History
In late 1977, Arnold Danielson left his job as Vice President of Corporate Development at Maryland National Corporation in Baltimore to form Danielson Associates. The new company’s primary purpose was to help banks plan for the future, and Arnie’s first few clients were former clients of Maryland National. At the time, the company was primarily a family operation and the firm set up shop in the Wilde Lake Village Center in Columbia, Maryland.
The clients brought from Maryland National were not sufficient to support an independent consulting operation. In early 1978, Arnie and his wife, Vivian, began sending out a series of mass mailings to attract new clients. Initial clients that first full year were small banks stretching from Lewiston, Maine to Houston, Texas. The firm also benefited from a guidebook on strategic planning that Arnie authored for the American Bankers Association that sold almost 20,000 copies.
Danielson Associates took a big step forward in 1979, when Frank Bramble, also from Maryland National, joined the firm and broadened the company product line to include cost analysis. In 1981, when the firm briefly merged into Golembe Associates, Frank Bramble and Vivian continued to run Danielson Associates for almost a year (supposedly winding down the business) before they were rejoined by Arnie. The firm then took on the name Danielson Bramble Associates until 1986 when Frank Bramble rejoined Maryland National and later, in 2000, became its president. He later held a similar position at Allfirst and is presently on the Bank of America board of directors.
In 1982, Danielson Associates had its first M&A transaction when one of its legacy clients from Maryland National, Northeast Bankshares in Maine, was bought by Norstar Corporation based in Albany, New York. The firm advised Northeast in what would be the first interstate banking acquisition in United States since the 1930s. The firm worked with Norstar again a few years later in 1983, on a successful hostile bank takeover, which was one of only a few of real significance at the time. While the firm was new to bank acquisitions, Arnie had experience in the field as head of the acquisitions program at an industrial conglomerate prior to joining Maryland National.
In 1986, the firm moved onto what would be one of its most successful ventures, assisting de novo banks in the regulatory process. The initial new bank client, Summerville National Bank in South Carolina was the first of more than 40 de novo banks that used Danielson Associates’ assistance. Also that year, the firm moved from Columbia, Maryland to Rockville, Maryland.
In 1990, the firm headed in a new direction when an economic downturn limited healthy merger activity, planning and new bank activity. In that year, the firm was part of a consortium that worked with Resolution Trust Corporation to look at the cost and after-effect of the 1988 and 1989 federally-assisted savings and loan sales. Danielson Associates spent much of the next three years helping seriously troubled banks and thrifts survive. For three years, banks in California were the largest source of revenue for the company.
In 1996, Arnie became chairman of the firm and hired David Martin as president, and for six years, mergers dominated the corporate activity. From 1996 to 2001, the firm advised on 37 bank and thrift mergers with a combined deal value of $3.2 billion. Mr. Martin left the firm in 2001, and from 2003 to 2006, Tim MacDonald served as president. In 1998, David Danielson, Arnie’s son, joined the firm from PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Boston office.
In 2006, Dave Danielson assumed the Danielson Associates’ presidency and partnered with Jon Holtaway, a longtime member of Danielson Associates, who rejoined the firm. In that year, the firm moved to the Tyson’s Corner area of Vienna, Virginia. From 2006 to 2009 the firm continued its work with de novo banks and M&A, but in 2008 and 2009 began working more and more with troubled institutions.
In 2009, the firm returned to its Maryland roots and relocated to Bethesda. Today, the firm and its growing network of associates work closely with banks to assist them in a difficult regulatory environment.