Guy de Chazal has arrived a bit behind schedule for his 25th Reunion interview. Trim and elegantly attired, he apologizes for being detained at an off-site meeting for Morgan Stanley & Co., where he is a managing director and president of Morgan Stanley Venture Partners. With his clipped British accent and direct, engaging manner, he comes across immediately as the kind of person who is accustomed both to doing things right and to doing the right thing.

Over a late afternoon cup of tea in a conference room at the firm's midtown Manhattan office, de Chazal reflects on his career and his shifting sense of priorities. Born in India, he went to boarding school in England and earned a degree in mechanical engineering at Manchester University. After graduating from HBS with distinction, he worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Co. in New York until 1981, when he decided to try his hand at venture capital with Citicorp.

"The industry was much, much smaller in those days," he says. "A few hundred million dollars a year, versus almost a hundred billion today." Drawing on his experience with Morgan Stanley since 1986, he attributes many of the venture capital industry's recent mistakes to putting too much faith in innovative companies with exciting ideas but untried management. "At Morgan Stanley, we're back to basics: We look for young companies that have the advantage of entering a potentially large market before the competition. Entrepreneurial spirit is important," he allows, "but it needs the support of a solid management team at a fairly early stage in the company's evolution."

Having reached the top echelon of a profession that has been both financially and personally rewarding, de Chazal is at a point in his own evolution where he is ready to make a change. This fall, he will cut back on his hours at Morgan Stanley in order to devote more time to some other important priorities, beginning, he says, with his family. For years, de Chazal's demanding workdays have been bracketed by lengthy train rides to and from the Long Island home he shares with his wife, Kitty, their nine-year- old daughter, Justine, and eight-year-old son, David. "Right now, I see my children mostly on weekends," he notes. "I want to change that."

His other enduring passion is Fountain House, an innovative rehabilitation program for the emotionally handicapped that offers a wide range of housing, educational, employment, and social service programs. "Fountain House facilitates recovery and rehabilitation by building self-esteem," explains de Chazal, whose interest in the international organization was inspired by his wife's job as a social worker with disturbed adolescents. A Fountain House board member since 1986, he speaks with deep conviction about the challenges faced by the emotionally handicapped. "With advances in pharmaceutical treatments for emotional illnesses, hospitalization is no longer the right route for most of these people, but they still need some support. Fountain House provides that alternative for over a thousand people in New York alone."

De Chazal hopes his new schedule at Morgan Stanley will allow him to sharpen his focus on others. "We live in an incredibly rich country during a time of tremendous wealth creation," he observes. "It is too easy to lose sight of how lucky many of us have been. It's important to give something back."
—Deborah Blagg

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