John J. Mack (born November 17, 1944) is a senior advisor to the

investment firm An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under the ...

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...

and the former CEO and chairman of the board at

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

, the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

-based

investment bank Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing is ...

and

brokerage A broker is a person or firm who arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither role should be confu ...

firm.

Early life and education

Mack was born in

Mooresville, North Carolina Mooresville is a large town located in the southwestern section of Iredell County, North Carolina, United States, and is a part of the fast-growing Charlotte metropolitan area. The population was 50,193 at the 2020 United States Census making it ...

, the son of Alice (née Azouri) and Charles Mack. Mack's father's original family name was Makhoul; he came to the United States from

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

when he was 12 years old, following Mack's grandfather, who had arrived at

Ellis Island Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mi ...

in 1909. The family settled in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. Mack's father ran a wholesale grocery, clothing, and general merchandise store called John Mack & Son in

. The business occupied The John Mack Building from 1937 to the 1990s. Mack is the youngest of six sons. The family was Catholic. In 1968, Mack graduated from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, where he attended on a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

scholarship and majored in history. Mack's first job in finance was as a clerk at a small brokerage house during his junior year at Duke, after a cracked vertebra made it impossible for him to continue on his football scholarship.

Career

Morgan Stanley

Mack worked at several firms around Wall Street before starting his career at Morgan Stanley in 1972 as a salesman, and has since worked for the company for nearly thirty years. Rising steadily to positions of increasing responsibility, Mack eventually headed the firm's Worldwide Taxable Fixed Income Division from 1985 to 1992. In 1987, he became a member of the board of directors. In March 1992, he assumed responsibility for Morgan Stanley's day-to-day operations as chairman of the operating committee. He was named president of Morgan Stanley in June 1993. Mack served as president, chief operating officer and a director of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. from May 1997 when the firm was created by the merger of Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter, two of the world's leading financial services companies. In 2001, Mack left Morgan Stanley after a power struggle with Phil Purcell; Purcell became CEO of Morgan Stanley after the 1997 merger of Morgan Stanley and

Dean Witter 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 (ranking t ...

, of which Purcell was already CEO.

Credit Suisse

Six months later, in June 2001, Mack was hired as CEO of

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...

, then known as

Credit Suisse First Boston Credit Suisse First Boston (also known as CSFB and CS First Boston) is the investment banking affiliate of Credit Suisse headquartered in New York. The company was created by the merger of First Boston, First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse, ...

(CSFB). Mack's time at Credit Suisse was marked much restructuring and by compliances issues created by

Frank Quattrone Frank Quattrone (born 1955) is an American technology investment banker who started technology sector franchises at Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse First Boston. He helped bring dozens of technology companies public during the 19 ...

's Technology Group.

Morgan Stanley redux

On June 30, 2005, Mack returned to Morgan Stanley as chief executive officer and chairman of the board, replacing Purcell. Mack was noted for stabilizing the firm and reenergizing its culture and client franchise, despite an economic downturn. Mack announced his retirement as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

on September 10, 2009, which was effective January 1, 2010. In 2011, Mack retired from Morgan Stanley after more than 30 years as an investment banker. Former co-president

James P. Gorman James Patrick Gorman (born 14 July 1958) is an Australian-American financier who is the chairman and chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley. He was formerly Co-President and Co-Head of Strategic Planning at the firm. Early life James P. Gorma ...

succeeded him as CEO.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts

In 2012, Mack joined

as a senior advisor.

Rosneft

In 2013 Mack joined

Rosneft PJSC Rosneft Oil Company ( stylized as ROSNEFT) is a Russian Vertical integration, integrated energy company headquartered in Moscow. Rosneft specializes in the exploration, Extraction of petroleum, extraction, production, refining, Petroleum t ...

, the Russian, state-owned, oil company that has BP as an investor of approximately 20%. In 2014 he announced his departure, shortly after the CEO

Igor Sechin Igor Ivanovich Sechin (russian: И́горь Ива́нович Се́чин; born 7 September 1960) is a Russian oligarch and a government official, considered a close ally and "de facto deputy" of Vladimir Putin. Sechin has been a confidant ...

had sanctions imposed upon him by the US. Different reasons were given for his departure; Mack said his contract had only been for a year, while Rosneft spokespeople said he had decided to leave for personal reasons.

