A View from the Top Starts at the Bottom
Dan Fleischer, MBA1
Issue date: 10/29/01 Section: News
Admit it, you want to be a big shot, a mover-and-shaker, a B.S.D. Undeniably, we are all at the GSB with the goal of becoming high achievers in our personal and professional lives. Still, do you really have what it takes to be hugely successful? Do you even know what you’ll need or how you can best get to the top of whichever ladder it is you’ll climb?
The GSB community is blessed with unparalleled talent and access to individuals who have created billion dollar organizations, revolutionized industries, and even won a Nobel prize here and there. On Thursday, October 18, banker-extraordinaire Thomas Weisel inaugurated this year’s View From The Top and Dean’s Speaker Series, two programs designed to provide direct access to world-class leaders and create a forum where those leaders can share with students their personal visions and strategies for success.
Thomas Weisel, one of the Bay Area’s most notable bankers, is also an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a once-upon-a-time world-class athlete. He has created two multibillion-dollar corporations, first Montgomery Securities and then Thomas Weisel Partners, LLC. Mr. Weisel has been chairman of the U.S. Ski Team and funded cyclist three-time Lance Armstrong. Among his other efforts Tom Weisel also chaired Empower America, an organization co-directed by William Bennett, Jean Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp, and two others that promotes growth, economic well-being, freedom and individual responsibility in America.
During his lunchtime address in Bishop Auditorium, Weisel doled out ample amounts of industry insight, broadly applicable wisdom, and cold truth. He led with the truth, remarking that these are the toughest economic and hiring conditions he’s seen in his thirty-plus year career in banking. Giant companies like JDS Uniphase, Cisco, and Siebel have seen revenues and market caps drop by multiples while unemployment will continue to rise for several quarters. As reported extensively in GSB-Unofficial, some GSBers among us apparently couldn’t handle the truth, with a noticeable flow of people leaving impolitely throughout the speech (perhaps to update their resumes and check whether Arby’s or Blockbuster need summer interns?).
The GSB community is blessed with unparalleled talent and access to individuals who have created billion dollar organizations, revolutionized industries, and even won a Nobel prize here and there. On Thursday, October 18, banker-extraordinaire Thomas Weisel inaugurated this year’s View From The Top and Dean’s Speaker Series, two programs designed to provide direct access to world-class leaders and create a forum where those leaders can share with students their personal visions and strategies for success.
Thomas Weisel, one of the Bay Area’s most notable bankers, is also an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a once-upon-a-time world-class athlete. He has created two multibillion-dollar corporations, first Montgomery Securities and then Thomas Weisel Partners, LLC. Mr. Weisel has been chairman of the U.S. Ski Team and funded cyclist three-time Lance Armstrong. Among his other efforts Tom Weisel also chaired Empower America, an organization co-directed by William Bennett, Jean Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp, and two others that promotes growth, economic well-being, freedom and individual responsibility in America.
During his lunchtime address in Bishop Auditorium, Weisel doled out ample amounts of industry insight, broadly applicable wisdom, and cold truth. He led with the truth, remarking that these are the toughest economic and hiring conditions he’s seen in his thirty-plus year career in banking. Giant companies like JDS Uniphase, Cisco, and Siebel have seen revenues and market caps drop by multiples while unemployment will continue to rise for several quarters. As reported extensively in GSB-Unofficial, some GSBers among us apparently couldn’t handle the truth, with a noticeable flow of people leaving impolitely throughout the speech (perhaps to update their resumes and check whether Arby’s or Blockbuster need summer interns?).