Transcript for complete interview. - Voices of September 11th

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
[Mary Fetchet]: I know you do a million interviews, but when we ask you a question if you can
answer by rephrasing the question… &et cetera.
[John Duffy]: John Duffy. I’m chairman and CEO of KBW, the parent company of Keefe, Bruyette
and Woods, a broker dealer that was headquartered in the South Tower of the World Trade
Center.
[Mary]: John, can you just tell us a little bit about where were you on 9/11
[John]: Well in the morning of September 11 th , I was actually in my car, coming to work when
the first plane hit the North Tower. It was actually a little late, later than usual for work that
morning because I’d been at a charity golf outing the night before. Despite the weather being
almost picture-perfect the morning of 9/11, the night before a storm had kind of rolled through
northern Westchester, just the county and the club I was actually at lost power so what would
normally have been an evening where I got home at nine or ten o’clock, we got home later so
kind of took the opportunity to sleep in the next morning and frankly that’s probably saved my
life.
[Mary]: So when you were travelling in, where were you when the plane first hit
[John]: When the first plane hit the North Tower, which was about a quarter to nine, I was a
little bit south of the George Washington Bridge on the west side of the highway, listening to
Bloomberg Radio, and within a minute or two I think of the plane having hit the north tower
there was a newsflash on the radio. I hadn’t seen anything; I was still too far north on the
highway, so my initial reaction is I think a lot of people who heard it on the radio was that it was
probably a private plane that had hit the Trade Center and couldn’t have imagine that it was a
full-fledged commercial jet. But within minutes, the report had come that it was in fact a
passenger plane and probably shortly after that I could actually see the smoke in the sky
although I could still not see the Trade Center. You could see smoke in the air so I would say
probably within ten minutes of hearing the initial story I realized that a commercial jet had hit
the first tower.
[Mary]: So what happened then
[John]: From that point on, I continued to go south on the west part of the highway. About the
time I hit 59 th Street, which is where the highway turns into more of a regular street, the report
was that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center. I was certainly in disbelief at that point
in time that that can be the case. In fact I can recall the radio announcer coming on saying they
weren’t sure this was accurate, whether it was just the initial report being rereleased. Within a
few minutes I had gotten, at this point it was probably a few minutes after nine o’clock, I had
gotten as far as 34 th Street, and at that point I had a clear view of both of the buildings. At that
point it was pretty much confirmed that the second plane had hit the South Tower and I was
pretty sure I could tell that from what I was seeing so I realized that getting to the Trade Center
was probably not feasible so made a left turn and looked for some place to park the car. I found
a garage I believe on 31 st Street, and my thought was I had a better chance of getting
downtown via the train than trying to drive because at that point there were already fire
engines and every emergency service vehicle in Manhattan probably had its siren on. So I

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
parked the car close to Herald Square and got on the subway actually at 34 th street to go south.
Train pulled in – trains were still operating at this point – it’s probably quarter after nine at the
latest. I got on a train, pulled into the station, waited about five minutes and then there was an
announcement on the train that all train service was being suspended. Got off the train, walked
up back the stairs, wasn’t really quite sure what I was going to do, whether walking downtown
was a viable option. It’s four miles, I was thinking it’d take me, you know, the better part of an
hour, and I noticed a church to my right and I thought maybe the first thing I should do was go
in and say a prayer because it was clear that there were going to be already numerous
fatalities. I went in, said a prayer, and then came out and walked back to, I guess it would have
been sixth avenue and I had a very clear view of the trade center and decided I was going to
walk downtown because I really didn’t know what else to do, and literally walked about a block
when the first tower went down. You know at this point I really didn’t know what to think, what
to do. I walked over to a hotel across the street from Madison Square Garden, cell phone
service was out and you know it’s not as easy to find a landline as it used to be, but I did find a
hotel by Madison Square Garden that had a phone bank lobby. There was a waiting line of
people on them but I eventually called my house. My wife and one of my daughters was home.
They were asking me which tower had gone down; they were watching it on TV; they weren’t
quite sure if it was the South or the North Tower. They asked me which tower had the radio
antenna on it. At this point my mind was racing I couldn’t even remember if that was our tower
or the other tower. After talking with them on the phone I kind of decided it probably made
more sense for me to get home than to try to get down to the Trade Center. I went back,
retrieved my car, got on the west side of the highway, which probably proved to be a mistake
time-wise because at one point they had closed the highway because of all the emergency
service vehicles coming in and what not, so I probably got stuck for about an hour on the west
side of the highway going home, and I think I probably got back to my house in Westchester
about one o’clock. You know initially kind of dealing with the family issues, I had one daughter
who had just started college up in Rhode Island, we were trying to contact her, the daughter
who was home was leaving for college the next day to go to California. Our youngest son was
up in school in Vermont, trying to get in touch with him, so basically spent the afternoon –
besides watching the TV trying to figure out what had happened – touching base with our
family members, because it was obvious to us that Chris was at work, besides all the other
employees, our son Christopher. Eventually I think late that day, I touched base with Tom
Michaud and Andy Senchak and started to get some initial reports in terms of who we thought
we had lost and who we were able to account for, who had been in touch, so that was how I
spent that day.
[Mary]: You’re sort of in a different situation in that you ran the company, lost your son, lost
your colleagues, and had to respond to your family, respond to the company, which is a big job,
so on a lot of levels it was both personal and professional. How did you manage juggling all
that
[John]: In terms of how I managed the personal issues, dealing with the loss of a son and an
awful lot of friends, the focus in terms of what needed to be done from the firm’s perspective
or my professional responsibilities, both Andy Senchak and Tom Michaud who fortunately were
two other senior members of the firm, had survived. I think both Andy and Tom realized that I

