Robert Scott (businessman, born 1946)

Last updated

Robert Scott
Born1946 (age 77–78)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Williams College
Occupation(s)Former president, morgan stanley
SpouseKaren Scott
Children5

Robert "Bob" Scott born in 1946 is an American businessman currently living in Naples, Florida. He formerly served as the President and chief operating officer of Morgan Stanley. He was part of the famous Wall Street "Gang of Eight" involved in the ousting of former Morgan Stanley CEO Philip J. Purcell. He continues to work in business and is a member of many corporate boards as well as a board member of various philanthropic organizations.

Contents

Early life

Scott was born in Montclair, New Jersey. [1] [2]

He graduated from Williams College in 1968 with a degree in Economics and then from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1970. [2] Scott currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Williams. [1] He also formerly served on the Advisory Council of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. [3]

Career

Upon his graduation from Stanford, Scott began working at Morgan Stanley, where he worked until retirement. At Morgan Stanley, Scott moved up through the ranks and held many positions in the firm, moving to managing director in 1979, then into Director of Capital Market Services from 1985 to 1992, to Director of Corporate Finance from 1992 to 1994, then Director of Investment Banking from 1994 to 1996. [3] In 1997, Scott oversaw the merger of Morgan Stanley with Dean Witter, during which Scott suffered a heart attack. [4] After the merger was complete, Scott became chief financial officer of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. In 2001, he was promoted to president and chief operating officer of Morgan Stanley and worked until his retirement in 2003. [3]

Scott gained recognition beyond Morgan Stanley not only for his management of the merger but also for his leadership in rebuilding the company after the September 11 attacks as well as his leadership of the firm's diversity efforts. [2] On September 11, Morgan Stanley provided a toll-free number beginning at 11:00 am that by 1:30 pm had received over 2,500 phone calls. Scott called this number, according to the Harvard Business Review, "the first national emergency number of any organization, including the federal government." Originally, this phone number was just for Morgan Stanley employees to confirm their safety, but after being advertised on the firm's Times Square building and televised nationally, it became the main call center of the crisis. [5] According to CNN, Scott said that Morgan Stanley employees knew how to respond to the crisis, having prepared emergency plans after the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center. [6]

Part of Scott's leadership in diversity at Morgan Stanley included efforts to promote diversity in his larger society, including Morgan Stanley's sponsorship of a Smithsonian exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision and a series of educational programs for middle and high school students at the American Museum of Natural History about the Supreme Court decision. [2]

After retiring from Morgan Stanley, Scott has served on the boards of various companies and organizations. Currently, he is chairman of the board of Dreamware, Inc., Chairman of Genpact Limited, and Director of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. [3] He is currently a trustee of the Naples Children and Education Foundation, Williams College, and the Clark Art Institute. Formerly, he was a trustee of the Japan Society, The Seeing Eye, Inc., and the New York Presbyterian Hospital as well as previous executive vice president of the Greater New York Council of the Boy Scouts of America and chairman of the American Museum of Fly Fishing. [3] [7]

"Group of Eight" Scandal

In 2005, in their retirement from Morgan Stanley, Scott and a group of seven other former executives launched a campaign against then-CEO of Morgan Stanley, Philip J. Purcell, to remove him from leadership of the firm. Purcell came from Dean Witter during the merger that Scott himself oversaw under a decade before. However, the merger had allegedly not been smooth, and cultural and financial stylistic differences between the two firms led to plenty of tension between key executives. Scott and other critics claimed that the firm was failing under Purcell's leadership and falling behind other firms, but also complained about his management style. Eventually, Purcell decided to retire from Morgan Stanley in the face of criticism and John J. Mack took over management of the firm. [8] [9] [10] The entire story is the subject of Patricia Beard's 2007 book Blue Blood and Mutiny or Blue Blood and Mutiny: The Fight for the Soul of Morgan Stanley. Later critics have noted that the leadership change may have harmed Morgan Stanley in the face of the 2008 financial crisis, because Purcell may have been one of the people at the firm who would have avoided the danger of subprime mortgages. [11]

Personal life

Scott is married to Karen Scott and lives with her in Naples, Florida. Karen Scott is also a trustee of the Naples Children and Education Foundation as well as the Naples Botanical Garden. He has five children with former wife Barbara Scott. [7] [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morgan Stanley</span> American financial services company

Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the firm's clients include corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley ranked No. 61 in the 2023 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue and in the same year ranked #30 in Forbes Global 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Immelt</span> American businessman

Jeffrey Robert Immelt is an American manufacturing executive working as a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates. He previously was the CEO of General Electric from 2001 to 2017, and the CEO of GE's Medical Systems division from 1997 to 2000. Immelt's tenure saw GE's largest divestments in the company's history, as the company sold almost two-thirds of its subsidiaries and assets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lazard</span> American investment bank

Lazard Inc. is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management and other financial services, primarily with institutional clients. It is the world's largest independent investment bank, with principal executive offices in New York City, Paris and London.