Insider trading accusations

In 2006, Mack was accused by former SEC investigator

Gary J. Aguirre Gary J. Aguirre is an American lawyer, former investigator with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and whistleblower. After working in a law firm briefly, he became a public defender, then worked as a trial lawyer in Cali ...

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...

. On October 5, 2006, the SEC recommended no action be taken against Mack. In late November 2006, Mack and Pequot were notified that the investigation had been closed and no action would be taken against them.

Compensation

While CEO of Morgan Stanley in 2006, Mack earned a total compensation of $41,399,010, which included a base salary of $800,000, stocks granted of $36,179,923, and options granted of $4,019,934. In 2008, he earned a total compensation of $1,235,097, which included a base salary of $800,000 and other compensation of $435,097. He did not receive any cash, stock, or options. In 2014, Mack defended the high fees paid to CEOs, saying on

Bloomberg Television Bloomberg Television (on-air as Bloomberg) is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, reaching over 310 million homes worldwide. It is head ...

that the discussion of compensation was healthy, but that CEOs earn the rates.

Financial crisis of 2007–2008

Mack guided the firm through the

financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

, building its capital position and overseeing the firm's conversion to a bank holding company. To stabilize the firm, he forged strategic alliances with China Investment Corporation and Mitsubishi UFJ Group and entered into a joint venture with Smith Barney, forming at the time the world's largest wealth management firm. During the crisis, Mack was advised by U.S. Treasury Secretary

Hank Paulson Henry Merritt Paulson Jr. (born March 28, 1946) is an American banker and financier who served as the 74th United States Secretary of the Treasury from 2006 to 2009. Prior to his role in the Department of the Treasury, Paulson was the Chairman a ...

and the head of the Federal Reserve Bank

Ben Bernanke Ben Shalom Bernanke ( ; born December 13, 1953) is an American economist who served as the 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. After leaving the Fed, he was appointed a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution. Durin ...

to sell Morgan Stanley. He has stated that during negotiations he was under considerable pressure from the president of the New York Federal Reserve,

Tim Geithner Timothy Franz Geithner (; born August 18, 1961) is a former American central banker who served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. He was the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of ...

, to sell or merge Morgan Stanley to one of his competitors such as

JP Morgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the wo ...

. Mack saw this as being contrary to the interests of Morgan Stanley shareholders and employees, similar to the demise of

Bear Stearns The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The compa ...

in a forced sale to JP Morgan for $2 per share, (the deal was later revised to $10 a share), and insisted on finding other sources of financing instead.

Board memberships

New York-Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New Y ...

: Chairman Emeriti, Board of Trustees *

: board of trustees * University Hospital of Columbia University: board member * University Hospital of Cornell University: board member *

IMG img or IMG is an abbreviation for image. img or IMG may also refer to: * IMG (company), global sports and media business headquartered in New York City but with its main offices in Cleveland, originally known as the "International Management Group ...

: director * Bloomberg Family Foundation: board member * Business Council: member *

Business Roundtable The Business Roundtable (BRT) is a nonprofit lobbyist association based in Washington, D.C. whose members are chief executive officers of major United States companies. Unlike the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose members are entire businesses, BRT ...

: member *

China Investment Corporation China Investment Corporation (CIC) (Chinese: 中国投资有限责任公司; pinyin: ''zhōngguó tóuzī yǒuxiàn zérèn gōngsī'') is a sovereign wealth fund that manages part of the People's Republic of China's foreign exchange reserves. C ...

: International Advisory Council * Mayor of

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

: International Business Leaders Advisory Council *

Monetary Authority of Singapore The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is the central bank and financial regulatory authority of Singapore. It administers the various statutes pertaining to money, banking, insurance, securities and the financial sector in general, as well ...