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
probably wasn’t in the best frame of mind to be able to focus on some of the firm stuff while I
was very interested, we were still trying to get a handle on, was our son gone, so I would say for
a few days, 9/11 was on a Tuesday, the exchange closed for the balance of the week. So that
took some of the pressure off that first week in terms of what had to be done. It was more, we
were trying to asses definitively who we had lost, what the firm’s financial position was in terms
of exposure, in terms of trading positions that we may have had. Obviously besides losing 67
people, we lost the majority of the firm’s records because everything – that was headquarters –
so in terms of any kind of financial information, that was clearly all gone. We had backup
systems and what not but it was going to take us days to figure out from those backup systems
exactly where we stood. So we spent the balance of that first week, and Tom and Andy were
the ones who really deserve the credit in terms of pulling the surviving employees together,
devising a game plan, where they should report to work the following week. It was kind of a day
by day proposition when the exchange was going to open for business. They decided to remain
shut the balance of the week so we had until the following Monday. So by that point, we had
located space for the employees to go to, at least on a temporary basis. Some of that was some
of our other offices, and some of it was space that other firms like Wachtell, Lipton and BNP
Bank had offered to us during the course of that first week. It was kind of figuring out where
the survivors were going to go when they were ready to come back to work and secondly with
that trying to figure out really what our financial status was. By the end of that first week, we
were pretty convinced that we had enough capital to go on. Many of the employees that we
lost owned stock in the firm and the shareholder’s agreement was that when an employee left
the firm or passed away, the stock was sold back to the firm. We had about a 160 million in
capital and we determined about 40 million of it was owed to the families of the people we
lost. We still felt with the remaining capital we had enough to stay in business. The question
was, where was the business going to be Because we certainly didn’t have any permanent
location at that point in time. So I think that first week was making the determination, A) that
we could stay in business, and then B) trying to figure out where we were going to temporarily
locate the employees. Once we got that done, then it was spend a little bit more time thinking
about, you know, what are our priorities in terms of what needed to be done to really get back
in business. So that was a process that frankly took several weeks, but the initial steps were
really put in place the following week and we had a service for my son, Christopher, the second
Saturday after 9/11. I want to say it was something like September twenty-second or -third. In
the following week, even though the first week or two I’d been on phone contact with Andy
and Tom and other people on a semi-regular basis at least, it really wasn’t until we’d had the
service for Christopher that I felt any closure on that personal issue that I really felt that I could
suit up again and go back to the work. Tom and Andy again they deserve the bulk of the credit
for what was done the first two weeks.
[Mary]: I wonder if the work was helpful to you John. I know for myself personally having a
direction, and helping people… If you want to stop for a bit too, I came prepared.
[John]: No. Returning to work was helpful to me, I’ve used the words therapeutic and almost
cathartic, and I think our instinct after 9/11 was that we didn’t want that to be the last day in
the firm’s history so we knew we wanted to rebuild it. We felt that would really be a testimony
to the people that we lost. I didn’t appreciate how important that would be until I actually got

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
back to work, where there really was a rallying around the remaining employees that kind of
whatever it took or however long it took we were going to rebuild the place. And I’m glad we
did, because it certainly, you know, there are some days you wake up and you think about 9/11
and it makes you pretty sour on things, but when you get to work and get satisfaction of having
rebuilt the firm, you know there are some people looking down on you from upstairs that are
happy we did…
[Mary]: And guiding you through the process
[John]: Exactly, yep. They provided the inspiration when you think about those folks you know
if it had been reversed they would have done exactly the same thing.
[Mary]: Yeah. Well you have a lot of a lot of Irishmen in here too, not a bad… [Laughter].
[John]: Yeah I don’t want to say it’s completely random, maybe it’s just like spirits. There are
plenty of Irish surnames running around here, there were before 9/11, there still are. Some of
those folks have a reputation for being stubborn, and I think that’s an attribute, so maybe that’s
why we’ve attracted some of those folks. Many of them helped us get it done. There are all
sorts of racial and ethnic backgrounds in terms of people who helped us. The rebuild wasn’t just
the employees. Certainly the employees were a major factor but we had other friends in the
industry that, you know the mood of the Wall Street community and the country, was people
wanted to do whatever they could do to help people that had been impacted by the events of
9/11 whether it was on a personal level or a professional level. As I mentioned, Wachtell, BNP
and also KPMG, our auditors, lent us space and those firms, they kind of, you know, they were
willing to do whatever they could do. It was no problem asking them. I think that was the mood
certainly in New York, because everybody knew somebody that had been directly impacted.
[Mary]: We’ve heard from other firms that some of their competitors were the ones that
stepped forward. Were there any surprises in that way Everybody was so supportive.
[John]: I don’t think you really had any competition in that point in time. People wanted to do
what they could do. There were clearly people that you were competing against, I think it’s not
unlike an athletic event, when the day of the game is on, they’re the archenemy but that’s not
the be-all and end-all of a life. So when the game is over, you can shake hands and if it’s rugby,
you probably go out and have a beer with the other team. I think the case was very similar
here. We compete on a professional business level with these other firms, but the people at
those firms all knew people that were lost that day and that really became the overreaching
factor: that this was about helping fellow Americans move on and rebuild and that really
become the priority in how those firms were thinking about how they were going to conduct
themselves in that time period.
[Mary]: In so many ways I think on a lot of levels it was person-to-person, company-tocompany,
Wall Street as a whole, New York as a whole, and the world as a whole, how
meaningful was that to you, to have people step forward and reach out to you
[John]: It was huge. Even thinking back now, over eight years later, if there was anybody out
there who I though could help us, I had no hesitation about picking up the phone, the stuff
needed to be done, and of all the people I called I never got a brush off. They listened to hear

