Newsmakers
A Roundup of Media Mentions
Waxing Philosophical: Samuel Johnson (MBA ’52)
Flying High: Ellyn McColgan (MBA ’83)
Restoring Order: George W. Bush (MBA ’75), William Donaldson (MBA ’58), Dan Lufkin (MBA ’57), and Richard Jenrette (MBA ’57)
Fighting Back from a Knockout: Steve Laffey (MBA ’86)
Brazil Banks on Experience: Henrique Meirelles (93rd AMP)
As he turned over company operations to his children last winter, it was a time for reflection for Samuel Johnson (MBA ’52), chairman emeritus of SC Johnson, one of the country’s oldest and largest family-owned firms, with $9 billion in annual revenues. A successful CEO and perhaps the most prominent environmentalist in corporate America, Johnson discussed with USA Today (December 4, 2002) the drinking problem that he had developed toward the end of his career. He sought treatment in 1993 after an intervention by his family; sober ever since, Johnson wants to help others.
To this end, Johnson openly explores his difficult relationship with his late father and how alcoholism has affected him and generations of his family. He also examines these issues in a film, Carnauba: A Son’s Memoir, that aired on the Hallmark Channel in December and has been seen by thousands in private screenings. (Johnson showed it at his 50th HBS reunion.)
Alcoholism afflicts 5 to 10 percent of the general population, a figure that experts say is probably higher among CEOs. That’s attributable to the greater levels of stress and work-related socializing CEOs experience and because they are surrounded by assistants and other workers who, in effect, can “act as buffers,” USA Today said. But with treatment, the recovery rate for CEOs is higher, too — about 90 percent.
According to the Boston Globe (December 12, 2002), Ellyn McColgan (MBA ’83) “is not a household name in mutual funds. But that’s about to change.” Recently appointed president of Fidelity Brokerage Co., McColgan oversees $700 billion of the Boston-based firm’s assets.
A native of Jersey City, New Jersey, whose first job was in personnel with the old Bamberger’s department store, McColgan had been “flying under the radar at Fidelity for several years, running several key operations,” the Globe reported. Asked about her plans for the firm, McColgan said that “we are really looking at the customer experience,” explaining that Fidelity plans to woo youthful investors and retain them as customers as their wealth grows over the years. On the brokerage side, she will work to secure the firm’s place as a mutual fund giant. “It’s a volume game,” she said. “You’ve got to drive volume through. You can’t be a marginal broker anymore.”
Last December, calling him “one of the most respected business leaders in our nation,” President George W. Bush (MBA ’75) nominated Wall Street veteran William Donaldson (MBA ’58) to be Securities and Exchange Commission chairman. Charging Donaldson with enforcing recent legislation that Bush called “the most far-reaching reforms of American business since Franklin Roosevelt was president” (Associated Press, December 10, 2002), Bush also announced that he favored nearly doubling the SEC’s budget for 2004.
Donaldson, who along with Dan Lufkin (MBA ’57) and Richard Jenrette (MBA ’57) founded the investment firm that bears their names, has chaired the New York Stock Exchange; served as chairman and CEO of Aetna; and was the founding dean of the Yale School of Management. While noting the fundamental soundness and integrity of American industry, Donaldson added, “There have clearly been numerous instances of serious malfeasance, which, if proven, we must continue to deal with swiftly.”
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| Laffey Photo by Ron Hagerman |
Politics can be a thankless game — to the victor go the spoils, but so too the headaches. Consider the case of Steve Laffey (MBA ’86), the newly elected Republican mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island. Last November, three days after winning the city’s mayoral contest, Laffey saw his prize take on a bit of tarnish. Thanks to years of mismanagement by the administration he was voted to replace, Cranston’s bond rating was reduced to B, the lowest of any municipality in America.
In an opinion piece in the Providence Journal (November 30, 2002), Laffey, a Cranston native, pulled no punches: He described the rating as “a knockout blow” and vowed that his administration would fight for its constituents and would turn the city around. Declared Laffey, who teaches a college finance course and is a former president and COO of Morgan Keegan, a Tennessee financial services firm, “The city’s core services must be protected over and above the interests of Wall Street, and they will be.”
Ranked among the world’s largest economies, Brazil and the left-leaning government of newly elected President Lu íz In ácio Lula da Silva soothed wary financial markets by selecting Henrique Meirelles (93rd AMP), former head of global banking at FleetBoston, to lead the country’s Central Bank. “Our situation today is absolutely viable, Brazil’s economic basics are absolutely solid, and we have conditions to grow,” Meirelles told the New York Times (December 13, 2002).
Meirelles headed BankBoston’s Brazil operations from 1984 to 1996 and had recently been elected a deputy from his home state of Goi ás as a member of a party that opposed Lula’s Workers Party. “Despite being a member of the outgoing governing party and making his career in international finance, Mr. Meirelles won points with Mr. da Silva partly because of his pioneering social work,” the Times noted. During Meirelles’s tenure, BankBoston was active in restoring São Paulo’s decaying city center and helping homeless street children.
