Pivot Points with Chris Payne

Eric Gleacher had an amazing career in Investment Banking and was one of the founders and luminaries of Mergers & Acquisitions on Wall Street. He was also a competitive golfer, Marine Infantry Officer, University of Chicago GSB (now Booth) graduate, father of six, and now an author.

His book, "Risk. Reward. Repeat. How I Succeeded and How You Can Too" is available wherever books are sold. Here is a link to the book on Amazon. All proceeds from the book are donated to charity.

1:20-17:54 - We discuss Eric's generous donations to Chicago Booth. Eric is a generous donor to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. We discuss his $15M donation for the Gleacher Center downtown campus as well as his $10M donation and the matching $10M made by the Harper Family Foundation to create the Veteran Scholarship Fund for veterans attending Chicago Booth.

17:54-29:45 - We discuss the book, his 'North Star' as well as his service in the Marines.

29:45-34:30 - We discuss the impact of golf on his life and how it shaped his desire to pursue excellence at everything he did.

34:30-40:40 - We discuss his decision to transfer from Western Illinois to Northwestern and his mantra that 'The world belongs to the aggressive.' We also delve into his first job out of Northwestern, how it shaped him, and his decision to join the Marine Corps.

40:40-44:00 - We discuss his time at UChicago GSB and his path to Wall Street.

44:00-58:50 - We discuss Investment Banking, the origins of M&A, why firms use bankers, the value of independent advice, and what skill sets lead to success.

58:50-1:12:15 - Eric discusses his time at Lehman Brothers, how he made the most of his opportunity, navigated the firm, and developed expertise. We also discuss when he felt like he got 'discovered' as a person with potential and knew he could cut it. Eric explains his decision to leave Lehman for Morgan Stanley.

1:12:15-1:32:00 - Eric discusses his time at Morgan Stanley, the creativity he put into his deals, some risks he took and why he took them, as well as his battles with Mike Milken during the hostile takeover days of the late 80's.

1:32:00- 1:44:00 - We discuss Eric's decision to open his own firm. Eric discusses how he chose to leave and the care he put into forming the culture. The importance of equity and ownership. How reputation and relationships matter.

1:44:00- 1:54:46 - Eric discusses how he views his career overall. Why it's important to find something you love instead of 'getting stuck' and the value of pursuing excellence. He provides his input on work/life balance and perspective on wealth and giving to philanthropy vs family. Lastly, he shares what he looks for in people when identifying character and potential.

Michele has almost done it all. He's from Rome, Italy originally (Go Lazzio!) and made his way to Stanford GSB where he founded both a successful nonprofit and Y Combinator business while also managing to meet his future wife. Michele ran his startup for a couple years before joining the Boston Consulting Group, then moving into Product Management when he and his wife moved to Chicago for her to attend Booth.

Vets and non-vets alike can learn from his amazing journey. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Trevor Million served in the Army for seven years as a Field Artillery Officer before attending Booth. In this episode we walk through Trevor's journey to the military from a small town in Indiana. We then discuss his decisions to pursue his MBA and recruit for consulting as well as the realities of the recruiting process.

Trevor is a current 1Y at Booth and will be one of the Booth Armed Forces Group co-chairs for the 2021-2022 year.

Enoque has an incredible story. This episode was recorded in the summer of 2019 at Stanford University.

Join us as Enoque describes his journey from Africa to America, his decision to serve in the Air Force Reserves, and the entrepreneurial endeavors he's looking to start. Bottom line, he's a super interesting dude. He's a polyglot that speaks seven languages, a tremendous intellect, and a great leader. I hope you learn something from his insights.

Enoque has worked for years in the construction industry as a business development specialist and has recently launched a startup focused on the space. I'll be having him back on soon to discuss his progress and the difficult decisions he's had to make over the last year.

Today we go a little longer on Ryan's service due to it being Veteran's Day. We talk at length about his decision to serve, his time at West Point, and the pivot points of his time in the military.

In the second half we discuss his decision to attend business school, pursue Investment Banking, and how he's thinking about the next chapter in his life.

Kevin served in the Infantry and Special Forces in the Army. He left the military in 2019 and attended Stanford Ignite where this episode was recorded. Kevin now works in Business Development at the mid-market Private Equity firm Thompson Street Captial Partners in St. Louis.