iMBA Fall 2008 Residency

(Finance Professor Pierre Yourougou, Keet and myself haming it up for the camera after finance class)

Once again we had a great residency in Syracuse.

Our first day back in Syracuse we had our 18th Wedding Anniversary dinner at Joey’s Italian Restaurant; which is now our favorite restaurant in Syracuse. I made the reservation with Dennis Hay at Joey’s, explained it was our anniversary, and he set things up for us. There were roses waiting at the table for my wife, and we had a great flaming desert prepared at the table (Strawberries cooked in brown sugar and butter). My wife was very pleased and I sent a thank you letter to Dennis once I returned.

The next day, a Sunday, we went to Green Lake Park where we took a walk in the woods and I played 9 holes of golf as well. My wife caddied, and an older gentleman golfer seeing this asked me what the secret was. He told me he had tried unsuccessfully to get his wife to caddy for him for years. We finished up the day by having dinner at the golf courses bar and grill as the sun went down.

During the residency we also visited the town of Skaneateles, local wineries, Onondaga Lake and Chittenango Falls.

This semester we’re taking Managerial Finance, with Pierre Yourougou, Ph.D. Visiting Associate Professor of Finance, and International Business Law with Patrick Cihon, Associate Professor of Law and Public Policy.


Facing a long putt at GreenLake; I've always found long putts on par fives to be excellent metaphors for life: "Everything will take longer to complete than your original estimate."



Here we are at Kitty Hoynes Irish Pub in downtown Syracuse. My favorite item on the Menu is the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage. They also have a great selection of beer, Irish Whiskey and Scotch.



Taking a walk at Lake Onondaga just before dinner.



Chittenango Falls is a great State Park within easy distance of Syracuse. It's a great place for a picnic lunch.


This is Pamela Suzadail, Assistant Director of External Programs. She is a good initial contact if you're interested in the iMBA program. She can be reached at pjsuzada@syr.edu , (315) 443-8384 . The school's iMBA site is- http://whitman.syr.edu/MBA/iMBA/ .

For a fuller description of the Syracuse University Whitman School of Management please see my February 03, 2008 Post.

Another tired man lays down his hand.

“It's sad to see another tired man lay down his hand and quit the holy game of poker... Third Generation Company, you think they would have shown more grit."
(Thomas Crown Affair, 1999)


I was sad to read that my former employer Merrill Lynch has agreed to sell itself to Bank of America. Apparently it has become just one more wounded item on the auction block.

For many years Merrill stood alone among brokerage houses as not having been merged or acquired, but proudly independent; all that has changed, now it will become but a cog in the machinery of Bank of America.

I think things started going wrong when the investment bankers took over. For many years the CEO of Merrill had always been a stockbroker who had come up through the ranks. The most notable one was Don Regan. “Bringing Wall Street to Main Street,” was the corporate motto and mission.

When the investment bankers took over in the mid-1990s, the company lost its focus and the retail arm suffered (it's called the private client investment group). Merrill management became more interested in making a quick buck off large commercial transactions in New York, as opposed to serving its retail clients.

One of my first jobs out of the military was as a broker at Merrill Lynch and I had some good years there. Their training programs and the people were exceptional. I have many fond memories of my time there. I had always hoped that Merrill would re-find itself and return to its core values.

For those reasons, I was sad to see my old company is no more.

"You've got to give loyalty down, if you want loyalty up."
-Don Regan

-JP