First Boston

"Early in 1989, I went on the payroll of NGP even though I was still a student. David Albin was on board as the leader of the team based in Greenwich. Working there, too, was a former managing director at First Boston (now Credit Suisse) named R. Gamble Baldwin. Late in the summer, around the same time that the first Equitable meeting was coming together, Richard had called Gamble after reading an Institutional Investor magazine article that rated him the number-one analyst covering the natural gas industry. “How would you like to retire from the banking game, Gamble?” Richard had asked on a cold call to him. “I have these guys, and we may get this money, and I think they’ll need an adult around them.” I think Richard just liked the shock value in cold calling folks."

"At that 1982 session, Joseph and the others drew up a list of the people who were the stars of the M& A world. It included Martin Siegel of Kidder, Peabody; Eric Gleacher of Lehman Brothers; Bruce Wasserstein of First Boston; Felix Rohatyn of Lazard Frères; Ira Harris of Salomon Brothers—and lawyers too, like Martin Lipton of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz, and Joe Flom of Skadden, Arps, Meagher, Slate and Flom."

"At that 1982 session, Joseph and the others drew up a list of the people who were the stars of the M&A world. It included Martin Siegel of Kidder, Peabody; Eric Gleacher of Lehman Brothers; Bruce Wasserstein of First Boston; Felix Rohatyn of Lazard Frères; Ira Harris of Salomon Brothers—and lawyers too, like Martin Lipton of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz, and Joe Flom of Skadden, Arps, Meagher, Slate and Flom."

"Gerry Schwartz and Anthony and those guys look at six deals a week! I hate deals. When I do deals, it upsets me, makes me nervous. I always feel that I’m going to make a mistake. I do them to attain my strategic objectives. It sometimes takes a few deals to get there. But I never do a deal per se. I hate it! It’s a totally different mentality. Yes, I did Lac, but God save me from another Lac. And yet I'll do one next year again— maybe because I have to—for getting Barrick in position. But its a different mindset. Their business is to look at deals, like investment bankers. Gerry’s background was as an investment banker. Anthony had some time at First Boston, the investment bankers. I like people like Bill Birchall and Greg Wilkins and Bob Smith, who have run a business for twenty or thirty years and build permanent entities and value for their shareholders. Different mentality."

"Bob Greenhill of Morgan Stanley, the late Bruce Wasserstein of First Boston, the late Jim Glanville of Lehman Brothers, Marty Siegel of Kidder, Peabody—all would make celebrated, hard-driving deals, and fortunes for themselves and their firms."