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
what I was looking for and said if there’s anything we can do, and one of our most pressing
needs after the first week or so was we actually needed a location. While Wachtell and BNP
were very generous in terms of giving us some space, you know the space was not ideal. It was
not equipped for what we were going to do eventually. There was a lot of scrambling for real
estate space. One of the calls I made was to a fellow that I knew, Kip Condron who was head of
AXA Financial’s US operation and just told him I was looking for space and one of the reasons I
called him was BNP was in the AXA building which is where we are headquartered now. Kip said
he didn’t have any space available, but that one of the accounting firms had three floors where
they had taken an option on I think immediately after 9/11, and he wasn’t quite sure if they
were going to exercise that option and if they didn’t he would call me and he put me in touch
with the head of his real estate facilities group to let them know that if any space became
available, we would get the first phone call. No conversation about cost, rent, I mean that was
really secondary, we needed some space. About three weeks later he called and said Ernst &
Young has decided not to take the fourth floor on 787 7 th avenue do you want it Because
BNP’s space that we were borrowing was up on the eighth floor we actually knew the space
very well and I said yes on the phone. Again, it was, we really didn’t care what the cost was, at
this point we were anxious to be able to tell the employees where their new home was going
to be, because we had people scattered out in five or six different locations. We really felt it
was important from kind of a morale standpoint that the survivors get back together because,
well, they were all happy they were alive. I really think they were looking to connect with some
of their former employees to have, you know, another set of shoulders to lean on because they
all lost very close friends.
[Mary]: So you built a community then, you hired all these new people but then you had this
community of people who were survivors.
[John]: Yeah, I think while we hired a lot of people in the first year rebuilding the firm, there
were some moments of awkwardness between new employees and survivors, because the new
employees knew they were walking into a job that had been filled by somebody that had been
lost in 9/11. I think some of those new employees felt some initial awkwardness in terms of
how they should behave, or should they mention the person who they were really replacing. I
remember several interviews with people that we were interviewing. We lost most of our
research department, and that was one of the areas we focused on, that we needed to rebuild
the research, and as we would bring in these candidates for interviews, frequently the thing the
candidate would first say is, “Listen, you know I really feel for you guys, I’d be delighted to join
you guys at the firm and I knew so-and-so personally.” It was frequently the analyst whose job
he was taking. The analyst community is pretty small; analysts from one firm to another know
each other very well; they’re following the same companies; they see each other at
presentations; and inevitably the beginning of the interview, tears would start welling up, this
individual started talking about David Berry or Tom Theurkauf, you know one of the senior
analysts that we lost and we’d start crying and then the candidate would start crying and you’d
kind of wonder how the hell are we ever going to get this interview done [Laughter] There
were many moments like that and as I said, there was a little bit of awkwardness I think in the
first six or nine months where I think some of the new employees felt like they were walking on
eggshells just in terms of if there was a moment that had some relative-ness to a 9/11 moment.

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
The one I remember probably most poignantly was we were in the trading room at BNP up on
the eighth floor in the borrowed space when the American Airlines jet went down off Rockaway
and that was just weeks after 9/11 and we were just in that space maybe for a couple of weeks
and you know all of us that had been at the firm before 9/11, I think we were convinced it was
another terrorist attempt and it was a very fragile moment and there were a few people in that
room I think that had just joined us and I don’t think they knew what to say because they
realized how raw of an emotional state we were in that we couldn’t take our eyes off the TV we
were waiting for, what’s the rest of this story And probably a week or two before that, I think
it was before we even got the BNP space, it was the anthrax scare, and again, I was in the
Wachtell offices when that hit and some of the employees were just in such a fragile state that I
said to them, the reports came out that day, I said, “If you need to go home, go home. If you’re
really scared for your personal wellbeing here, don’t stay. Go home. Go to your family,
whatever you need to do. Work is secondary at this point.” There were some very, you know in
the initial months, the memories of what happened on 9/11were much more visible we still had
people that had not even yet come back to work because of what had happened. In those early
weeks and months it was very fragile. Myself in the position of a new employee, it was not your
typical experience in terms of joining new job. The emotional state of affairs was quite different
than what a new employee would expect to go into.
[Mary]: One thing that, I know Brad working at the firm, one thing he loved about the firm was
the culture and the camaraderie and I think that your firm had certain qualities that might be
different from other firms. So I was wondering, the culture – I’m very Irish and so I think Brad
liked that component, but it was a real brotherhood, almost like a firefighter culture, FDNY, I
wondered how that culture shaped your response.
[John]: I think the firm has a very strong culture. Certainly back then we really felt like we had
lost members of our family. I think the credit behind the culture of the firm go back to Harry
Keefe and Gene Bruyette, they started the firm; they started it from nothing in 1962. I think
they just had a management style that when they hired somebody new, they really expected
those folks to have a career at the firm, if there was a meeting of the minds and a meeting of
the style that they didn’t want to lose people to one of the larger competitors. Working at a
small firm, I think there’s a camaraderie about us little guys, taking on the big guys. The fact
that the firm was completely owned by employees, I think it’s still a very strong sense of
cooperation across department lines and within department lines in terms of people helping
each other because they realize the more successful the guy in the next desk was or the gal in
the next department was, the more successful the firm would be and we would all benefit
because of the shareholder ownership went down fairly deep. We encouraged even the
younger employees after they were here a year or more to start to buy stock which is different
from most firms on the street where you’re looking at how much you’re going to get paid. Here
we tried to get these folks to think as owners and there’s a pride in ownership. I think
consequently when 9/11 happened and we lost so many of our employees, we really felt like
we had lost a part of our family. Besides the direct effect of losing a coworker and a colleague,
so many of these folks had their own families, and they were the principal breadwinner of
those families, that I think the survivors felt a sense of responsibility to make sure these folks
were taken care of. Certainly in the early days and weeks and even months, no one was really

