Silver Creek Capital Management LLC has always been committed to offering a helping hand to the community, but firm executives recently decided to donate to larger projects.
The Seattle-based alternative investment manager closed its doors for a day in November, and its 38 employees helped renovate a local shelter for women and children escaping domestic violence.
"We tore down a bad play structure, built new decking and a new play structure, painted the community room inside," said Bob Ratliffe, president.
Contractors donated materials and their time. The firm also donated money, as did the foundation of Eric Dillon, Silver Creek's founder, CEO and chief investment officer. (Mr. Dillon, who started his career as a stock broker with Drexel Burnham Lambert, was a founding investor and advisory board member of Amazon.com.)
The firm plans to take on similar projects every six months, Mr. Ratliffe said. This month, employees at the firm, which invests in timberland as well as private credit and hedge funds, will plant about 100 trees in a Seattle park — enough trees to neutralize the firm's carbon footprint for 2018, he said.
The projects are a way to cement the company's culture "to do good by doing well," Mr. Ratliffe said.
