Transcript for complete interview. - Voices of September 11th

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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
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Transcript for complete interview. - Voices of September 11th

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