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
quite sure how the government was going to handle compensation like, insurance issues and
how they would be resolved. I think ultimately that was done very fairly with Feinberg, but we
certainly had a sense of responsibility, and we felt the best way we could take care of that
responsibility was if we built the firm and in some way or fashion then were able to take care of
the families who had relied on the breadwinner who had worked here. One of the things we did
fairly early on I think was at the suggestion of one of our clients – we were I guess so focused
on getting the firm built that one of our clients actually said to us, “You should establish a
family fund.” We raised quite a bit of money, ultimately between $15 and $20 million dollars,
and the bulk of that money I think was raised in two trading days that we did around the first
and second anniversary, the fund where we donated all the commissions that the firm made
into the family fund, because initially we weren’t really quite sure how insurance would be
handled. In some cases we had wives with multiple children. In most of the cases, the children
were very young. So we weren’t just thinking about how do they get through this year and next
year, it was more long-term. How do we get these kids an appropriate education and make sure
these families are taken care of So there really was a sense of responsibility here that we
weren’t just kind of looking out for ourselves and trying to rebuild a career, that we had a lot of
people that frankly were in a lot worse shape than we were and we wanted to make sure that
they might be in worse emotional state than we were and we wanted to make sure they
weren’t any worse financially. We felt the best way we could help them financially was to get
the firm rebuilt.
[Mary]: Well John when I think back, I think about all that you’ve done to help the families and
from the very beginning I remember that first service that you had and then the gathering that
you had across the street. It was a blur to me at that point but I actually just went to a gala
party at the hotel or restaurant…
[John]: Across the street from Ground Zero
[Mary]: No, you had that service and then we went across the street…
[John]: Oh, I think the first one might have been at the Helmsley Palace. I think that’s right.
[Mary]: How did you, and here you were a father yourself, and you lost as you said your son
and all of your colleagues, they were probably like brothers to you because it was a
brotherhood here, how did you decide as a firm, how to proceed with the families that lost
people
[John]: We want to stay connected to the families of the people that we lost. We don’t want to
lose the memories of the people that we worked with and the best way of preserving those
memories is staying in touch with the families. Every family reacts differently: some of them
have come to almost every memorial service we’ve had, there are others who’ve in the early
years didn’t want to be reminded or felt such a gathering would be too painful, didn’t
participate, and some of them have ultimately kind of changed and have come and are ready
for it. So it’s never anything we force upon people but I think we’ll have a memorial service
every year for the employees we lost as long as people show up and the attendance the last
couple years has been quite strong. We have a plaque at the Central Park Zoo, Harry Keefe was
a beneficiary of the nature conservancy which I think manages the Central Park Zoo and they

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
had reached out to us. So there were multiple things that I think we felt like we could do to
preserve those relationships with the family. Most of the ideas came from employees here like
Jackie Day and Mitch Kleinman. They really just deserve the credit for, A) coming up and
operating whatever it is we’ve done and making it happen and continuing to make it happen.
Again we’re fortunate in that we don’t have a lot of turnover here, so we have a lot of people
working here that were working at 9/11 that are still working here. They know the families
personally and I think that has helped enormously in terms of the connectivity remaining
between the firm and the employee’s families, of the employees that we lost that day.
[Mary]: When you go back to immediately after 9/11, how did you decide to coordinate that
service and pull the families together I mean it must have been, I’m thinking of yourself as a
family member that you’ve just gone through your own son’s service, and I remember you
giving your remarks and I was so impressed by that. How did you decide what to do, and then
what was that like for you
[John]: Yeah, we were kind of making it up as we were going along. There’s no book you can
read in terms of what you ought to do after a plane flies into a building and kills three thousand
people including a quarter, a third of your work staff. I think in our heart we wanted to reach
out to all the families to let them know – and in that first memorial service, I don’t remember
the date I want to say it was about a month after 9/11, again the folks here who deserve the
bulk of the credit are people like Josephine Fink, who’s sense retired, Jackie Day, my assistant,
Mitch Kleinman, our general counsel. Mitch undertook most of the legal work in terms of what
the families needed to do in terms of following a claim, and was an enormous help. We weren’t
doing a lot of deals so Mitch probably had some time on his hands, and certainly used it in the
most productive fashion in terms of looking back at – he was doing what needed to be done. I
don’t know who – I think Peter Wirth might have been the fellow – who procured the site of the
church we used on Fifth Avenue for the first service. I think somebody had reached out to St.
Patrick’s and we couldn’t get a time slot that worked, but Peter knew the director, I believe, at
that church, the Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue where we had the first service. So Peter,
Mitch, Jackie, Josephine, and probably another half dozen names I’m forgetting were the ones
who kind of came up with the idea, procured the location, and then we talked about what we’d
want to do and we had the rector of that church speak, I gave a speech, and I did it, it was
something that needed to be done, just in terms of communicating with the surviving
employees and the families of the folks that we lost. I was a little surprised that day how many
friends or clients showed up. I mean our initial focus was really reaching out to the existing
employees and to the families of the folks that we lost, to have a service, to say you know, let’s
celebrate these lives. You know we’re all devastated, but these were all wonderful people. We
wanted to let the families know that we’d be there for them. I was really taken aback by how
many people that showed up that were not employees. And that was comforting because then
you really knew that you weren’t alone. I think we knew that already. The whole city, the whole
state, the whole country, if they knew someone that was personally affected, people wanted to
help at that point in time. We knew there were plenty of helpful volunteers out there, but again
it certainly felt comforting to see that many people show up that day that cared about us.

