Richard S. Fuld, J.

Richard Severin "Dick" Fuld, Jr. (born April 26, 1946) is an American banke and executive
best known as the final Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lehman Brothers.

Fuld had held this position since the firm's 1994 spinoff from American Express until 2008.
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection under on September 15, 2008, and subsequently
announced a sale of major operations to parties including Barclays Bank.

Fuld was nicknamed the "Gorilla"

Early life

Fuld was born in New York, New York, to Jewish parents, Richard Severin Fuld, Sr. and
Elizabeth Schwab.

He received both a B.A. and B.S. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1969 and his
M.B.A. from New York University's Stern School of Business in 1973.

While attending Boulder, Fuld participated in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program
and was president of the school's chapter of the Alpha Tau Omega social fraternity.

Fuld's first career as an Air Force pilot came to an end when he got into a fistfight with a
commanding officer. He was said to have been defending a young cadet who was being taunted
by the senior officer.
Lehman Brothers

He then began his career with Lehman Brothers in 1969, the year the firm's senior partner Robert
Lehman died, and stayed at the company until its bankruptcy. He began as a commercial paper
trader and rose rapidly.

The original Lehman Brothers were the German Jewish émigrés Henry, Emanuel, and Meyer
Lehman, who started their firm around 1850. As family-business owners they would have
appreciated the continuity of the company man Richard Fuld, himself Jewish. Fuld began his
career at the firm in 1969—at the end of an era, when the last members of the Lehman family
ceased working at the firm. Over a 30-year career Fuld helped transform Lehman from a bond
house into a major investment banker.

At the time of his departure, Fuld worked for Lehman for nearly 40 years. During this time, Fuld
witnessed and participated in the numerous changes which the organization endured, including
its merger with Kuhn, Loeb & Co its acquisition by American Express its merger with E.F.
Hutton and its ultimate spin-off from American Express in 1994 once again as Lehman Brothers.

Having served as CEO from 1994 through the firm's collapse in 2008, Fuld was the longest-
tenured CEO on Wall Street at the time of the financial crisis of 2008. Fuld had steered Lehman
through the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, a period where the firm's share price dropped to $22
USD in 1998.

Fuld had a succession of "number twos" under him, usually titled as President and Chief
Operating Officer.

In 2006, Institutional Investor magazine named Dick Fuld America's top chief executive in the
private sector.

In 2007, Dick Fuld had reached the success having turned a 1993 loss of $102 million into a
2007 profit of $4.2 billion.

That same year in December D. "Gorilla" Fuld told The Wall Street Journal "... As long as I am
alive this firm will never be sold."

In March 2008, Fuld appeared in Barron's list of the 30 best CEOs and was dubbed "Mr. Wall
Street." However, the "Gorilla" warfare would soon be over with the coming of the credit crisis,
a force apparently more powerful than Wall Street.

It is at this critical juncture that Dick Fuld made the classic competitive error: underestimate the
opponent and overestimate self.
 He received nearly half a billion dollars in total compensation from 1993 to 2007. [10] In 2007,
Fuld was paid a total of $22,030,534, which included a base salary of $750,000, a cash bonus of
$4,250,000, and stock grants of $16,877,365

FULD EXECUTIVE TRADING

Richard Fuld joined Lehman in 1969 as a commercial-paper trader and earned his reputation
running the firm's fixed-income business. In the early 1980s at the age of 37 Fuld became the
supervisor of both the fixed-income and the equities divisions, overseeing all trading at Lehman.
Fuld had met with great success as a trader, but his skills as a manager were less obvious. His
interactions with coworkers were decidedly limited; when he did speak, he tended to use
monosyllables.
Yet with his new responsibilities Fuld had 22 managers reporting to him in divisions that
accounted for two-thirds of the company's profits. Fuld excelled, and in 1982 his divisions
generated record profits.

Bankruptcy and aftermath

Fuld was initially praised for handling the initial subprime mortgage crisis well, better than any
of the other bulge firms.

Fuld would be criticized for not completing several proposed deals, either a capital injection or a
merger, that would have saved Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy.

Interested parties had included Warren Buffett and the Korea Development Bank Fuld was said
to have played a game of brinksmanship, refusing to accept offers that could have rescued the
firm because they didn't reflect the value he saw in the bank.

Fuld would come to change the leadership in each of the company's three major operating units
—investment banking, equities, and fixed income. He focused the company's investments in
high-margin businesses like mergers and acquisitions and also equities by recruiting several
expensive hires.
FULD TAKES OVER

In January 1997 Fuld approved $48 million for additional executive compensation—a full $46
million of that was earmarked for the investing, banking, and equities divisions, leaving just $2.4
million for the fixed-income division's recruits. His strategy was crystal clear.

The process of building our high-margin businesses and shifting our overall business mix takes
time. It starts with leadership at the top, then at the next level, then the talent needed to meet
client needs and produce revenues. Once all that is in place, it takes time to get the resources to
work together properly to build or expand relationships, and create revenues

Such a shift could not happen overnight, but that did not prevent Fuld from feeling pressure

Fuld was said to have underestimated the downturn in the US housing market and its effect on
Lehman's mortgage bond underwriting business. Fuld kept his job as the subprime mortgage
crisis took hold, while CEOs of rivals forced to resign.

In addition, Lehman's board of directors, which includes retired CEOs like Vodafone's
Christopher Gent and IBM's John Akers were reluctant to challenge Fuld as the firm's share price
spiraled lower.

In October 2008, Fuld was among twelve Lehman Brothers executives who received grand jury
subpoenas in connection to three criminal investigations led by the United States Attorney's
offices in the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York as well as the District of New Jersey,
related to the securities fraud associated with the collapse of the firm.

On October 6, 2008, Fuld testified before the United States House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform regarding the causes and effects of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.

A TRAGEDY FOCUSES A FIRM

The setup worked so well that the arrangement was retained when the company moved into its
new headquarters in 2002, resulting in increased communication among bankers and more
innovative financing solutions for clients. In the past the company had measured success on
individual bases; after the restructuring, noted Fuld in BusinessWeek , "it was all about the team"
After Lehman

On November 10, 2008 Fuld transferred his Florida mansion to his wife Kathleen for $100 in
order to protect the house from potential legal actions against him. They had bought it only 4
years earlier for $13.56 million.

In late March 2009, Fuld had an email sent out stating that he joined Matrix Advisors, a New
York-based hedge fund

In May 2010, Fuld was registered by FINRA as employed by Legend Securities, a securities
brokerage and investment banking firm in New York.

Awards, honors and board memberships

In 2006, Fuld was named #1 CEO in the Brokers & Asset Managers category, by Institutional
Investor magazine.

In 2007 he received a $22 million bonus.

Fuld at one time served on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a
position he ceased holding shortly before the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. He is a member of
the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum and the Business Council. He
also serves on the Board of Trustees of Middlebury College and New York-Presbyterian
Hospital. As well he was on the board of directors of the Robin Hood Foundation but was
removed from the Board following the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.

In December 2008, Fuld was given the "Lex Overpaid CEO" and "thief" award of the Financial
Times for having received $34m in 2007 and $40.5m in 2006, the last two years before his
bank's failure.

CNBC named Fuld at the top of its list of "Worst American CEOs of All Time", stating he is
"belligerent and unrepentant".

CNN named Fuld as one of the "Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse" of the 2008
financial collapse in the United States; he was placed at number 9 on the list.