Talk:GCA Corporation

Suggestions to update infobox

Hi, Wikipedia! My name is Aline. I would like to suggest some updates to the infobox. As an employee of GCA, I have a financial conflict of interest and will not make edits myself in order to follow Wikipedia's conflict of interest guidelines. I want to make fair and constructive edits with the help of the volunteer editor community. I hope that editors will be open to reviewing my suggestions and placing them in the live article.

I am proposing the following additions to the infobox:

Add Akihito Watanabe to the "founders"

Add the number of office locations: 23 and number of employees: 450 per this source

References

Are there any editors that would be willing to take a look at these changes and then place them in the live article? If you have any feedback/questions, I'd be happy to chat! Thank you. Lineeeee (talk) 16:24, 27 January 2020 (UTC)

@Lordtobi: You're the most recent active editor to edit this article. There have been edits since then but mostly by unregistered users. I was wondering, are you willing to review this request? Thanks. Lineeeee (talk) 20:16, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

Lineeeee, thanks for the ping. The edit you mention was me updating the name of this article to fix incoming links from another article I was working on at the time. This was two years ago. Given your ping, I checked on the article, and it becomes clear that it needs rewriting: Besides peacockery, it contains little encyclopedic material and is mostly a corporate portfolio. Cleaning up the infobox, I added the information from the second source you linked.

As for the founders, the website Crunchbase is in large parts user-maintained and hence not a reliable source (more information at WP:RSP). The source previously used for the same claim was also not reliable. Due to this, I excluded founder information for the moment as I try to gather reliable sources that discuss the matter properly.

If you wish, you can also help to find reliable sources to expand the article with. You can also create a fully-fledged draft that could be reviewed by a COI-less editor and incorporated fully into the live article. Please tell me what option would work better for you. Regards, Lordtobi (✉) 20:27, 31 January 2020 (UTC)

@Lordtobi: Thanks for these updates and for your notes. I would like to help with a draft and I'm also open to a broader discussion about the most appropriate article name. It might help for me to share a short draft for that discussion, so I'll look into that. In the meantime, I'll be back with some more simple updates soon. Thanks, Lineeeee (talk) 09:04, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

@Lordtobi: It looks like the number of locations was added to the number of employees parameter, and vice versa. If you have a moment, can you fix that? Thank you. Lineeeee (talk) 12:52, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

My mistake. The numbers should be in the correct order now. Lordtobi (✉) 13:58, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

@Lordtobi: Thank you for the super fast fix.Lineeeee (talk) 17:11, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

Headquarters

Hello again, Wikipedia! I'd like to address another inaccuracy. We don't have a central headquarters. Our offices are spread across three continents: Asia, Europe, and North America. Right now the article mentions headquarters in San Francisco in the infobox and introduction, which is incorrect. We have an office there (and it is our US business’ headquarters), but do not have a global headquarters.

@Lordtobi: Will you consider removing mention of the headquarters location from the infobox and introduction? I'm not sure if the San Francisco category should be removed as well, or if categories should be added for all our locations. Lineeeee (talk) 09:10, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

While technically possible, I would argue that every company has a head office. The BusinessLive source you linked previously attests that:

GCA Altium is the European business of GCA, a global investment bank headquartered in San Francisco that provides M&A, capital markets and debt advisory services.

(emphasis mine)

Press releases, meanwhile, give the impression that the Tokyo office (with the corporation that is publicly traded( being the headquarters. I tagged this question as a COI edit request for a third opinion. Regards, Lordtobi (✉) 20:55, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

The information on the leadership team found here (the website listed in the infobox) suggests that this team is located at two sites: San Francisco and New York. If there are any other cities where managing executives are located, it isn't listed there. The state of today's connectivity and communications being the way it is, I believe that the difference between these two offices is minimal at best — with only three hours separating their workday, these two locations doubtless operate as a single office, with the only difference being where employees park their cars. My proposal would be for SF and NY to be listed in the infobox, or for the company to re-align its internal understanding of what headquarters generally means. Regards,  Spintendo  21:30, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

As the leadership (described by the company as the Executive committee, the management committee, and operational leadership) is shown in SF, I believe that is the best city reflected under the |headquarters= parameter. The only entry listed from New York is the President, John Lambros, whose offices are shown as either New York or San Francisco depending on which source is consulted (Bloomberg = San Francisco; LinkedIn = New York). This implies that the difference between these two locations may likely be minimal (as I described above), so I see no reason why SF shouldn't be the city described in the parameter for the sake of brevity. Regards,  Spintendo  07:51, 6 February 2020 (UTC)

Hi User:Lordtobi and User:Spintendo, I appreciate your feedback. I realize this situation is more complex than the typical organization with a centralized headquarters. I understand that it makes the situation more difficult when sourcing is confused on the matter. I'll spend some more time thinking this over and how to best approach this in a way that works for Wikipedia while accurately representing the structure of the company. Lineeeee (talk) 19:13, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

Key people

Hi, again. My name is Aline and as I've posted on here before, I'm an employee of GCA and have a financial conflict of interest with this article. With that being said, I will not make edits myself in order to follow Wikipedia's conflict of interest guidelines.

I'm seeking feedback from editors regarding the best way to address the Key people field of the infobox. Since GCA has three main divisions, each with its own leadership and no overarching CEO or President, I wanted to identify the roles and individuals who are considered the company's top executives. GCA's key individuals are as follows:

• Aki Watanabe, Representative Director and CEO of GCA Corporation
• Todd Carter, Co-CEO of GCA Advisors LLC (US)
• Geoff Baldwin, Co-CEO of GCA Advisors LLC (US)
• Phil Adams, CEO of GCA Altium
• Alexander Gruenwald, Co-Head of Europe
• Sascha Pfeiffer, Co-Head of Europe
• Ritsuko Nonomiya, Co-Head of GCA Advisors Corporation (Japan/Asia)
• John F Lambros, President of GCA Advisors LLC (US)
• Akikazu Ida, Co-Head of GCA Advisors Corporation (Japan/Asia)

Are there any editors that can offer advice about who should be included based on Wikipedia's guidelines? I'm happy to address any questions or comments! Thank you. Lineeeee (talk) 14:42, 21 February 2020 (UTC)

Which GCA?

I am unfamiliar with this company. The GCA Corporation I am familiar with is the one that introduced the stepper, which revolutionized the semiconductor industry in the 1980s and allowed Moore's Law to continue unhindered for another 10 years. I don't believe this is the same company? Maury Markowitz (talk) 15:46, 15 July 2020 (UTC)