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Our Story
After retiring from the corporate grind at fifty-two years of age, Dock Reed settled in Point Clear, Alabama and began to think about his experiences buying and selling his many businesses throughout the years. He spoke with other current and former business owners and found a recurring theme – there was very little qualified help and expertise for those looking to buy or sell a business. Dock decided to address that need and established The Reed Group, Inc. in 1996 to serve small businesses and their owners in the Southeast. As time passed and The Reed Group’s successes mounted, Dock settled into his niche of assisting businesses that generated between $5m and $200m in revenue.
While The Reed Group, Inc. was getting established, Clay Tindal was pursuing an education in business and law. He initially focused his practice on transactional work, assisting business owners with various aspects of their business. His focus soon shifted to litigation, where he dealt with the results of poor business strategies, models, planning, risk management, and other oversights and issues. The combined experience of transactional work and litigation soon found Clay serving as the lead advisor and outside general counsel to businesses in many industries. As those businesses changed structures and ownership, Clay’s role would also change from advocate to intermediary. Soon, Clay began receiving referrals and spending more time as a business intermediary, consultant, and advisor, leading him into the Mergers and Acquisitions arena where he met Dock Reed.
Dock and Clay share many personal and professional values and interests, including a zest for assisting closely held businesses and their owners maximize the value of their efforts. Combined, they have been the lead advisors on hundreds of business transitions over decades of service. Given their shared passions and beliefs, they formed Reed Tindal, LLC in 2021 as the successor entity to The Reed Group, Inc. Together, they carry on the work Dock began in 1996.
Our People
Dock Reed
Dock grew up in rural Alabama before leaving home to honorably serve his country in the Air Force. He then spent many years serving the entrepreneurial spirit that has always burned inside, starting, managing, growing, and ultimately selling countless small businesses.
Dock’s discipline and determination led to considerable personal and professional success, which in turn led to a Fortune 100 company hiring him to travel across the country teaching business integrity and ethics, best practices, and risk management. The corporate grind allowed Dock to become very familiar with the Southeast, living in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and Mississippi.
Upon retiring from that corporate job, Dock returned to his home state of Alabama. Not long thereafter, Dock founded The Reed Group, Inc. to assist privately held businesses and their owners as they looked to transition into or out of their businesses, just as he had done many times throughout his career. In building The Reed Group, Inc., Dock became a Certified Business Counselor and Certified Merger and Acquisition Advisor.
While his enviable professional career has spanned decades, it is by no means Dock’s proudest accomplishment. That honor goes to the marital success Dock and his wife of over sixty years, Mrs. Jo Ann Reed, have enjoyed while building their family. Dock and Jo Ann met in grammar school and have supported each other in every way since. They continue to work together to this day and enjoy their family, friends, and many hobbies.
Clay Tindal
Clay grew up on a multi-generational family farm in Alabama where the principles of hard work and dedication were ingrained at an early age. His entrepreneurial spirit was shaped by his parents, who owned and operated various businesses, including an animal health and feed additive business, family farm, wholesale plant nursery, and a real estate brokerage. Those experiences also shaped Clay’s pursuit of higher education, leading him to attain a Bachelor of Science in Management, Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance, and a Juris Doctor.
Pairing his hands-on experience with his formal education, Clay successfully owned and operated many business ventures of his own, including those in the legal, real estate, entertainment, agricultural, wastewater, and service industries. Being a serial entrepreneur who has successfully bought and sold many businesses, Clay fully understands his clients’ interests when advising them through business transitions, whether acting as legal counsel or business intermediary. In addition to his membership in various legal organizations, Clay is a member of the Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors, the M&A Source, and the International Business Brokers Association.
Like Dock, Clay has lived in many of the Southeast’s great states, including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama. Clay has served as the primary consultant and advisor for businesses in many industries, including those operating in the alternative fuels, construction, alarm monitoring, fire suppression, property management, property development, entertainment, food processing/manufacturing, equipment rental, healthcare, industrial, and service industries. He has been the lead counsel and/or intermediary for business transitions where ownership and/or control exchanged hands for little value in family settings to those where the total transaction value exceeded $100,000,000.00.
When not enjoying life helping others transition into or out of the business arena, you can find Clay, his wife Amy, and their three boys somewhere in the great outdoors.