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
[Mary]: The other thing I’ve benefitted so much from is about the Angel Program that you put
in place. I wondered how you came up with that idea and the number of employees that
participate in that each year.
[John]: Sure. I believe the credit for the program that we instituted, and I believe it was called
actually the Shepherd Program –
[Mary]: Shepherd, I’m sorry.
[John]: People may refer to them as angels, but one of the locales where we had significant
staff was our Harford office. The firm when it started in 1962 actually started with a New York
office and a Hartford office. Obviously the people in Hartford were not directly hit in 9/11, they
were certainly indirectly hit and lost many of their colleagues and friends, but I believe it was
one or two of the people in Hartford that came up with the idea because what we were trying
to do was reach out to each family and let them know whatever we knew about assistance.
Because in New York the first couple weeks we were scattered all over the city in terms of
where people we located, we kind of felt if we could utilize one of the other offices as kind of a
center of communication that would be helpful because employees families were trying to
contact the firm. The phone number was gone. The location was gone. People didn’t know how
to get a hold of us. So one of the first things we did was try to get the word out that to contact
us, call the Hartford office. We had several employees up there, Dean Rybeck, Jim Healey, Brian
Furbish, Jeff Miller [], who’d been with the firm, senior people who knew many of the
employees and it was really those fellows who kind of stepped up with the idea to, Alright
direct all the phone calls here, and then we’re going to subdivide the list so that each individual
got their own list of families so that if the Lenihan family calls, that they should talk to Dean
Rybeck or Jim Healey. So that each person up there really took the responsibility to shepherd
on a set group of families, so that the family then over time would be talking to the same
individual, rather than calling up one week and talking to somebody else who wasn’t aware
what last week’s conversation was. I think hopefully that made things a little easier or efficient
for the families in terms of getting information because a lot of them needed immediate help.
We kept all the employees on the payroll through the end of year, but people were worried
about tuition bills, mortgage bills, and I think knowing that there’d be one contact person at the
firm for them to call made things easier hopefully for the families. I think it was also beneficial
to the employees who were the shepherds. I’m sure it was painful for them many days, but I’m
sure it was helpful because they really felt that they were doing something for these families
and in fact they were. Things were so confusing in the first couple of weeks and months in
terms of what the families should be doing that to have one person at the firm for them to be
able to talk to. Then Mitch was coordinating with all of these shepherds in terms of what the
government programs were, what forms had to be filed when. So it was a system that proved
work and it was really the individuals in the Hartford office who deserve the credit.
[Mary]: John, do you think because you’re a family member yourself that that made a
difference You’re a family member, you’re a colleague and a leader of a corporation, so I
wondered with those combinations – and the culture of your firm really lends itself to being
engaged – so I wondered if you think that had any impact.

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
[John]: Well I think I got a fairly unique perspective from having been an employee of a firm
that was directly hit and being a survivor who’s lost a family member. There aren’t many in that
category. But I don’t think that I have any doubt that the firm would have behaved in the same
way whether I was here or not. I believe in the culture of the firm, hopefully I help set the tone
but whether you’re talking about Andy Simchak or Peter Wirth or Tom Michno or Dean Rybeck
or Jackie Day I think they would have gotten to the same place. You kind of do what’s right and I
think all of us think enough alike that what was right or appropriate was obvious to all of us so
hopefully we behaved in a way that people think is laudatory and whether I was here or not
and whether I survived or not, we would have done the same things.
[Mary]: You focus so much on commemoration, when I think about your book, you said you
focus on the good that came out of 9/11: the memorials and foundations that were established.
[John]: Yeah I think we feel it’s very important that the nation not forget. The families are never
going to forget. We’re not doing this because we think any of the families are going to forget
what happened on 9/11, but we think it’s critically important and appropriate to do what we’ve
done. Certainly the services are directed to the families on a personal level but the book that
was written, that I co-wrote with a woman, Mary Schaeffer, an interesting story behind that, I
probably received close to a dozen phone calls in the first couple of months from people that
wanted to do a movie to people that wanted to write a book. But we had so much to do that I
couldn’t envision laying that on top of what we had to do, that that was – there weren’t going
to be enough hours in the day on my schedule or anyone else’s schedule. So whenever anyone
of these movie guys or book guys called me up I just said, Appreciate the interest, the thought,
but no. Then ultimately I got a call from a woman that I had known professionally, Mary
Schaeffer. I took her phone call and I listened to her a little bit more because I had known her
for a period of time. She said, This story really needs to be told. I listened more to her, more to
her just out of courtesy. I was firmly convinced this was not something we could afford to do.
But by the end of the conversation with her, she convinced me she could get a book contract
and that we could make some money off this, and came up with the idea that we take the
proceeds and donate it to the family fund. That was really the first kind of thought that had
resonated with me from talking with any of these folks. At this point, at least a couple of
months had gone by, so things were starting to get back to normal. We probably had some
space, I don’t know if we had moved into it yet, but I was probably thinking a little bit more
clearly because some of the day to day calamity was starting to come back to a little bit more
normal sense of activity. At least we had a sense that we were going to be able to rebuild the
place. So when I finished with Mary I said to her, Listen, I’m not going to make a decision. Some
of the people you’d want to talk to if we were going to do a book, I need to find out how smart
a move they think it is. So one afternoon I gathered about six or seven of them in a room, and
they were really people who had been in the building and had escaped. Unfortunately we didn’t
have many of those, but the few that we had I figured would probably have the most vivid
stories that Mary would want to include in the book. So I gathered them and I said, Listen, I
don’t want to be intrusive. This isn’t something that we have to do, but I explained to them the
conversation that I’d had with Mary and I said, Mary’s pretty convinced we can get a contract
and get the thing published and we talked around the table. Some people said that they’d
participate, some of them were a little reluctant about whether they really wanted to tell their

