Once upon a time, all you needed to climb the ladder of success was a Harvard MBA. But these days, according to the Herald Sun (Australia), it might pay to check the roster of financial failures and match them up with their alma maters.
The name that keeps coming up over and over is—Harvard.
If you want proof that Harvard has become the “unacceptable face of capitalism,” consider the resumes of some notable graduates.
Take Stanley O’Neal, viewed as “a role model for ambitious black Americans. He had all the Harvard traits, i.e. he was earning $45 million a year, seemingly cared little for his colleagues, and under his watch as chairman and chief executive, Merrill Lynch sank in the mire of subprime home loans.
“In August and September, 2007, as the company posted losses of $8 billion for the quarter, he reportedly managed 20 rounds of golf, once squeezing in three rounds in one day on three different courses. We know this because the friendless O’Neal recorded the results—he played alone—on an amateur golf website. Rather than sack Wall Street’s worst performing CEO, Merrill Lynch allowed him to ‘retire’ with a package valued at $161 million.”
His successor John Thain, another Harvard grad, received a $15 million signing fee, and “quickly renovated his office spending $1.2 million doing so, including $1400 on a waste paper bin.”
Thain doled out $4 billion in bonus payments to Merrill Lynch employees before arranging for the debt ridden company ($15 billion) to be sold to Bank of America, and scooping up a $10 million bonus.
Franklin Raines, Harvard, ‘71, became an investment banker, hired by then-President Bill Clinton. During his stewardship of Fannie Mae, the entity undertook “unsustainable lending policies,” and “misstated its earnings” but Raines, who agreed to a $24.7 million settlement, “took the blame for this, in a traditionally Harvard manner.”
In a statement, he said: “While I long ago accepted managerial accountability for any errors committed by subordinates while I was CEO, it is a very different matter to suggest that I was legally culpable in any way.”
And then there was Christopher Cox, Harvard, ‘77, whose career as a California congressman caused former President Bush to appoint him as chairman of the SEC: “Instead of looking for corruption and mismanagement on Wall Street and elsewhere in the US financial system, it would subpoena reporters whose stories embarrassed big corporations.”
Lest we forget, the most famous Harvard grad [with an MBA, no less] is former president George W. Bush. History will make the final judgment call on that one.
******
Deborah Lambert writes the Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia.
