Stanford Business

MAY 2006


Adams Honored with 2006 Arbuckle Award


Stephen Adams and wife Denise at the February award dinner.
Photo by Steve Castillo

His business empire includes billboards, wine, banks, and a broad set of products and services for recreational vehicle users. The entire group of Adams Companies would rank 150 on the Forbes list of privately held firms if it were a single company, Stephen Adams told guests at the dinner honoring him as the 2006 Arbuckle Award recipient.

Like the man at the helm, Adams’ companies keep a low profile. The privately held firms have “no need to beat the drum for Wall Street or whisper the earnings expectations for the next quarter. … By and large, I have enjoyed and preferred to be below the radar screen and out of the public spotlight,” said Adams, MBA ’62, who was honored Feb. 15 as the 36th recipient of the top award presented by the Stanford Business School Alumni Association to an outstanding member of the Business School community.

Steady growth and long-term relationships are keys to success of his companies, he said. He bought his first outdoor advertising firm in 1983; started building the Affinity Group in 1989; purchased Affinity Bank in 1995, Adams Wine Group in 1996, and Freedom Roads RV dealerships in 2003.

After introducing several leaders of his companies, Adams said that people are critical to his investment decisions. A company “needs a team and bench strength with more than one person running it. Usually the best management will be available and willing to move, given the right incentives and compensation plan.”

Adams also decried business figures involved in ethical scandals who, he said, put self interest first. But even among ethical leaders, he said, most develop more social conscience later in their careers, when they focus more on “using what has been accumulated for the right purposes,” such as charitable causes.