team to make it more profitable.
Good Negotiation Skills
Grill credits Malott with being instrumental in negotiating the 1997 acquisition of a proprietary product line, Coolguard, an insulation system for non-perishable cargo.
“He has a lot of insight and is quick to evaluate situations with a lot of accuracy and detail. He strives to hear viewpoints of the parties involved,” she says, adding these are attributes she finds crucial in negotiations.
“He brings such a live energy and enthusiasm to this business.”
It’s a business Malott finds demanding.
“I’ve never done anything more challenging in my life,” he says.
Malott always appears to be up for a challenge.
He was born and raised in North Manchester, Ind., graduating from Valparaiso University in Indiana with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Malott had been working at a CPA firm for 5 1/2 years when one of his clients offered him a position as president of First National Bank of Crowne Point in Lake County, Ind.
At the ripe age of 27, he became president of a bank that, according to Malott, was in financial straits and was not growing profitably. Still, Malott accepted the challenge and turned the bank’s situation around within a year’s time.
“At the age of 27, I was president of a $65 million, 100-year-old bank,” he says. “I don’t tend to second-guess myself. You run across people who fret about what if they make the wrong choice. You make the best decisions at the time you have.”
His next decision was to make a move away from his home state.
Escaping Winters
In 1981, after accepting the position of chief financial officer of Bank of Commerce in San Diego, Malott left the nest.
“I thought, I’ve been to San Diego a couple of times, it’s a nice area and I grew up hating winters, so I said ‘Why not give it a shot?'” he recalls.
He’s been here ever since. It was during his tenure at the bank that he met his second wife, Emelyn.
With nearly 10 years of “marital bliss” behind them, they and their two children , Matthew, 8, and Sarah, 3 , live in Carmel Valley.
Malott has two older sons, Dan, 21, and Andrew, 16, from a previous marriage.
“I finally got a girl on the fourth try,” he jokes.
In his spare time, Malott turns his energy into being a juggler of sorts. He manages to balance various community-oriented activities while maintaining strong family and business relations.
He is on the site council at his son’s elementary school, Carmel Del Mar.
He also chairs the finance committee at San Dieguito United Methodist church, where he proudly notes he is getting his lip back in shape to play the trumpet in a musical duet with his 16-year-old son for the church’s Easter service performance in April.
He also heads the local chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth, a national organization for corporate professionals. He resides as president and instituted the chapter’s first annual day conference.
“I went to the board and promoted that we should have our own conference like other chapters,” he said. “We had the first one last year; 150 people came and we got 12 new members out of it.”
This year’s conference scheduled for March 20 is expected to draw around 250 people.
And he still manages time to sneak away to his cabin in Big Bear for the day to ski or jet to Las Vegas for the weekend.
Juggling Without Stress
“I work pretty efficiently and I don’t get stressed out easily, which means I can have a lot of things on my plate at one time,” he says.
“If it’s worth doing, then it’s worth doing and having fun doing it.”
These days, his biggest thrill is coaching Matthew’s Little League baseball team, which allows him a chance to participate in his favorite passion, baseball.
“I love baseball , that’s my sport which I probably got from my dad,” he says enthusiastically. Besides Matthew’s team, he also coaches two adult baseball teams and plays on a third.
He recently recruited Annette Richardson as executive director for the Ronald McDonald House Charities, a nonprofit organization that provides services and grants to benefit children. Malott has been involved with the charity for the last 14 years and is currently treasurer.
He has worked diligently to secure grants and is preparing policies and funds to go toward a new Ronald McDonald House to be built within the next couple of years.
“What stands out about Tim is that he’s committed, that he cares,” she says. “It’s about making a difference in the community. He’s not just here to say that he’s on a board.”
“I like helping other people,” he says. “I look back on my life and I’m so blessed. I can’t imagine not doing things to help others out.”
Lingering In Third Career
Malott says he has no plans to quit the acquisition business. Over the next 10 to 15 years the baby boomer generation will begin selling their businesses, so, “there’s a strong need for what we do.”
“I like taking people sort of beyond where they’ve been before, or sort of beyond where they think they can go,” he says, reflecting on the similarities between coaching Little Leaguers and coaching businesses in their transactions.
He’s a cheerleader in a way, managing not only to be on the sidelines, but playing the game at the same time.
“That’s how I’ve lived my life, saying, ‘I can do it!’ I can go beyond this.”
And he has.