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
personal story. Bob Planer, who was one of our senior sales guys, had left the South Tower
when the first plane hit because he was EMS certified. He actually left immediately to go
downstairs [and] see if he could be of assistance, in aiding the other victims in Building One.
Bob certainly didn’t appreciate how enormous a task that was going to be, but that move saved
his life, and Bob made the point that we were talking about this and he said, John, the reason to
write this book is not about making money for the family fund. It’s to be able to tell the story to
the children that lost a parent that day, who were too young to understand what happened. I
think there were seven of us in the room that day, I think we all looked at each other and said,
He’s right. And that’s the reason we did the book, so that the employees who had children,
some of them still too young to really appreciate what happened that day. Hopefully at some
point in their life, they’ll be able to pick up the book and realize what happened to their father
or mother that day… We’re glad we did it. I did a series of audio tapes that Mary really
transcribed into the initial draft of the book, coupled with interviewing people that had
survived, interviewing Gene Bruyette in terms of the history of the firm. So it eventually came
together. I think we’re glad we did it even though initially we didn’t see the right reason to do
it. Planer was really the one who kind of put it in perspective for us and he was absolutely right.
[Mary]: John, I think I remember meeting you at the Luncheon for the first time – remember
you had that luncheon
[John]: Yup.
[Mary]: I think the connections that are so important. I certainly wouldn’t know anyone at the
firm today, having a son work here – your mother doesn’t follow you around at work – and I
didn’t really know much about New York, so I think there’s this concept call traumatic growth. I
just wondered, how have you grown as a person as a result of 9/11 I think you’re so resilient
and so moving-forward. So I just wondered if you think that you might be a person that would
fit in that category
[John]: I think that if you were as close to the events of 9/11 as we were, it certainly has had an
impact on you. I think it’s changed my perspective on life in a lot of ways. You realize how
fragile things can be and how things outside your control can have an impact on your life. I
really never imagine losing one of my children. Certainly couldn’t have imagined losing them in
such a tragic faction. Christopher’s death certificate says that he was murdered. And as a parent
you kind of feel a little helpless; you couldn’t prevent that. I think the impact of losing a child is
one thing that changes your perspective on life. Hopefully I’ve paid more attention to his four
surviving siblings, that would be a nice thing to think of. I think from a professional perspective,
it put things in a light that you may not have as much time to do something, or get some things
accomplished that when the opportunity presents itself you should be prepared to move,
because you might not be here tomorrow. I think it’s made me a little bit more decisive. I tend
to think of myself historically as being a good listener, and trying to get all the facts before you
make a decision, but I think the events of 9/11 have hopefully made me responsible or rational,
but I think it puts things in a slightly different perspective that you may not have as much time
as you think you have, and if it’s something that you want to get done, you better get it done
today and don’t procrastinate. Then there’s obviously the more human side, where having to
deal with as many families as we dealt with makes you realize how important life is. I think for

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
the employees here who didn’t lose a child, that certainly has had an impact on them. And, if
they were working here that day, many of them weren’t in the building for some strange
reasons: Tom Michaud was at a Michael Jackson concert the night before that his client insisted
on going to. Tom’s not even a Michael Jackson fan, and Tom’ll joke and say, I may owe Michael
Jackson. He may be the reason I’m alive today, strange as that may be. Andy Senchak was given
a deposition in a court case that frankly I’m sure he viewed as an annoyance that day, but again
it probably saved his life. The two women that survived, that had worked on the trading desk
with Brad, one was getting ready for her wedding on Saturday and had taken the day off, and
the other gal, Katie Ray [], was sick. I didn’t learn until after the fact that Katie had been dating
one of the traders, Steve Mulderry, who didn’t survive. There were all sorts of personal
ramifications and issues and stories about how people were impacted. Katie and Courtney, they
literally lost everyone who worked around them almost. I mean you know, there were a couple
of sales guys who had left the building but most every other morning they certainly would have
been at their desk at that hour and would not have survived.
[Mary]: How did you learn about Voices of September 11 th
[John]: I learned about Voices of 9/11 from Mary Fetchet. [Laughter.] I’ll repeat that. I learned
about Voices of 9/11 from Mary Fetchet. While I think I had met Mary briefly after 9/11, one of
the memorial services, my most vivid memory is Mary testifying in Washington as part of an
advocacy group in terms of what needed to be done down there and saying, That’s Brad’s
mom. Isn’t that wonderful. I thought that there were so many widows or mothers who certainly
were not equipped emotionally to be as vocal as Mary was in terms of the issues. Not that
those folks didn’t want to be, but Mary is obviously a very strong person. As I said earlier, we
don’t want people to forget; we’re not worried about the families forgetting, we don’t want the
rest of the country forgetting what happened that day. That’s because we love the people we
lost, but also it’s a national security issue. We’d be foolish – the country didn’t focus on the
bombing in 1993, and as a result we were susceptible to the events of 9/11 and I think on a
personal level if you didn’t know the people that were lost that day, you really don’t know the
three thousand personal stories. There are three thousand stories out there that really should
be memorialized and commemorated because I think as people today still visit Pearl Harbor
when they go to Hawaii, people the next generation and the generation after, when they come
to New York they will want to go to Ground Zero. They’ll want to go to the Memorial, and
they’ll want to see the stories, they’ll want to hear the stories of the people that we lost. I
remember vividly every day when the Times came out, New York Times came out with their
section, there’d be fifteen or twenty stories of people, families had submitted their stories, and
that put a human side to this whole tragic story. It’s not that the World Trade Center got
attacked and two icons of our country went down, it was that 3,000 people were murdered
that day including the Pentagon and Shanksville. Those people shouldn’t be forgotten. They
were innocent victims and they all had a life and they all had a story so to preserve that, for
both their families but more for, I think actually more importantly for the country, is very
important.
[Mary]: When you were talking about Voices, John, what are the aspects of the work that you
feel – why is it important to have a family organization like that What role did it play

