[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Cincy alum receives lifetime achievement award
Over a stellar 40-year career in the global financial services industry, Dick Thornburgh has a been a pragmatic and deft leader in various roles — investment banker to the financial services sector, C suite executive, private equity professional, full-time not-for-profit and corporate director. Through those years, his decisions and actions touched millions of people, national interests, and the structure of financial services.
At UC he was recognized early for his leadership skills and was elected Student Body Vice President. He was the force behind elevating men’s club soccer to varsity sport status. He served as the Bearcat mascot. He was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and top men’s honorary organization Sigma Sigma. He was selected the outstanding business college undergraduate, and during his senior year was named Mr. Bearcat (the highest honor granted to a graduating male student) while earning his BBA cum laude in finance. After graduation, he entered Harvard Business School, receiving his MBA two years later.
Immediately upon graduating from Harvard, Thornburgh joined and spent 30 years working under the Credit Suisse (“CS”) umbrella, the first 20 with The First Boston Corporation as an investment banker ultimately specializing in serving commercial banks. During that time, he worked in New York and also lived in Los Angeles while running the firm’s office there. His executive career included multiple postings in both New York and Zurich, Switzerland, where he served on the CS executive board for 10 years. At the end of 2005, he retired as an executive, subsequently joining the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse Group A.G. He also joined a former First Boston colleague and mentor at Corsair Capital in 2006 as it was being spun out from JP Morgan. Corsair is a private equity firm specializing in financial services investing. Thornburgh currently is a member of the investment committee; he began a transition from investor to full-time corporate director in 2012.
As an investment banker, Thornburgh advised on many landmark M&A transactions during the heyday of state and federal deregulation during the 1980s and ’90s as the commercial banking sector consolidated. Named as CS’s first investment banking global sector head managing the Financial Institutions sector, he emerged as a thoughtful and trusted advisor to corporations and governments. The turn of the decade in 1990 was the last global banking crisis prior to the 2008 meltdown, which led to Thornburgh’s multiple assignments in recapitalizing the largest thrifts in California; advising the Mexican Government on the privatization of its entire banking system (20+ banks); and advising the governments of Sweden, New Zealand, Australia and the state of South Australia on bank recapitalizations and privatizations.
From 1995 to 2005 while on the CS Group executive board, Thornburgh served as CFO and Executive Vice Chairman of CSFB, and CFO and Chief Risk Officer of CSG. The period included two multi-billion acquisitions while he served in a CFO capacity, and two strategic reorganizations, including one which he led during his last year at Credit Suisse. During his posting in Zurich, he had the distinction of being one of the highest ranking non-Europeans in a corporate leadership role in Swiss industry. During this decade, he also served on the executive committee of the Securities Industry Association for six years with one year as Chairman.
Later, and while at Corsair, Thornburgh worked on two landmark private equity transactions. He led the $6.7 billion recapitalization of Cleveland-based National City Corporation (the 10th-largest U.S. bank at the time) and the $300 million capital raise to conclude an FDIC-assisted acquisition by East-West Bancorp. Both deals were done in 2008, and Corsair investors were out of both investments by Q1 ’09 with returns north of 20%. He led two other investments for CapStar Bank and NewStar Financial, both currently profitable and growing institutions.
As a corporate director since 2006, Thornburgh has served on the boards of Fortune 500 companies Dollar General, National City Corp. and Reynolds American Inc. He currently serves in key roles with the following publicly listed companies: As Vice Chairman of the Board of Credit Suisse Group; lead director of the board of NewStar Financial; director of McGraw Hill Financial; and director of CapStar Bank, a privately held institution.
Perhaps more important than the actual work he has done is the manner in which Thornburgh has consistently executed it. Colleagues and competitors alike cite his diligence and sound judgment, the constancy of his fairness and trustworthiness, his steadfast moral compass and unfailing compassion. He is a true industry leader and a sterling example to those around him. Thornburgh has enormously and positively influenced his industry both publicly and behind the scenes, leveraging his sincere, Midwestern, no-nonsense approach to benefit countless people around the world. Not surprisingly, he has been an extremely involved philanthropist, volunteer and servant leader, working and giving generously primarily to educational causes including, of course, his beloved alma mater.
[/vc_column_text][vc_text_separator title=”C&C” color=”black”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
