Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Hot Gossip at UIC
Today I had lunch with one of my professors, JB. (I think I used to refer to him as JJ, but now I realize that someone has to actually READ my blog to make anonymity work.) Anyway, JB is a former investment banker. A very successful one, at that. He's now a professor here at UIC. He's simply the best professor I've ever had. He stimulates thought in class, and he's a really nice guy out of class too. He's one of those guys that if you spend 10 minutes with him, you understand why he's made millions of dollars.
On a side note, JB's wife is also a former investment banker. She just retired after 20 years at Goldman Sach's. She left as a Managing Director. I'm guessing she was pulling down several million dollars a year. So, here's a couple of 40-somethings worth about $20 million (I'm guessing, and I'm probably low), living in a sweet-ass condo across from the Lincoln Park zoo. Good thing I went into actuarial work instead of investment banking. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Anyway.
I had lunch with JB today to discuss jobs for me after I graduate in May. It was a thought-provoking discussion and it might even lead to a job. JB has plenty of business contacts and can hopefully leverage them into some sort of employment for me. But that wasn't the interesting part of the lunch today. As it turns out, JB is thinking about leaving UIC. And I got the scoop straight from him today.
I found out about a week ago that he might be leaving for U of I in Urbana or Emory (in Atlanta). In either place, he'd be taking more responsibility for executive development and building a network with the business community. I found this out from Michele, the MBA director. When I mentioned this to JB, he got very interested and started asking me all sorts of questions. It turns out that Michele is just the ASSISTANT director. They fired the executive director a couple of years ago and never replaced him. Michele has assumed his responsibilities and has been running the MBA program like she's the executive director.
What makes things even MORE interesting is that JB himself was considered for the assistant director position. And according to him, several staff members believe that he should be the executive director. So, when Michele told me that she doesn't feel like JB is pulling his weight, she might be saying that because she's afraid that JB will demand that he become the executive director if he's to stay at UIC.
So, this was sort of my indoctrination into the seamy world of university politics. I feel trapped in the middle because both JB and Michele have been telling me things. At least now, I understand their motivations a little better. And frankly, all I care about is which one of them is going to get me a job in 3 months.
On a side note, JB's wife is also a former investment banker. She just retired after 20 years at Goldman Sach's. She left as a Managing Director. I'm guessing she was pulling down several million dollars a year. So, here's a couple of 40-somethings worth about $20 million (I'm guessing, and I'm probably low), living in a sweet-ass condo across from the Lincoln Park zoo. Good thing I went into actuarial work instead of investment banking. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Anyway.
I had lunch with JB today to discuss jobs for me after I graduate in May. It was a thought-provoking discussion and it might even lead to a job. JB has plenty of business contacts and can hopefully leverage them into some sort of employment for me. But that wasn't the interesting part of the lunch today. As it turns out, JB is thinking about leaving UIC. And I got the scoop straight from him today.
I found out about a week ago that he might be leaving for U of I in Urbana or Emory (in Atlanta). In either place, he'd be taking more responsibility for executive development and building a network with the business community. I found this out from Michele, the MBA director. When I mentioned this to JB, he got very interested and started asking me all sorts of questions. It turns out that Michele is just the ASSISTANT director. They fired the executive director a couple of years ago and never replaced him. Michele has assumed his responsibilities and has been running the MBA program like she's the executive director.
What makes things even MORE interesting is that JB himself was considered for the assistant director position. And according to him, several staff members believe that he should be the executive director. So, when Michele told me that she doesn't feel like JB is pulling his weight, she might be saying that because she's afraid that JB will demand that he become the executive director if he's to stay at UIC.
So, this was sort of my indoctrination into the seamy world of university politics. I feel trapped in the middle because both JB and Michele have been telling me things. At least now, I understand their motivations a little better. And frankly, all I care about is which one of them is going to get me a job in 3 months.
