The Times does a nice little retrospective on Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld today. You know, like they do when people’s lives are over? There’s an illustration and a timeline of his 40-year career at Lehman and a funny little “we’re-pretending-we’re-inside-his-head” lede of the sort that we usually write (“Richard Fuld was fed up with being Wall Street’s punching bag…”). And there are some great anecdotes from The Past, such as this one:
One colleague from the 1970s remembers a time that Mr. Fuld had told him to keep an eye on a co-worker. Mr. Fuld did not mince words, grabbing the colleague by the arms and saying, “If I ever see him walking the halls of this building and you’re not within 12 inches of him, you’re fired.”
Ha! And according to Morgan Stanley’s John Mack, even though Lehman’s share prices are down 55 percent and the Times is eulogizing him, this many years later Fuld is still “as feisty as ever” — he has even handed out plastic swords to his staff to prepare them for battle! They’re going to need more than that, but still, it’s the thought that counts. We’re rooting for you, Eyebrows.
Tough Fight for Chief at Lehman [NYT}