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
[John]: Well I think it’s dual. What Voices will achieve as being part of the Memorial is two-fold.
One, I think there is certainly a beneficial impact to the families of the people who were lost,
that will make those families feel better and assured that their loved one is not forgotten. But
way beyond that, I think it’s for the rest of the country to appreciate really what happened and
to put a personal, human side to the story and people in the New York Metropolitan area,
chances are you lived here, you knew somebody that either lost their life or at a minimum you
know somebody who knows somebody that knows a family that lost a family member. Even
though we’re a big city, when there are 3,000 people killed, you feel you know someone that
was directly impacted. As you move away from New York, and I travel the country in my job,
there is not that same connectivity between the people and the human side of the event. They
understand kind of the macro side of what happened that day: the country was attacked by
terrorists. But they don’t know on a personal level someone that was lost, whether it’s directly
or indirectly. And yet those people care. You know, there were all sorts of memorials erected
around the country, some of them very beautiful, so people care there. But as those people
hopefully over the course of their lives have an opportunity to come to New York and visit the
Memorial I think it’s important to be able to put the personal side of this story – make it
available to those folks, because I think that will make it a lot more meaningful. So again in
summary, I think the Voices of 9/11, you know the benefits will be two-fold. One, it’ll be very
warm and positive to the family members but without a doubt I think it also has a very
beneficial impact for the people who almost wish they knew somebody. A lot of people realize
the threat to our country and almost wish they were closer to what happened that day, and I
think making the stories available, some of these folks will realize that, Gee, these people are
just kind of like me. They may have been a cook in Windows on the World, or maybe they’re in
finance, or in some other job but they’re same ethnic background or same profession or same
age. I think that’ll help strengthen those ties between the people who were directly impacted
here in New York and the people throughout the rest of the country. And I think it’s also a sign
to the rest of the world that we care. We care about ourselves and we’re not going to let this
happen again.
[Mary]: How do you want KBW to be remembered, because we’ve met with families and we’ve
found just your point – that by giving a voice to the people that were impacted, we’re giving a
voice to the people that died, but then we’re giving a voice to the people that were impacted,
and that’s going to help, I think, through photographs and other things that people are
contributing, I think we have 40,000 images thus far working with these other families. But
we’re finding it’s going to help future generations, their children, their children’s children, as
you said and all the rest of the world. How do you want – because we feel it’s so important to
document the individual stories, the survivor stories, and the corporations’ stories – how do
you want KBW to be remembered
[John]: Well, I think what we’d like is KBW to be remembered in two ways. One, by the families
– that their loved one who worked here enjoyed working here and that the people lucky
enough to survive that day reached out to those families and did what we could and certainly
didn’t forget them; we’re not going to forget the people that worked here. I think we’ve done a
pretty good job of that. You can always probably do things better but we’ve never lost focus
that that’s important. I think secondly you want the firm to be known or remembered as a

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
survivor in the American way – this might have seemed to be a very daunting challenged to
someone who’s not in our business, or even if you are in our business, how do you lose about a
third of your staff, your headquarters, a quarter of your capital, and get back to where you
were. It’s that indomitable, maybe American spirit that says, We can get this done. We didn’t
have a game plan, we didn’t have a time table, we just kind of took it one day at a time. Andy
Senchak said, This is what we knew best, so we came back to work. This is kind of what we
knew how to do. Perseverance, again we felt rebuilding the firm was important on multiple
angles, it’s what we knew best, kind of felt that’s what the people we lost would want us to do,
and we also felt it’d be beneficial if we got the place built that we’d be better able equipped to
help the families. I think from a professional standpoint that kind of can-do spirit, that Hey, the
bad guys aren’t going to win this one. They may have given us what they thought was a knockout
blow, but we’re back up on our feet, and you know one of the happy chapters in the firm’s
history was five years later we had grown bigger than we had been before and we were able to
go public, which was kind of a big event in our corporate history. We’d almost gone public in
1999 and didn’t, so we at a minimum had rebuilt the firm back to what it was prior to 9/11. In
fact, we’re bigger in 2006. We got to ring the opening bell that morning down at the stock
exchange which was pretty cool, and a lot of the floor traders down there were waving the
American flag. So people that were down there that day will remember that event; I know I’ll
never forget it, and we hope we keep – if we’ve been any kind of a motivating story for people,
that’s great. That’s not the reason we did it, but we’re glad we did it. We’re glad we are where
we are today.
[Mary]: So in a way, your success is a result of your determination and your… In a way,
memorializing names that were lost, and doing it in their name –
[John]: Absolutely. We’ve got the American flag out in the lobby with all 67 of the names of the
people that we lost that day, it was something that was made by one of the employees’ wives
in the months after 9/11. I don’t think that will ever come down. That’s there forever, because
we wouldn’t be where we are today without the folks that worked for us at the time of 9/11.
We were able to replace them with other professionals, but they were all responsible for
getting us to the point where we stood at 9/11, and if we weren’t as strong as we were on
9/11, we probably wouldn’t have been able to rebuild the firm. So it was the fact that we had
such a solid foundation and a fine firm at that point in time and those folks we lost were a large
part of what we were at the time of 9/11 and the fact that we were as strong as we were
enabled us to be able to rebuild. A weaker firm would not have been able to do that.
[Mary]: You have so many beautiful memorials, but this sculpture, what –
[John]: Yeah, the sculpture, it’s actually made from iron that was retrieved from the World
Trade Center site. It was done largely without our knowledge. It was done up in Greenwich,
Connecticut. A firm up there that was involved in the salvage mission of the Trade Center took
some of that steel and brought it back to their operation, I think the name of the firm was
called Post Road Ironworks, and there was a workman up there who I believe was a Polish
immigrant. I don’t know or remember his name. He was I think only in the country less than ten
years, and when he saw the steel, he asked the owners of the Post Road Ironworks whether he
could craft something, and he’s got the American flag on one side of the sculpture. The other