: international advisory panel *

Partnership for New York City The Partnership for New York City, formerly called the New York City Partnership, is a nonprofit membership organization consisting of a select group of nearly three hundred CEOs ("Partners") from New York City's top corporate, investment and entre ...

: executive committee, director * November 2011: Rev Worldwide: board of directors * 2012:

LendingClub LendingClub is a financial services company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was the first peer-to-peer lender to register its offerings as securities with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and to offer loan trading o ...

: board member

Philanthropy

Mack has donated to various entities through the Christy and John Mack Foundation, formerly known as C.J. Mack Foundation: * 1999:

: $10 million to support various initiatives * 2004:

: $10 million to support integrative medicine * 2005: United States Naval Academy Foundation: Endowment to support the Admiral

Frank Bowman Frank Lee Bowman (born 19 December 1944), a retired four-star Admiral, is the former Chief of Naval Personnel and former Director of Naval Nuclear marine propulsion, Nuclear Propulsion. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineerin ...

br>Scholar Program
* 2007:

Shaw University Shaw University is a private Baptist historically black university in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. Founded on December 1, 1865, Shaw University is the oldest HBCU to begin offering courses in ...

: $5 million to support academic scholarships to this historically black college Mack has sat on the board of trustees of

NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New Y ...

since 1992. He was chairman of the board for 5 years and was integral to the funding and construction of NYP

Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian (MSCH or CHONY) is a women's and children's hospital at 3959 Broadway, near West 165th Street, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is a part of NewYork-Pr ...

, the only stand-alone children's hospital in New York City.

In media

Mack earned the nickname "Mack the Knife" for his cost-cutting prowess while managing the fixed income division at Morgan Stanley, and he lived up to his billing at CSFB, where he cut 10,000 jobs and returned the bank to profitability. Mack was portrayed in the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

film ''

Too Big to Fail "Too big to fail" (TBTF) and "too big to jail" is a theory in banking and finance that asserts that certain corporations, particularly financial institutions, are so large and so interconnected that their failure would be disastrous to the great ...

'' by

Tony Shalhoub Anthony Marc Shalhoub ( ; born October 9, 1953), is an American actor. His accolades include five Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, six Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award nomination. He played Adrian Monk in the USA Net ...

and in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

film ''

The Last Days of Lehman Brothers ''The Last Days of Lehman Brothers'' is a British television film, first broadcast on BBC Two and BBC HD on Wednesday 9 September 2009. Filmed in London, it was written by Craig Warner and directed by Michael Samuels. It was shown as part of th ...

'' by

Henry Goodman Henry Goodman (born 23 April 1950) is a RADA trained British actor. He has appeared on television and radio, in film and in the theatre. Early life He attended the Central Foundation Boys' School and joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, L ...

. His career is also covered in detail in a 2007 book by Patricia Beard, '' Blue Blood and Mutiny: The Fight for the Soul of Morgan Stanley''. The 2010 documentary ''Plunder: The Crime of Our Time'' by

Danny Schechter Daniel Isaac "Danny" Schechter (June 27, 1942 – March 19, 2015) was an American television producer, independent filmmaker, blogger, and media critic. He wrote and spoke about many issues including apartheid, civil rights, economics, foreign po ...

opens with a demonstration outside his home by people who lost their houses in the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

Selected interviews

* Mack, John.
Wharton Leadership Lecture: John Mack on Saving Morgan Stanley, Inside the Bunker.
''Knowledge at Wharton.'' University of Pennsylvania. October 14, 2009. * Mack, John and

.
Mack, Paulson full interview.
''CNN Money.'' NYU Stern School of Business. March 2010. * Rose, Charlie.
Zhou Wenzhong; John Mack, Chairman, Morgan Stanley; Kenneth Roth on Human Rights in China; An appreciation of Reynolds Price.
''

Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American former television journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show '' Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg LP. Rose also co-an ...

.'' January 20, 2011. Interview starts at 25:30.

Personal life

Mack is married to Christy Mack (née King). Mr Mack now resides in the Pittsburgh suburb of Sewickly Heights, where his wife Christy was born and raised.Mack.com They have three children.