Stephen Adams (born 1937) is an American businessman, private equity investor, and philanthropist. His current holdings include Good Sam Enterprises, a national publishing, retail stores, and member-based direct marketing organization directed toward owners of recreational vehicles and Adams Outdoor Advertising, an operator of outdoor advertising structures in the Midwest, Southeast, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. His previous holdings have included operators of television and radio stations, print publishers, cola bottlers and community banks.
Early life
Adams was born in 1937 and was raised in Minnesota. Adams received a bachelor's degree in 1959 from Yale University, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. He received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1962. Adams is the son of long-time newspaper journalist and CBS radio and television broadcaster Cedric Adams.
Professional career
As of the end of 2007, Adams served as chairman of the board of Affinity Group Inc., FreedomRoads and Affinity Bank (now known as Camping World/GoodSam, Inc.) and is also chairman and the controlling shareholder of Adams Outdoor Advertising. He has been chairman of Affinity Group Inc. since its acquisition in December 1988 and chairman of Adams Outdoor Advertising since its founding in 1983. He also serves as chairman of Adams Radio Group (based in Lakeville, Minnesota) and Adams Publishing Group (based in St. Louis Park, Minnesota).
Adams began his career in banking and soft drink bottling. Since the 1970s, Adams has served as chairman of privately owned banking, bottling, publishing, outdoor advertising, television and radio companies in which he holds a controlling ownership interest. Adams currently owns Chateau Fonplagade in Bordeaux as well as other left bank wineries, and Adamus, Michel-Schlumberger, Roblar, and Adler Fels wineries in Northern California.
In 1982, he won a protracted fight to gain control of the Bank of Montana System. In 1984, Adams failed in a bid to take control of publicly-traded Union Planters. Bank of Montana System was sold to Norwest Corporation in 1993.
Adams Outdoor
Adams Outdoor was founded in 1983 with the acquisition of Central Outdoor Advertising, located in Michigan. Over the next five years, Adams pursued a rollup of billboard and other outdoor advertising assets into additional medium-sized markets, primarily through the acquisition of existing outdoor advertising businesses in selected midwest, southeast and mid-Atlantic states (examples being Central Outdoor in Michigan, Creative Displays in the Lehigh Valley, Schloss Outdoor in North Carolina, and Turner Outdoor in Atlanta, Georgia). Today the company is privately held, however in its final year of reporting public financials, 2000, the company had approximately $80 million of revenue. Since 2000, the company has increased its market position from the 6th largest outdoor advertising company in the US to the 4th largest behind Clear Channel Outdoor, Lamar Advertising Company, and Outfront Media. In January 2015, Adams Outdoor partnered with Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR, to purchase Fairway Outdoor, effectively doubling the Outdoor holdings of Adams. Fairway Outdoor was later sold to Mediaco Holding, Inc. in 2019.
On January 3, 2022, Adams Outdoor acquired the assets of Toby Outdoor Advertising in North Carolina and Virginia, effectively adding 186 faces to Adams' Winston-Salem inventory.
Affinity Group Inc. On December 23, 1988, the direct predecessor of Affinity Group Inc. (AGI), owned by Adams, acquired a company called American Bakeries Company for about $138 million. At the time of the merger, the sole operating assets of American Bakeries Company were TL Enterprises, Inc. (Trailer Life magazine) and Camp Coast to Coast, Inc. These entities consisted of what is today the Good Sam Club, Coast to Coast, AGI's subscription-based products and services business and AGI's RV-related publications, with the exception of the Woodall's titles.
From 1990 through 1997 AGI acquired other companies. Among the purchases were Golf Card International in 1990 for about $18 million; and in May 1994, Woodall Publishing Company, L.P. and Woodall World of Travel, L.P. (collectively Woodall’s) for about $11.5 million.
In 1995, AGI acquired the 13-year-old San Francisco Thrift and Loan and moved the company's headquarters to Ventura, California. In 1997, the bank was renamed Affinity Bank; in 1999, AGI transferred ownership to Affinity Bank Holdings, Inc. a separate entity controlled by Adams