John J. Mack
John J. Mack (born John Makhoul on November 17, 1944) is the current CEO and Chairman of the Board of the investment bank Morgan Stanley.
Mack has worked for the company for nearly thirty years. He rose through Morgan Stanley's ranks to become president in 1993. He left in 2001 after losing in a power struggle to Phil Purcell, after the 1997 merger of Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter, of which Purcell was already CEO. Mack took on the CEO position at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) at that time.
He earned the nickname Mack the Knife for his cost-cutting prowess while managing the fixed income division at Morgan Stanley, and he lived up to his billing at CSFB, where he cut 10,000 jobs and returned the bank to profitability.
During 2004-05, Mack moved into the chairmanship of the hedge fund Pequot Capital.
Mack returned to Morgan Stanley on June 30, 2005 as chief executive officer and chairman of the board, replacing Purcell.
The sixth son of Lebanese immigrants whose father ran a grocery store in Mooresville, N.C., Mack's first job in finance was as a clerk at a small brokerage during his junior year at Duke, after a cracked vertebra made it impossible for him to continue on his football scholarship.
He and his wife, Christy K. Mack, have three children: Stephen Mack, John Mack, and Jenna Mack. Christy is Charlie Rose's former sister-in-law.
Early life and education
Mack was born in 1944 to Lebanese immigrants of Melchite and Greek Orthodox origin. His father, Charles, came to America at the age of 12, following his father who had arrived at Ellis Island in 1908 and had settled in North Carolina.[1] Mack graduated from Duke University in 1968, where he attended on a football scholarship and is now a member of the Board of Trustees
Insider trading accusations
Mack was accused by former SEC investigator Gary Aguirre of insider trading. Mack allegedly tipped off hedge fund Pequot Capital Management about a 2001 merger deal between GE Capital and Heller Financial. In the testimony by Aguirre at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in June 2006, Aguirre said that Pequot had amassed a short position in General Electric shares in the weeks before the deal and a long position in Heller, and the $7 billion hedge fund earned some $18 million in profit once the deal was announced. Aguirre said that he was fired from the SEC on September 1, 2005 because he was aggressively pursuing the investigation and wanted to interview Mack about the findings. According to Aguirre, his efforts to talk to the politically well-connected Mack were blocked by senior SEC officials. The delay in the probe allowed Mack enough time to secure his position as CEO of Morgan Stanley. Had he been investigated in mid-2005 by the SEC, Mack would not have been a viable CEO candidate for the firm.
On August 22, 2006, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley stepped up pressure on the SEC to provide documents related to a congressional inquiry into why the agency ended an investigation into hedge fund firm Pequot Capital Management. Grassley said that the SEC hasn't responded quickly enough to requests for documents and interviews and complained about the agency's practice of prohibiting employees from disclosing information about ongoing investigations, according to a copy of a letter he sent to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. The letter was distributed to news organizations. [3]
On October 5, 2006, the SEC recommended no action be taken against Mack. [4] In late November, it notified Mack and Pequot that the investigation had been closed and no action would be taken against them. On December 5, 2006, in written testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Linda Thomsen, the SEC's top enforcer, two other SEC investigators, and one former associate director of her division denied that Mack was shielded from questioning. SEC investigators interviewed Mack on August 1, 2006. [2]
Grassley has asked the Government Accountability Office to open a probe of the SEC's enforcement division and compliance department.[2] The Senate Finance and Judiciary Committees conducted an investigation of Aguirre's allegations. On August 3, 2007, they issued a comprehensive joint staff report concluding the year-long investigation.[5]
Compensation
While CEO of Morgan Stanley in 2007, John J. Mack earned a total compensation of $41,399,010, which included a base salary of $800,000, stocks granted of $36,179,923, and options granted of $4,019,934.[3]
In 2008, he earned a total compensation of $1,235,097, which included a base salary of $800,000.[4]
Other
He is a chairman of the board of trustees of New York-Presbyterian Hospital (the University Hospital of both Columbia and Cornell Universities). He is a trustee emeritus of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation[6] as of June 2008. He was a vice-chair of its board of trustees in May 2008 at the time of its closure of Duke Gardens[5][6], a decision that led to media coverage and ongoing public protest[7][8][9][10]. He is a director of Cousins Properties Incorporated. In 2005, the C.J. Mack Family Foundation provided an endowment arranged by Mack to the United States Naval Academy Foundation to support the Admiral Frank Bowman Scholar Program.
Notes
- ^ [1] [2]
- ^ a b "SEC Denies Politics Derailed Probe of Mack, Pequot", Bloomberg News, December 5, 2006
- ^ 2007 CEO Compensation for John J. Mack, Equilar.com
- ^ 2008 CEO Compensation for John J. Mack, Equilar.com
- ^ "Duke Farms Promotes "Greener" Future" (Press release). Duke Farms. 2008-03-02. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
it's the final months of the gardens being on display in the greenhouses that have enchanted visitors since 1964
- ^ Sudol, Valerie (2008), "Famed Duke Gardens To Become Ambitious 'Green' Lab", Newhouse News Service, retrieved 2008-05-06
- ^ Sudol, Valerie (2008-05-14), "Web campaign to 'Save Duke Gardens'", The Star Ledger
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Raver, Anne (2008-05-08), "Transformation includes Sacrifice", The New York Times
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Sroka-Holzmann, Pamela (2008-05-17), "Web drive fighting Duke Farms changes", The Courier News
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Garmey, Jane (2008-05-28), "Doris Duke's Storied Gardens Are No More", Wall Street Journal, retrieved 2008-05-28
External links
- John Mack Elected Chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley (press release)
- "SEC Wants Mack" (Forbes)
- "No SEC action vs. hedge fund, John Mack" (Business Week)
- "Report Says S.E.C. Erred on Pequot (New York Times)"
- The Firing of an SEC Attorney and the Investigation of Pequot Capital Management (Senate Finance and Judiciary Committees, Joint Staff Report)
- [7]