In the high-powered, high-stakes world of mergers and acquisitions, Bruce Wasserstein is considered something of a legend. He was the wunderkind who helped make First Boston Corporation a leader in M&A in the early 1980s -- and then shook up the business world by departing in 1988 with colleague Joseph Perella (MBA '72). The result was the Wasserstein Perella Group, Inc., which became one of Wall Street's hottest investment banking boutiques.

"One of the most interesting things about this business is that you see people at their ultimate point of crisis," says the quietly intense Wasserstein, who has long been known for the Zenlike cool that comes over him in tense dealmaking negotiations when others begin to sweat. His reputation as a brilliant, aggressive takeover strategist made Wasserstein Perella a key player in most of the landmark deals of the 1980s, including Philip Morris's $13-billion acquisition of Kraft Inc. and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company's $25-billion purchase of RJR Nabisco.

Wasserstein's success has come as a surprise to no one. The son of a well-to-do ribbon manufacturer, as a child he was already reading Forbes, Barron's, and Business Week and concocting elaborate rules that turned the game of Monopoly into a battle of pint-sized real-estate moguls.

His opponent in those days was often his sister, Wendy, who herself emerged from the creative Wasserstein family milieu to become a Pulitzer Prize­winning playwright, churning out Broadway hits such as Isn't It Romantic?, The Heidi Chronicles, and The Sisters Rosensweig. To this day, the two siblings remain "very close," says Wasserstein, who readily defers to his sister's fame. "More often than not," he says affectionately, "I'm just known as Wendy's brother."

After finishing his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan, Wasserstein entered Harvard Law School at the age of nineteen, ultimately graduating cum laude as one of the first students to receive a joint MBA/JD degree and garnering honors as a Baker Scholar with high distinction from HBS. "Commuting by bicycle between the two schools in the winter was the real character-building part of the experience," Wasserstein laughs. After spending a year as a Knox Traveling Fellow at Cambridge University studying economics and law, he served as an attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City. It was while handling legal matters for one of First Boston's acquisitions that First Boston persuaded him to switch from law to banking.

Wasserstein has seen both good times and bad. In recent years, his firm, Wasserstein Perella, has had to endure the roller-coaster ride of the M&A business itself; then, in 1993, Joe Perella resigned over a disagreement about the company's future direction. Wasserstein will neither discuss the down times nor revel in past triumphs. "I don't look back as much as I look forward," he says circumspectly.

Meanwhile, Wasserstein Perella has prospered in the mid-1990s, having branched into areas such as securities underwriting and trading while expanding its position in the mergers and acquisitions business. In addition, the firm has had some notable successes in its merchant banking business, having participated in the buyouts of IMAX, Maybelline, and Collins & Aikman, in particular. "Although we've been quite fortunate in the past, I'm even more excited about the future," Wasserstein says. "I've been going through a training exercise; now I'm ready to start my career."

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