Alamo Capital Marks 25 Years

Alamo Capital is having an open house Thursday to mark a quarter-century of business advising Walnut Creekers, East Bay residents and now people all over the world on their investments.

The open house is 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 23, at Alamo Capital's headquarters at 201 N. Civic Dr., Suite 145. There will be beverages, hors d'oeuvres; brokers will be available for free portfolio reviews.

Alamo Capital is a financial solutions company specializing in investment solutions and wealth management for retail, institutional and wholesale clients.

Alamo Capital started with a tiny office on Mount Diablo Boulevard in Lafayette. It was CEO Nancy Mullally, her husband Bill Mullally as president and one other employee. "We saved our pennies and kept working real, real hard," said Nancy Mullally.

Now there are 36 employees with offices in Walnut Creek, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Chicago.

In 2008, when the stock market swooned, with giant investment firms going under, it happened to be a time that Alamo Capital was putting more cash back into its company. It was well positioned to help investors who were withdrawing investments in stock and asking about bonds, on which Alamo could provide expertise, said Mullally.

In 1987, when the Mullallys were ready to start the new firm, Nancy became the CEO, controlling the lion's share of the stock and dealing with customers in sales, and Bill was the trader and underwriter.

Glass ceilings

Nancy Mullally already had experience with smaller firms and some biggies — Merrill Lynch, Paine Webber and Dean Witter. She ran into a few glass ceilings and raised eyebrows from the "old boys network." At the time, a number of old buddies in the business were saying things like "what the heck are you doing?" with a woman being the public face of the business. Now, she said, "It's more like: 'Way to go.'"

Alamo Capital is recognized by the California State Treasurer’s Office as a Women Business Enterprise (WBE).

"I think the dream has pretty much come true," said Mullally.