J. Richard Knop, JD ’69, senior managing
director and co-head of defense and government
services of BB&T Capital Markets/Windsor Group
at his office in Reston, Va.
Julie Woodford
By Laura Ewald
Listening
to J. Richard Knop, JD ’69, tell
the story of his career, it sounds pretty
simple: Indiana boy makes good in Washington
through decades of hard work and forging
relationships. But it is Knop’s dedication
and calm demeanor that have made him so
successful—“slow and steady” put
him ahead of the pack.
Knop is co-founder of Windsor Group, a
prominent middle-market mergers and acquisitions
firm that in January of 2005 was purchased
by BB&T Capital Markets. Knop now serves
as senior managing director of the unified
entity and is co-head of its government/defense
group. For 20 years, Knop has combined
his skills as an investment banker with
his legal expertise—a formula that
has proven highly effective. He has personally
closed more than 75 defense and government
contractor mergers ranging from $10 million
to $1.2 billion.
While mainstream M&A firms were courting
the tech and telecom companies that were
in vogue during the 1990s, Knop and his
partner, Jack Boles, stayed focused on
serving government and defense contractors.
After the tech bubble burst and the defense
industry swelled, Knop emerged an experienced
leader in a fast-growing field. Most of
the deals Knop and his associates at Windsor
Group handled involved large contractors,
such as SRA International, CACI, and Raytheon
acquiring small and medium-sized firms.
“We had our specialization and we
kept at it during the tech boom. We dealt
with a lot of technology in the government
contracting industry and had a commercial
IT practice and a telecom practice as well,
but we focused on companies that were profitable—no
start-ups, no venture capital,” Knop
says. “I never got involved in terms
of investment banking with the Internet.
We dealt with larger companies and larger
transactions. We kept to our knitting and
were very focused, and in middle market
investment banking in particular, that
is the key.”
Knop’s interest in government affairs
developed early on. He hails from Huntington,
Ind., a small town in the northeastern
region of the state. His father, John,
served two terms as mayor. Knop majored
in political science and international
relations at Indiana University and was
active in student government. Those Midwestern
roots include ties to the East Coast—his
mother’s family is from Washington
and Virginia and his maternal grandfather
and great-grandfather graduated from National
Law Center, which today is GW Law.
The move to Washington was a natural
one for Knop. “I wanted to be involved
with public policy and GW was a great venue
for me to get a law degree and get involved
in the Washington scene,” he says.
During his first year, he was selected
to serve as a clerk for Marjorie Whiteman,
then the counselor of international law
at the Department of State. Working for
the counselor was an honor given every
year to a GW Law student. Knop successfully
balanced education, a full-time job,
and a growing family during that time,
and capitalized on a unique opportunity.
“Every 25 years, the counselor writes
the definitive treatise on international
law. She was doing that at the time I was
working, so for two-plus years, I was doing
all the fundamental research for a chapter
on international trade law for The
Whiteman Digest of International Law. It was invaluable
practical experience and led me to focus
on international law in my studies,” Knop
says.
During his GW Law days, Knop enjoyed
Professor David Robinson’s criminal law and
evidence classes. He also forged a friendship
with Warren Miller, JD ’69, now Knop’s
next-door neighbor in McLean, Va.
After
graduation, Knop reconnected with Rep.
E. Ross Adair (R.-Ind.), LLB ’33,
who at the time was on the foreign affairs
committee and for whom Knop interned as
an undergraduate. After serving in the
Army Reserves as a 1st lieutenant and going
through basic training, Knop served as
a legislative assistant for two and a half
years until Adair retired. He then was
a legislative assistant for Rep. Lou Frey
Jr. (R.-Fla.), who was a member of the
communications committee.
“Both of these congressmen were ranking
members, and both ‘gave me my head,’ as
they say. It was a very exciting time to
be crafting legislation, writing speeches,
and gaining support,” Knop says. “I
was in effect synthesizing complex issues,
and I was beginning to see myself as an
effective intermediary—I got my first
taste of that on Capitol Hill.”
