How One High School Football Star, Economics Major, Ex-IT Manager
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Colby Magazine Volume 96 Issue 2 Fall 2007 Article 8 October 2007 The Natural: How one high school football star, economics major, ex-IT manager, Red Sox fan, proponent of a "no-jerks" policy, and kids' baseball coach has risen to the top of international banking Gerry Boyle Colby College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/colbymagazine Part of the Finance Commons Recommended Citation Boyle, Gerry (2007) "The Natural: How one high school football star, economics major, ex-IT manager, Red Sox fan, proponent of a "no-jerks" policy, and kids' baseball coach has risen to the top of international banking," Colby Magazine: Vol. 96 : Iss. 2 , Article 8. Available at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/colbymagazine/vol96/iss2/8 This Contents is brought to you for free and open access by the Colby College Archives at Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Colby Magazine by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Colby. 26 COLBY / FALL 2007 How one high school football star, economics major, ex-IT manager, Red Sox fan, proponent of a “no-jerks” policy, and kids’ baseball coach has risen to the top of international banking Story by Gerry Boyle ’78 Illustrations by Robert P. Hernandez n the world of banking, Bob Diamond ’73 is a Yes, Bob Diamond is a very big deal. So, why start big deal. this profi le of him with a garden shed? The president of London-based Barclays Group, Diamond, 56, is the architect of an investment and management strategy and philosophy that has produced record profi ts (more It was the mid-1970s and Diamond was in graduate than $4 billion last year) for Barclays’ investment school at the University of Connecticut getting banking arm, which, as its chief executive, he has his MBA. One of his professors there, Jack Viega, turned into one of the industry’s hottest. mentioned that he was looking for someone to In past months, Diamond has been a point man build a garden shed. Diamond, with some carpentry in Barclays’ takeover bid for ABN Amro, the Dutch experience, gave his professor an estimate that landed bank. The bid on the table was worth more than $90 the job. billion, and would create the world’s fi fth-largest bank, And then Diamond was back, saying the estimate combining two already vast global fi nancial networks. he’d given was too low. But rather than make excuses Beyond the world of fi nance, Bob Diamond may or try to blame it on the client, Diamond took not be a household name in the United States. But responsibility and addressed the situation head-on. he’s a go-to guy for the UK media. Most recently his Viega remembers him saying, “‘Look. I screwed up. I comments on the downturn in the markets stemming didn’t estimate it right.’ … He’s an honest guy. That from sub-prime mortgage failures went worldwide on was what impressed me most. Something he did in the news wires. that situation and how he behaved.” COLBY / FALL 2007 27 It’s an obscure footnote in the story of Diamond’s ascent in the world of international fi nance. But besides documenting one of Diamond’s few fl awed business decisions, it reveals a signifi cant character trait. The intent here is to consider who Bob Diamond is and just what has enabled him to rise to the top of an industry in which everyone is ambitious. Most are very smart. The vast majority are hard working to a fault. So, why Diamond? Clue number one: “There was an immediate chemistry,” Viega said. ”I trusted him.” He isn’t alone, as conversations with PHOTO COURTESY OF BARCLAYS Diamond’s colleagues, family, and friends Barclays President Robert Diamond ’73, center, meets with colleagues in his offi ce in Barclays Capital revealed the same sort of bonding. Many headquarters in the Canary Wharf section of London. In the background are family photos-and people consider Diamond their friend. framed newspaper clippings proclaiming victories for teams in Diamond’s hometown of Boston. In Viega’s case, that trust led him to invite Diamond to teach in the UConn business school the year after he received bused from Boston to outlying communities, (most from Diamond’s record-breaking his MBA. If the saying “the apple and the Diamonds volunteered to be a host investment, Barclays Capital, Barclays doesn’t fall far from the tree” applied family for a bused student. Global Investors, and Barclays Wealth) made here, Diamond would have remained an For Robert Diamond Sr., Martin Luther the Barclays’ offer more valuable over time. academic, an educator like his dad, Robert King was “a real hero,” Rue Diamond said. “We went