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
two sides you can see, looks like the latticework from the Trade Center and then there’s a cross
on the fourth side. When it was finished and done, we got a call from the people at that shop.
The business is owned by a relative of one of the folks who works here and they asked if they
could bring it down and show it to us, and if we wanted it they would give it to us. I believe it
actually won an award from the American Metalworkers Association or something. It was an
immigrant’s idea to do this, he so appreciated being in America and kind of felt that this is what
he could do to preserve the memory of the people that were lost on 9/11, so it sits here in our
conference room.
[Mary]: That sort of speaks to the international outreach, and the international support, even
here in our own country. A Polish immigrant – it’s interesting that that would be his response to
9/11/
[John]: Absolutely. It tells you we have a lot of friends out there. I’ve seen that since we have a
London office now and we’ve actually held a screening over there for a movie that we think is
going to be in the 9/11 Memorial called Project Rebirth by Jim Whitaker that we’ve supported
also. We’ve got Jim showing over in London and big turn-out. People, British folks and from
other nationalities who are clients of ours came to see this. Again, people want to be connected
and do what they can to make sure that people in foreign nations don’t forget what happened
that day, because it very well easily could have happened to them, and in London they’ve had
the train bombings and stuff and they have probably a better appreciation as a result of that of
what we’ve gone through, on a much bigger scale.
[Mary]: Well John, I really appreciate your time today. It was so – I’ve [unknown] to hear your
story and your perspective and not just the people that died but the rebuilding of the firm.
You’ve proven that it’s really important to be resilient, and I think to have the values and the
culture of your corporation contributed to your success in that way.
[John]: Thank you, Mary.
Unknown Male [Matt Something]: Maybe talk about KBW’s relationship with Voices of
September 11 th , how you guys have worked together over the years Specifically the 9/11
Memorial, or if you’ve done anything else like that, just an overview.
[John]: Okay. We think it’s very important that the Voices of 9/11 be part of the Museum and
that everybody has access to hear the stories of the folks so we’ve tried to do whatever we
could to help Mary Fetchet and the rest of the effort in terms of from a firm, getting them
access to the different families. Some people are maybe almost eager to make sure their loved
one’s story is told. Others still find it very painful, and maybe reluctant, so we’re not going to
force those folks. But we just want to give them the opportunity and make it as convenient and
as easy for them to tell the story to Voices and kind of help them through what is probably
going to be an emotion if not difficult day. We’ve also tried to support Voices in terms of the
benefit functions and lending our financial support. We’re very enthusiastic about the product.
Mary and the rest of the people at Voices deserve an enormous amount of credit. I thought it
was an incredibly uphill task that they were taking upon themselves and frankly, certainly had
some doubts about whether it would get to the point that it’s gotten to so whatever support
we’ve been able to give to date we’re happy to have done it and will continue to whatever it is

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
we can do to make sure that this is as great a product as it clearly can be. We couldn’t be more
pleased to be affiliated with it. Obviously, there are strong emotional attachments. Mary’s son
Brad worked for the firm and I think initially there might have been a sense of obligation on our
part to be involved, but as we started to see this thing get traction, it’s a lot less of a job and it’s
more of something you really want to make sure gets done. To that extent, our hats are off to
the folks at 9/11 and we’re proud to be kind of part of the story, kind of making it happen and
we’ll do whatever we can do to make sure as many of our employees stories are told.
[Mary]: So I twisted your arm [Laughter.] Irish guilt, right
[John]: Minimal, but you know if you weren’t persistent, it wouldn’t have happened.
[Mary]: Well I have a funny story, you were talking about Andy Senchak, how his life was saved
by having this hearing that he had to go to. We just did a story recently on somebody that was
going for an interview at Windows of the World and she was running late so she called the
people at Windows of the World and they said, Well it’s about time to have a cigarette break so
we’ll come downstairs to meet you instead and that saved their life and so someone was
kidding, Well it’s the first time, we can say a cigarette saved your life. We hear a lot of funny, I
mean funny
[John]: Ironic, or something
[Mary]: Stories like that. So you never know.
[John]: You never know.
[Mary]: But I think the relationships that have come out of 9/11[unknown]. I know I’ve felt
really, you know, really, it’s been a wonderful experience working with KBW and I just – Brad
thought so much of the firm and now Chris, when we was here last year, really enjoyed it.
Because he sort of steered clear of anything related to 9/11 so I think getting to know people
that knew Brad, he learned sort of a different perspective.
[John]: Yeah, everybody’s on their own time clock, and I wouldn’t even really hazard a guess
with the younger children. Some of them I’m sure – my guess is 20 years from now, we’ll read a
story about someone who’s working at the Museum who’s a son, or daughter of somebody that
was killed. We have a young gal in corporate finance. I don’t think she mentioned it at all in the
interview process. She was coming out of NYU. Her father worked for Cantor, and it wasn’t until
she joined us that she actually told somebody that she had lost her father. So now kind of a
new connection – kind of with Cantor we’ve got a, you know, she’s 23 years old, she’s been
here maybe a year and a half. Peter Wirth was the one who said to me, he said, You know, I
don’t know if you know but Elizabeth Dickey’s father died in 9/11.
[Mary]: Oh that’s right, I know Irene, her mother.
[John]: The daughter is working here.
[Mary]: Because I think Irene was in our office in CT when we were at KBW, so it was sort of an
odd twist that she was in our office, and we were here, and her daughter was working here. So

Interview with John Duffy, chairman & CEO of KBW
Conducted by Mary Fetchet
there’s all those connections. And you’re probably still shepherding people that you don’t even
realize you’re shepherding in a way.
[John]: Probably right.