Richard S. Fuld Jr.

Richard Severin Fuld Jr. (born April 26, 1946) is an American banker best known as the final chairman and chief executive officer of investment bank Lehman Brothers.

He received both a B.A. and B.S. in 1969 from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he participated in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program and was president of the school's chapter of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

Fuld then began his career with Lehman Brothers in 1969, the year the firm's senior partner Robert Lehman died.

Fuld started trading commercial paper and developed a reputation as an accomplished fixed income trader.

Fuld worked for Lehman for nearly 40 years.

Fuld completed his M.B.A. at New York University's Stern School of Business in 1973.

Fuld is a member of Kappa Beta Phi.

Fuld's first career as an Air Force pilot came to an end when he got into a fistfight with a commanding officer.

He said he had been defending a young cadet who was being taunted by the senior officer.

Lehman had a yearly loss of $102 million in 1993, but after Fuld became CEO the firm had 14 straight years of profits, including $4.2 billion in 2007, although in 2008 it reported a Q2 loss of $2.8 billion and filed for bankruptcy later that year.

Similar to the fall of Barings Bank, this was accomplished by driving up company earnings through excessive leverage and risk.

Fuld had a succession of "number twos" under him, usually titled as president and chief operating officer.

Overall, Fuld received nearly half a billion dollars in total compensation from 1993 to 2007.

Fuld held this position from the firm's 1994 spinoff from American Express until 2008.

During this time, Fuld witnessed and participated in numerous evolutions within the organization, including its merger with Kuhn, Loeb & Co, its acquisition by American Express, its merger with E.F. Hutton and its ultimate spin-off from American Express in 1994, once again as Lehman Brothers.

Once public, the new company traded under the stock ticker LEH.

T. Christopher Pettit served until November 26, 1996, when he lost a power struggle with his deputies, likely brought about after Pettit had a mistress, which violated Fuld's unwritten rules on marriage and social etiquette.

Fuld had steered Lehman through the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, a period where the firm's share price dropped to $12 in 1998.

This president and COO position would remain vacant until Joseph M. Gregory was appointed president and COO in 2002.

Bradley Jack and Gregory were appointed co-COOs in 2002, however Jack was demoted to the Office of the chairman in May 2004 and departed in June 2005 with a severance package of $80 million, making Gregory the sole COO and president.

In 2006, Institutional Investor magazine named Fuld America's top chief executive in the private sector.

That same year in December, Fuld told The Wall Street Journal, "as long as I am alive this firm will never be sold."

Fuld was the longest-tenured CEO on Wall Street at the time of the financial crisis of 2007–2008.

In 2007, he was paid a total of $22,030,534, which included a base salary of $750,000, a cash bonus of $4,250,000, and stock grants of $16,877,365.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Fuld "famously demanded loyalty of everyone around him and demonstrated his own by keeping much of his wealth tied up in the firm", even buying Lehman shares on margin, according to a friend.

Fuld was initially praised for handling the initial subprime mortgage crisis well, better than any of the other bulge bracket firms, behind Goldman Sachs.

Fuld was said to have underestimated the downturn in the US housing market and its effect on Lehman's mortgage bond underwriting business.

Fuld was already the longest-tenured CEO on Wall Street and kept his job as the subprime mortgage crisis took hold, while CEOs of rivals like Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup were forced to resign.

In addition, Lehman's board of directors, which included retired CEOs like Vodafone's Christopher Gent and IBM's John Akers, were reluctant to challenge Fuld as the firm's share price spiraled lower.

Fuld was criticized for not completing several proposed deals, either a capital injection or a merger, that would have saved Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy.

Interested parties had included Warren Buffett and the Korea Development Bank.

Fuld was said to have played a game of brinkmanship, refusing to accept offers that could have rescued the firm because they didn't reflect the value he saw in the bank.

Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 on September 15, 2008, and subsequently announced the sale of major operations to parties including Barclays Bank and Nomura Securities.

Fuld was named in Time 's "25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis" list and in CNN's "Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse".

Fuld was nicknamed "the gorilla" for his intimidating presence.

Fuld was born to Jewish parents, the son of Richard Severin Fuld Sr.

He is a second cousin of professional baseball player and executive Sam Fuld.

He attended Wilbraham & Monson Academy, where he gained his high school diploma.

Along with CFO Erin Callan, Gregory was demoted on June 12, 2008 and replaced by Bart McDade, who would see Lehman through bankruptcy.

In March 2008, Fuld appeared in Barron's list of the 30 best CEOs and was dubbed "Mr. Wall Street".