Transcript for complete interview. - Voices of September 11th

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.