Wednesday, April 18, 2007

John Mack = Duke Sports Booster

Here's interesting news.

Vindicated Duke grad David Evans just landed a plum, six figure job as analyst at Morgan Stanley. Who's the head of Morgan Stanley? Duke grad and Iron Duke (e.g. sports booster) John Mack. Golly, that's peculiar.

Thoughts?
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3 comments:

Sean Costello said...

I am turning out to be the David Brooks of this blog, but I have to say that I don't think there is anything wrong with this. Morgan is a private company, Duke is a private school, and Mack should be allowed to hire whoever he wants (assuming he isn't sleeping with them or making a personal gain from it). After all, the kid went to Duke, so to be fair, he is likely well qualified to work there.

I worked at Morgan Stanley under John Mack in the mid 1990s (though I never met him one on one). He had/has a strong, ethical reputation. I am assuming that a) he is hiring someone that went to Duke b/c he is a big supporter, and b) that he probably thinks the kids went through a very very difficult, unfair experience and deserves a break.

In a way (and this is the Brooks part) I think this is similar to the way that some companies may hire other people based on their own adversities. I went to a MBA OUT conference last fall for gay MBAs and I was floored at the number of top companies there. At first I was pretty cynical that these companies were only there for PR and to avoid discrimination lawsuits, but I have followed up with a number of them and it is a real avenue into these firms.

And....at least it ain't Wolfowitz!

April 18, 2007 at 2:55 PM
Schmutz said...

I don't think it's a matter of right or wrong. I totally agree he's within his rights to hire the guy.

Instead, I just think it's an interesting twist in the further development of this story. The kid went to Duke, so his chances on the street probably weren't bad, but would he have gotten the job had he not been involved in all this?

Answer 1)yes, because college lacrosse is a well-known gateway to Wall Street.

Answer 2)no, because an analyst job at Morgan Stanley is extremely competetive.

More than anything, I think this is an interesting commentary on how things work behind the scenes.

April 18, 2007 at 4:28 PM
T.Currie said...

I'm a bit confused what creating more diversity in corporate culture through the hiring of gay MBAs has to do with the drafting of a rich rowdy jock who accidentally insulted the wrong stripper. Wall Street is lacking in representation from gay MBAs, but not in that of rich, recently-acquitted sex offenders (kidding).
Law firms and criminal justice non-profits from here to Honolulu hire exonerated accused and convicted individuals (who are POOR) onto their payrolls as a means of giving that person a "new lease" after suffering unimaginable hardship and injustice . Clear class and socio-economic differences between these cases not withstanding, I think I'm okay with this.

April 19, 2007 at 6:28 AM

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