The HFW Companies (HFW), a fast-growing professional services firm with a national focus on the architecture and engineering industry (AE), has announced that it has added to the HFW team Drake Hamilton as a senior investment analyst.
Hamilton will lead the firm’s financial planning and analysis function, according to Daniel Forguson, chief financial officer of HFW. Hamilton previously worked for AE-industry advisory firm Zweig Group, where he served in progressive leadership roles providing investment banking advisory and financial analysis services for merger-and-acquisition (M&A) clients.
“The HFW team has had the opportunity over the last four years to work with Drake in an M&A advisory capacity for us, and we’ve been able to witness the impressive breadth and depth of his skillset in the AE industry,” Forguson said of Hamilton. “We are beyond excited that he has decided to join our team.”
Hamilton, in his new role, will be working with HFW to identify valuation improvement opportunities, synergy tracking, budgeting and forecasting, and support with raising capital and investment valuations, among other services. He is a graduate of the University of Arkansas, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, with a focus on finance and accounting.
Hamilton joins a growing team at HFW whose goal, according to Forguson, is to invest in a growing network of middle-market architecture and engineering firms serving metropolitan infrastructure markets with strong legacy brands and growth potential.
To date, HFW has built a portfolio of nine strategic partner firms with a combined 500-plus employees and collective 2023 annual revenues that put HFW at No. 242 in Engineering News Record’s annual Top 500 ranking of the largest AEC companies.