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Hawes Family Funds New Classroom Building
Topics: Business Ventures-Buildings and FacilitiesInspired by Dean Kim B. Clark's vision for the School, Beverly and Rodney A. Hawes, Jr. (MBA '69), recently made a generous gift to HBS that will fund a new classroom building. "You can't succeed in the world today without having a global perspective, without realizing how crucial values are, and without understanding technology. I admire the School's commitment to these areas," said Rod Hawes in a campus interview during his 30th Reunion in October.
Hawes Hall, to be located at the northeast edge of Aldrich Hall, will house a number of state-of-the-art classrooms designed for case-method instruction. The initial phases of planning and design have just begun, with construction anticipated to commence in the summer of 2000 and completion scheduled for late 2001.
Hawes retired last year as chairman and CEO of Life Re Corporation, a Stamford, Connecticut-based provider of life and health reinsurance. During almost four decades in the insurance business as a salesman, entrepreneur, top executive, and industry leader, he established a remarkable record of success while maintaining a sterling reputation for character and integrity. For example, in 1978 when a Florida firm his company had invested in was struggling, Hawes's sense of obligation to his investors took him and his family to Tampa to work with the failing enterprise. "It took us a year and a half," he recalled with characteristic enthusiasm, "but we fixed the company, turned it around, and sold it."
A chance meeting with a recruiter in an HBS corridor in 1969 led Hawes to a small Connecticut company that focused on insurance company mergers and acquisitions. In 1972, he ventured out on his own and founded Insurance Investment Associates, which soon became the country's leading M&A advisor to the insurance industry. Joined in 1979 by Douglas M. Schair (MBA '71) and another partner, Hawes followed an ambitious agenda. By 1988, the firm had completed more than one hundred deals and outdistanced even the leading Wall Street investment banks in its specialty.
In 1988, Hawes and his colleagues purchased the life reinsurance unit of General Re Corporation, Life Re Corporation of America. The firm continued to grow as a major player in the U.S. reinsurance business, helped considerably during the 1990s by several strategic acquisitions. Life Re went public in 1992 and was sold to Swiss Re in 1998.
"I hold a strong belief in the individual," said Hawes, who explained that much of what he has learned in the insurance business has come from talking to those who don't ordinarily get a voice in a company. "Some of the best advice I've gotten has been when I've gone down in the trenches and asked the people who are doing the actual work what they think about a problem and how they would solve it. They are much more likely to come up with solutions because they've got the experience. It's just that no one ever asks them."
Hawes's belief in the individual led him to give every single Life Re employee stock options; as a result, about 20 percent of his work force became millionaires when the company went public. "We shared the profits with everyone and gave those staying on an excellent opportunity," Hawes proudly noted.
Hawes, who grew up in Marsing, Idaho, earned his BA in political science from Stanford University in 1959. Beverly Hawes, a Boise native, earned her degree at Whitman College in Washington. The Haweses came to HBS with four young children (two more followed in 1973 and 1976), and Rod Hawes earned his MBA as a Baker Scholar. "I gave Beverly the key," said Hawes, attributing his success to the support he received from his wife, who typed every paper he wrote.
Now the proud grandparents of thirteen, the Haweses are active in the Mormon Church. Last year they created an endowment at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management to fund several initiatives, including awards modeled on the Baker Scholar program at HBS. The Haweses' philanthropic interests have also extended to a number of humanitarian causes, including world hunger and the plight of people in troubled regions throughout the world.
"Rod and Beverly Hawes are a wonderful model for us all," said Dean Clark when announcing the gift. "While building an outstanding business and a close-knit family, they never have lost sight of the importance of helping others. Now, thanks to their extraordinary generosity, Hawes Hall will play an important part in preparing future generations of HBS students for leadership."
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