Knop and his family moved to Florida
to help Frey run for governor in 1978,
and Knop began his practice, focusing
on corporate law and public policy. After
Frey decided not to run, Knop found he
missed the Washington scene and returned
as a partner in a small international
corporate law firm. His practice eventually
shifted from international corporate
law to handling business transactions
and negotiations.
By the mid-1980s, he had formed his own
investment bank and was focusing more
and more on mergers and acquisitions. “I
decided I wanted to be the catalyst in
some of these bigger business transactions,” he
says. What started as Boles Knop & Co.
became Windsor Group in 1992. Knop recognizes
that, to some extent, he was in the right
place at the right time as the tech boom
gave way to the defense industry. But his
position was far from accidental.
“One of the things I’ve learned
and put into practice at Windsor Group
is that industry focus and what I call ‘domain
knowledge,’ coupled with deal skills
is a powerful combination,” Knop
says.
Legal expertise also gives him—and
his associates—an edge. “What
we did was develop expertise in all areas
of government contracting. I could not
have done what I did without my degree
from GW Law,” Knop says. “We
have 23 investment bankers working for
us now, most of whom have MBAs. No one
in my office has a law degree besides myself,
but what I’ve done is imparted
to the members of the firm and
our shared culture is that we have
to be involved in all aspects of
these transactions. We have to
know all of the elements of the
deal, so we work hand in glove
with lawyers on the transactions
we handle.
BB&T was attracted to Windsor Group
because of its track record and reputation
in government/defense M&A, Knop says,
and Knop saw an opportunity for growth. “I
wanted to create a full-service investment
bank for the government contracting industry.
I wanted to take companies public and make
us a one-stop shopping entity for all investment
and corporate banking services for the
industry. BB&T had the same vision.”
Knop now enjoys the new opportunities
and challenges his career presents and
shares his experience inside and outside
the office. In June, he took office as
president of the National Chapter of
the Association for Corporate Growth.
He has served on the board of several
charitable organizations, including ServiceSource,
which provides training and support services
to individuals with disabilities.
He also is a member of the Law School’s
advisory board and has worked with Professor
Christopher Yukins and Bill Mutryn, JD ’75,
on seminars on government procurement law.
Knop also has committed $100,000 toward
a campaign at the Law School to establish
the Nash-Cibinic Professorship, an endowed
fund honoring the creators of the Law School’s
government contracts law program. The program
was founded in the 1960s by Emeritus Professors
Ralph Nash and the late John Cibinic, who
passed away in August of 2005.
“I enjoy mentoring and appreciate
my legal education. I think the Law School
has come a long way in the past few years—it
would probably be hard for me to get in
today,” he says. “I’m
very impressed with Dean Lawrence, with
his sense of leadership and enthusiasm,
especially with regard to the alumni. A
lot of us have stayed around Washington
in interesting careers, and the Law School
has reached out and re-involved us.
I’m so impressed with what I’ve
learned about the Law School’s growth
and stature, as far as applications, variety
of courses, and improvements to the physical
plant, and the quality of the faculty and
student body. We’ve become quite
an institution. Some of the best government
contract lawyers in the country graduated
from GW Law, and I’ve worked with
many of them professionally.”
Knop also works closely with
his son, Clark, an analyst with
BB&T/Windsor. Knop’s
wife, Robin, is a former print journalist
who now is an actress, writer, producer,
and playwright. Her musical play Agatha
Sings has received critical acclaim in
the Washington area. They spend time with
Knop’s three children and grandchildren
at their vacation home on Smith Mountain
Lake in Virginia. Knop enjoys water skiing,
snow skiing, tennis, quiet time with his
wife, and visiting his grandchildren. In
some ways, the family man hasn’t
gone too far from his roots.
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