Transcript for complete interview. - Voices of September 11th

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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
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Transcript for complete interview. - Voices of September 11th

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