into this transaction expecting Diamond Sr. When Bob Diamond Jr. talks about to be able to execute, and we are still quite The elder Diamond was a teacher and heroes, he points to his dad. confi dent that we can,” Diamond told an administrator in Massachusetts public Diamond has said this in print and he interviewer from CNBC in June. schools, serving as superintendent in said it again in an interview with Colby in This statement alone, picked up by the Concord, where his son and namesake went his Canary Wharf offi ce in London earlier news wires and relayed around the world, to school, and, at the end of his career, as this year. “My father always said, ‘Every was enough to trigger a bump in Barclays principal of the junior-senior high school day, you have to learn some and teach some.’ stock. When Diamond talks, to borrow a on Nantucket. Bob Jr. was the second I’m a fi rm believer in that to this day. I learn phrase, the world fi nancial markets listen. of seven children, raised in a household every day, and I teach every day.” Not bad for a self-described Boston boy overseen by his mother, Anne Diamond. His father, Diamond said, equipped him (his offi ce is fi lled with Red Sox and Celtics Of the Diamond siblings, four have been with a strong ethical code and the moral memorabilia) who began his post-MBA or are teachers. A sister, Marita, works with foundation that underlies it. That code career working a third-shift tech job and autistic preschoolers. A brother, David, applies to his professional life as well, he who claims to have gone into the business teaches in a small town in upstate New said. “No gray area. No fudging. We have world to give himself street cred with his York. A brother, Richard, owns restaurants to live by the rules.” MBA students. on Nantucket. A younger sister, Rue, went Though Robert Diamond Sr. passed The night-shift tech job was Diamond’s to school for nursing. away 25 years ago, his son continues to use choice, as was a decision to jump from an Rue Diamond describes her parents his father as a sounding board. “I still can administrative track at Morgan Stanley as “you-can-do-anything-you-set-your- have a conversation with him when I’m to the high-pressure trading fl oor. mind-to kind of people” and “very positive facing a tough decision,” Diamond said. Now Diamond oversees, among other people.” Her parents didn’t push any And does he have those conversations? operations, a rapidly expanding investment of their children into education or into “Every day,” he said. banking operation, with more than 13,000 anything else for that matter. They did, she The tough decisions Diamond considers employees at Barclays Capital alone, more said, make sure to teach certain values. these days have high stakes. As this story than double the number in 2003. Barclays, Rue Diamond said her mother, Anne, now was being written, he and other Barclays with more than 130,000 employees, 80, often talked about not understanding executives, including Chief Executive draws talent from around the world, and how anyone would discriminate against Offi cer John Varley, were going all out to its scope is increasingly global as world another person because of their sexual win the takeover battle for ABN Amro. A markets, once insular, meld into a complex, orientation. Concord, then as now, was an Royal Bank of Scotland offer was also on the organic structure that is at once fi nancial, affl uent Boston suburb, and not very diverse table, but Diamond and his colleagues were economic, and political. economically or racially. In the 1970s, court- arguing that Barclays recent strong earnings Succeeding in this intensely competitive ordered school desegregation saw students 28 COLBY / FALL 2007 world of international fi nance is a fervent UConn, said Viega, who taught business believer in liberal arts education, who, with courses in organizational behavior. Not his wife, Jennifer, moved daughter Nell to only did Diamond master the material an American-style high school in London (exploring notions of meritocracy in when the English school she was attending, “My father always said, business organizations, a principle in keeping with the British education ‘Every day, you have to learn that remains one of the tenets of his system, tried to narrow her options. management philosophy today), but he also “Some people know right away what some and teach some.’ I’m a excelled in classroom exercises that focused they want to do,” Diamond said. “Others fi rm believer in that to this day. on students’ leadership skills. “That’s when take longer.” I learn every day, and I teach you see how the other peers interact with When did he decide? them,” Viega said.