Fairfield Advisory Partners Builds a Regional Consulting Powerhouse

Owen Delacroix spent nine years flying to client sites across the country for a national management consulting firm before he decided the travel itself had become the problem he needed to solve. "I was advising companies on efficiency while spending twenty hours a week in airports," he said from his office in downtown Fairfield. "At some point that stopped making sense to me." In 2016, he left to start Fairfield Advisory Partners, a professional services firm focused exclusively on mid-sized companies within a two-hour drive of its home base.

The bet was that Connecticut's mid-market business owners, often too small to interest the largest consulting firms but too complex to rely solely on their accountants, represented an underserved segment of the market. Nearly a decade later, Fairfield Advisory Partners has grown to 34 consultants advising manufacturers, healthcare practices, and family-owned distributors across the state on operations strategy, financial planning, and ownership transitions.

Specializing in Succession Planning

As Connecticut's population of baby boomer business owners has aged, Fairfield Advisory has built a significant portion of its practice around succession planning, helping owners navigate the sale or intergenerational transfer of companies many built from nothing. Delacroix says this work requires a different skill set than traditional operations consulting, blending financial modeling with what he describes as "genuinely difficult conversations about identity and legacy."

"A lot of these owners have never separated themselves from their business," Delacroix said. "Helping them plan an exit is as much about that emotional work as it is about valuation multiples." The firm has developed a structured succession framework that Delacroix says has been used in more than 60 ownership transitions across the state.

Building a Client-First Culture

Colleagues describe Delacroix as insistent on keeping the firm's client rosters small enough that partners maintain direct relationships rather than handing accounts off to junior staff. Priya Shah, a senior partner at the firm, said this approach shaped hiring decisions as the company grew. "Owen would rather turn down new business than let client relationships become impersonal," Shah said. "That's slowed our growth at times, but it's also why clients stay with us for a decade or more."

Weathering Economic Uncertainty

Fairfield Advisory's client base, concentrated among small and mid-sized businesses, proved particularly vulnerable during periods of economic uncertainty, when discretionary consulting spending is often among the first budget items cut. Delacroix says the firm survived a difficult stretch several years ago by shifting its service offerings toward cost-reduction and efficiency consulting, work that remained in demand even when companies were cutting elsewhere.

Expanding Across Connecticut

The firm recently opened a satellite office in New Haven to better serve clients in that market, and Delacroix says he is exploring similar expansion toward Hartford. He remains adamant, however, that Fairfield Advisory will not pursue the kind of rapid, acquisition-driven growth common among larger consulting firms. "We're not trying to become a national brand," he said. "We're trying to be the firm every mid-sized business owner in this state has heard of, for the right reasons." Nearly a decade after leaving behind his old firm's travel schedule, Delacroix says he now spends most weeks entirely within Connecticut's borders. "I finally consult from somewhere instead of from an airport," he said.