On March 1, 1985, Michele Steege and I gave birth to SteegeThomson. In fact, I began the day getting stitches in the emergency room. I had gashed my head on the edge of a bedside table in a move so awkward I could not possibly reproduce it.
Other people who have started businesses will tell you I didn’t hit my head hard enough, since I then proceeded to our first offices — two rooms in the back of Michele’s home. There, she and I sat pretty much knee to knee, conferring on everything. That was partly because the sliding glass door between our rooms didn’t actually close.
We outgrew those quarters in two years, as soon as we needed to hire staff. Our new space had a great advantage: an excellent Thai restaurant right across the hall. We could walk over, stick out a plate, and receive a large scoop of pad thai. We have never eaten so well again. But after three more years and new staff members, we had to give that up, too.
We took a different path.
Dispirited by the spaces available in high rises, we bought a Victorian twin in West Philadelphia. Here we have remained for 20 years. It’s a different kind of place to work. I like to think it reflects SteegeThomson. It’s a little off the beaten path. It has character and substance. It’s been around awhile, and it will be around through market cycles and changes in our field.
In these quarters, we have seen wonderful moments and our most difficult one — Michele’s death in 2004 in her third bout of breast cancer. It was awful, but we got through.
Some you get through. Some you celebrate.
I wish she were alive to celebrate what we have become. At 25, there are days when I am burstingly proud of my colleagues’ work. Equally often, I am humbled by what we need to learn. Always, I am awed by what our clients do.
How could I not be? Today we see clients like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation determined to improve the quality of health care, despite Congressional paralysis. We have the privilege of serving EARTH University in Costa Rica, a 20-year-old institution inventing a whole new model of higher education. We work with the U.S. Dream Academy, helping the children of incarcerated parents and other at-risk children get a shot in life. Our clients embody remarkable stories. We are honored to tell them.
With thanks
And so, to my colleagues, the network of SteegeThomson alumni and our many partners over the years, I say happy birthday to us! And to the wonderful clients who have believed in us with your business, we say thank you — and bring it on! We have our first new logo in 25 years. We have a new website. We’re ready for more.
Carol Thomson
President
www.steegethomson.com
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