From Goldman Sachs To Ground Zero: A Life Spent Uniting Business and Public Service

When John C. Whitehead was asked to run the government body charged with redeveloping the area surrounding the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan, his first reaction was one of shock.

“I was reluctant to take [the job],” Whitehead says. “At 80, I envisioned having a little more of a relaxing time—maybe getting the chance to read a book or two.”

New York Gov. George E. Pataki gave Whitehead only 48 hours to decide whether he would head the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC). Immediately, Whitehead received phone calls from prominent politicians and community leaders encouraging him to take the position.

“They told me that I was the only person to do it, and it was very difficult to say no,” Whitehead says.

Throughout his life, Whitehead has frequently been the right person for the job, allowing the former investment banker to extend his notable career far beyond normal retirement age in areas ranging from financial management to public service to ownership of a professional sports team.

“I’ve been lucky in my own life to be thrown into a lot of different types of jobs from which I’ve learned,” Whitehead says.

Whitehead will share that knowledge with the graduating class of Harvard Business School (HBS) today, focusing on leadership in all walks of life.

The Early Years

Born in Evanston, Ill. in 1922, Whitehead grew up in Montclair, NJ, the son of a telephone lineworker who lost his job in the depression and sold porch furniture to keep afloat.

After graduating from Haverford College in 1943 at the height of World War II, Whitehead enlisted in the Navy, serving on the first wave of landing craft that hit the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, and later participating in the invasion of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Whitehead credits his Navy experience with substantially honing his leadership skills—even though he was unprepared for the responsibility.

“I went into the navy as a young, green ensign and I was immediately put in charge of a division of 54 men—all older than I, in the Navy longer than I and knowing more than I did,” Whitehead says.

Although Whitehead had planned to return to Haverford to teach after his time overseas, he instead enrolled in Harvard Business School (HBS), receiving an MBA in 1947.

Whitehead speaks of his time at HBS with great fondness, remembering how much it helped him in his future professional career.

“I was made aware of a lot of different aspects of business that I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise,” says Whitehead.

Golden Man

Despite his grounding in business administration, Whitehead did not plan on being an investment banker when he was hired straight out of HBS by Goldman Sachs in 1947, where he shared an office with John L. Weinberg.

But over the course of 29 years, the two rose through the Goldman Sachs hierarchy together, while developing an enduring friendship. In 1976, when Goldman chair John Levy passed away unexpectadly, Weinberg and Whitehead were unconventionally appointed as co-chairs.

Whitehead is modest about his swift rise into the investment banking stratosphere, saying he would not have had the same success in today’s business world.

“Goldman had not hired any college graduates for years due to the depression and World War II,” Whitehead says. “For a young person starting in ’47 there was a clear track ahead. I don’t think I could have made it now.”

In his eight years as co-chair, Whitehead worked to internationalize Goldman, creating new offices overseas in Europe and Asia. He also fostered teamwork, while reprioritizing the interests of clients.

Whitehead also had a reputation for spearheading the drive for ethics on Wall Street.

He was instrumental in helping Goldman set up a corporate charitable foundation when the company went public. He also helped Goldman’s partners set up foundations.

“Not many people have his type of vision,” says Sara L. Engelhardt, president of the Foundation Center, an organization that tracks philanthropic activity. “He really understood the connection between corporate and private philanthropy.”

Whitehead’s code of ethics was exemplified in his rule that Goldman would not fund the hostile corporate takeovers that occurred frequently in the early 1980s.

While Whitehead realized that this rule may have jeopardized the short-term financial success of the firm, he felt that it would improve Goldman’s image, making it beneficial for business in the long run.

And the ethical and charitable thinking that Whitehead brought to Goldman extended into his post-retirement work.

In 1993, he endowed the Initiative on Social Enterprise (ISE), an umbrella for philanthropic activities at HBS with the goal of imbuing future leaders with a sense of personal responsibility to their community.

Social Enterprise classes are a required part of the curriculum in the MBA Program, and HBS is the only business school with such a social commitment.

“The School sees [ISE] as central to its mission of leadership development,” says Professor James E. Austin, chair of the HBS Initiative on Social Enterprise.

Wall Street to Capitol Hill

In 1984, Whitehead stepped down from his position at Goldman Sachs, but he remained active. He began running Goldman’s corporate foundation, and became more heavily involved in the governing boards of several organizations.

But his retirement was short-lived.

Soon after completing his first chapter on a book about the social responsibilities of businesses, he received a call from President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State George Schultz asking him to come to Capitol Hill to become Deputy Secretary of State.

Whitehead’s only previous experience in government had been serving on the town council of his hometown in New Jersey.

But he was no stranger to politics, regularly holding large fundraisers for the Republican party.

“I was an active Republican in the moderate branch of the party, “ Whitehead says. “I was always interested in politics.”

As Deputy Secretary of State, he was assigned to Eastern Europe with the goal of trying to draw away the satelite countries from complete dependence on the Soviet Union.

“We were trying our darndest to bring the Cold War to to an end,” Whitehead says.

But Whitehead did not just use his Soviet contacts for diplomatic means. As co-owner of the New Jersey Devils until 2000, he lobbied the Russian leadership to allow the hockey star Viacheslav Detisov to play in the NHL.

“Fetisov was the first Soviet to have unlimited entry into the United States,” says Lour Lamoriello, current CEO of the Devils. “[Whitehead] really opened the door to allow Soviet players to come play professional hockey in the U.S.”

Rebuilding the Future

Whitehead says the key to his success in such varied arenas as sports teams, politics and investment banking is his ability to adjust to the new challenges he faces.

“I don’t believe I have a management style,” Whitehead says. “One style may work for one time in one place, but it won’t work every time in every place.”

“Sometimes you need to be dictatorial an autocratic like General MacArthur,” Whitehead says. “Other times you need to be quiet and thoughtful like Eisenhower.”

Whitehead’s ability to manage different projects well was prominent in his selection as chair of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation this year.

“I’ve known John Whitehead for 35 years,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg writes in an e-mail. “I don’t think there is anyone better suited to head the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.”

Whitehead understood that presiding over one of the largest urban redevelopment projects the nation has ever seen would provide an interesting challenge.

“We have so many different, and potentially conflicting, constituencies...as well as the different city and state agencies who have a hand in everything that gets built,” Whitehead says.

A Quinnipiac University poll in February indicated that three out of four New Yorkers favored rebuilding of some sort on the site. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, by contrast, is lobbying to keep the Ground Zero site unbuilt, possibly turning it into a large memorial park.

Others, including several prominent Sept 11. survivors, have argued that the Twin Towers should be rebuilt as before.

Faced with these diverging ideological opinions, Whitehead is pragmatic.

“Although no final decision has been made, rebuilding the Twin Towers is unlikely for the very practical reason that no one would want to work there,” he says.

Whitehead says that the majority of the building would have to be funded with private money, so he is working closely with a variety of real estate developers, including the owner of a 99-year lease on the site.

Because of these potential conflicts, one of Whitehead’s primary goals at the moment is consensus building. And despite some criticism that the board is stacked with Republicans, Whitehead has received widespread support.

“John is extremely competent and dedicated,” Bloomberg writes.

—Nicholas F. Josefowitz can be reached at josefow@fas.harvard.edu.