Dean Witter Reynolds was an American stock brokerage and securities firm catering to a variety of clients. Prior to the company's acquisition, it was among the largest firms in the securities industry with over 9,000 account executives and was among the largest members of the New York Stock Exchange. The company served over 3.2 million clients primarily in the U.S. Dean Witter provided debt and equity underwriting and brokerage as mutual funds and other saving and investment products for individual investors. The company's asset management arm, Dean Witter InterCapital, with total assets of $90.0 billion prior to the acquisition, was one of the largest asset management operations in the U.S.

Philip J. Purcell is an American businessman. Purcell is a former chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley, where he worked in the late 1990s and 2000s. He was previously chairman and CEO of Dean Witter, Discover and managed the firm under its ownership by Sears, Roebuck & Co. He subsequently became head of Continental Investors, a private equity firm that invests in Internet-enabled financial services and consumer companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Fink</span> American businessman, CEO of BlackRock

Laurence Douglas Fink is an American billionaire businessman. He is a co-founder, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation. BlackRock is the largest money-management firm in the world with more than US$10 trillion in assets under management. In April 2024, Fink's net worth was estimated at US$1.2 billion according to Forbes. He sits on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum.

John J. Mack is a senior advisor to the investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the former CEO and chairman of the board at Morgan Stanley, the New York–based investment bank and brokerage firm.

Joseph R. Perella is an American financier.

Alan David Schwartz is an American businessman and is the executive chairman of Guggenheim Partners, an investment banking firm based in Chicago and New York City. He was previously the last president and chief executive officer of Bear Stearns when the Federal Reserve Bank of New York forced its March 2008 acquisition by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Weinberg</span> American businessman

Peter Amory Weinberg is an American businessman. He spent almost twenty years of his career at Goldman Sachs before co-founding Perella Weinberg Partners with merger specialist, Joseph Perella in 2006. The firm provides M&A advisory and alternative asset management services. Weinberg is its chief executive officer and founding partner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Warsh</span> American lawyer (born 1970)

Kevin Maxwell Warsh is an American financier and bank executive who served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011.

Edward "Ed" Liddy is an American businessman who was chairman of the Allstate Corporation from 1999 to 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Glocer</span> American businessman

Tom Glocer is an American business executive and the former CEO of Thomson Reuters and Reuters.

Mitchell M. Merin is an American business executive and banker who served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Morgan Stanley's investment management division (MSIM) from 1998 to 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Porat</span> American businessperson (born 1958)

Ruth Porat is a British–American business executive who has been chief financial officer of Alphabet and its subsidiary Google since 2015. Prior to joining Google, Porat was the Chief Financial Officer of Morgan Stanley from January 2010 to May 2015.

Seymour Parker Gilbert III was Chairman of Board and President of Morgan Stanley from 1983 until 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenhill & Co.</span> American investment bank

Greenhill & Co., Inc. is an American investment banking advisory firm founded in 1996 by Robert F. Greenhill. The firm provides advice on significant mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, financings, and capital raisings to leading corporations, partnerships, institutions and governments across a number of industries. Since its inception, Greenhill has advised on transactions valued at close to $3 trillion.

<i>Blue Blood and Mutiny</i> American non-fiction by Patricia Beard

Blue Blood and Mutiny: The Fight for the Soul of Morgan Stanley is a non-fiction book by American journalist and historian Patricia Beard. The book was initially published by William Morrow on September 18, 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William E. Ford</span> Chief Executive Officer

William E. Ford is an American businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of General Atlantic, a global growth equity firm with $84 billion in assets under management as of November, 2021.

Remy White Trafelet is an American hedge fund manager and investor. He is the president and CEO of investment firm Trafelet & Company, LLC, and Chairman of Hazeltree Treasury Solutions, a company Trafelet founded in 2011.

References

  1. 1 2 "Robert G. Scott" . Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Stanford Business School Honors Morgan Stanley's Robert G. Scott with Excellence in Leadership Award". April 20, 2004. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Dreamware Board – Robert G. Scott, Chairman of the Board" . Retrieved January 5, 2016.[ permanent dead link ]
  4. ↑ Truell, Peter (February 24, 1997). "Head of Morgan Stanley Merger Team Suffers Heart Attack". The New York Times . Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  5. ↑ Argenti, Paul (December 2002). "Crisis Communication: Lessons from 9/11". Harvard Business Review . Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Firms counting, coping" . Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  7. 1 2 "TRUSTEES – Karen & Bob Scott" . Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  8. ↑ McLean, Bethany; Serwer, Andy (May 2, 2005). "Brahmins at the Gate". Fortune . Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  9. ↑ Smith, Randall; Craig, Susanne; Davis, Ann (March 31, 2005). "Push to Oust Morgan Stanley CEO Reflects Simmering Culture Clash". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  10. ↑ Beard, Patricia. "Blue Blood & Mutiny" . Retrieved January 5, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Where are the group of eight". June 30, 2008. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.