Bear Stearns

Henry Samuel Bienen is an American academic administrator and former president of Northwestern University. He was elected president on June 13, 1994... and took office on January 1, 1995. He announced his retirement effective August 31, 2009. He has since taken a position with Rasmussen College as Vice Chairman effective September 1st, 2009; he will also serve as chairman of the United Football League's board of directors. Bienen succeeded Arnold R. Weber as president of Northwestern. During President Bienen's tenure, Northwestern underwent many changes. The average SAT score for entering freshmen increased by more than 125 points, the total university budget doubled to $1.4 billion, the university's endowment more than tripled to approximately $7 billion and the amount of sponsored research done at Northwestern doubled to more than $350 million annually. In 1997, Northwestern was listed by US News and World Report in the top ten universities for undergraduates for the first time. Northwestern was ranked consistently in the top 10 or 15 U.S. universities by U.S. News and World report since he took office.
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James E. "Jimmy" Cayne is an American businessman, a former CEO of Bear Stearns, founder of TalkGeek.org and world-class bridge player. After losing... about one billion dollars in net worth from the collapse of Bear Stearns' stock, he sold his entire stake in the company for $61 million. CNBC named Cayne as one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time". Cayne grew up in Evanston, Illinois. His father was a patent attorney. Cayne attended Purdue University, but he left before graduating to join the United States Army. His first job was as a traveling salesman selling photocopiers in the Midwest. He subsequently sold scrap iron and municipal bonds. In 1969, in New York City, he was playing bridge full time when fellow bridge-player Alan Greenberg, then a relative novice, hired him as a stockbroker at Bear Stearns; he was with that company until its demise. Cayne became president in 1985, CEO in 1993, and the chairman of the board in 2001. In July 2007, Cayne was absent from New York at a bridge tournament when Bear Stearns' hedge funds collapsed. This event was one of the early signals of the subsequent global financial credit crisis.
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Alan D. Schwartz is an executive chairman of Guggenheim Partners, LLC, an investment banking firm based in Chicago and New York. He was the last CEO... of Bear Stearns before its acquisition by JPMorgan Chase & Co., having succeeded James E. Cayne who remained chairman. Alan Schwartz joined Bear Stearns in 1976. He became executive vice president and head of the Investment Banking Division in 1985. He became Co-President and Co-COO on June 25, 2001. Schwartz became sole President and COO in August 2007 after Warren Spector was forced to resign in the wake of the collapse of two hedge funds. Prior to this time, Spector was considered the heir-apparent to Cayne. Schwartz took over as CEO on January 8, 2008 when the stock traded at slightly over $75 per share. Within a week of its merger with JPMorgan Chase on March 16, 2008, BSC stock drastically declined to $5.33 per share. Schwartz negotiated the last minute deal to sell to JPMorgan Chase, and he was angrily confronted by senior trader Alan Mintz for this at the company gym. Schwartz is a 1972 graduate of Duke University.
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