Wall Street wiz to be next trustee chairman

Trustee Jim Stern (E '72) has come a long way from his struggles in Tufts' civil engineering department during his undergraduate days. After becoming a successful investment banker and the Board of Trustees' youngest member at age 32, Stern will take on the Board's chairmanship in November after the retirement of current chairman Nathan Gantcher.

Stern's experiences at Tufts and on Wall Street are expected by many to serve him well as the Board's chairman. "He was here from 1968 to 1972, during hectic days," University Professor Sol Gittleman said. "He always had the capacity to stay calm and had the ability to deal well with pressure. He's somebody you want to put your trust in."

As an undergraduate at Tufts, Stern played golf, taught a course in the Experimental College twice, and studied civil engineering, though he says he did not find an immediate fit with the subject. The civil engineering faculty "took up a collection... to get me out of the department," he joked. "I was a natural accident waiting to happen."

After Stern threatened to leave civil engineering in the midst of his studies, "the dean of students conned me into waiting another semester," he said.

But Stern's experience with civil engineering improved considerably. "I really got a wonderful education," he said.

Stern was an accomplished student in engineering, according Gittleman, who indulges in a shared craze for Chinese food with Stern when he is in town for trustee meetings. "Jim Stern has four great passions: his family, the Golden Temple in Brookline, the New York Yankees, and Tufts," Gittleman said.

During his summers as an undergraduate, Stern set up his future career on Wall Street by working as a runner with Lehman Brothers, an investment-banking firm where he ended up working for 20 years. Working on Wall Street "was kind of a natural thing," Stern said. "It captured what little I was good at."

After graduating from Tufts, Stern never strayed far from his alma mater and shared a room with a Tufts classmate at Harvard business school. The two returned to campus frequently to study in the library and keep in touch with old friends. "For someone who never saw the campus before matriculating," Stern's connection to Tufts has remained unusually strong, he said.

Stern's relationship with Lehman Brothers during his undergraduate years proved fruitful, and he slipped into a job there after getting his Harvard business degree. "I was a classic old fashioned investment banker at a time when the business was different than it is today," Stern said of his years at Lehman. "I worked very closely with businesses and helped them to grow and expand."

Over the next 20 years, Stern moved up in the ranks at Lehman, eventually serving as co-head of investment banking and becoming a member of the firm's operating committee. "I was very fortunate because within Lehman I had a couple of built-in career changes," he said.

In 1982, the year Stern turned 32, both his relationship with Tufts and his professional career began to take off. He was nominated as an alumni trustee, becoming the youngest member ever to join the Board. The same year, he became a partner at Lehman. "Some years you don't forget," he said.

Stern's long friendship with Tufts has given him a privileged perspective on its development over the years. "I have been lucky to have watched the brilliance of Jean Mayer and the leadership skills of John DiBiaggio and now of Larry Bacow," he said. "Tufts is not the same school as when I was here."

As he assumes the Board's chairmanship, Stern's "first goal is to keep the momentum going," he said. Tufts has made great strides over the years, Stern said, and he hopes to work with Bacow to continue such progress. Stern will also likely be involved with the next capital campaign.

Aside from acting as the Board of Trustee's chairman, Stern will continue his work with The Cypress Group, a New York-based private equity firm where he also serves as chairman. In 1994, Stern helped found The Cypress Group, which now manages funds in excess of $3.5 billion.

Stern's assumption of the chairmanship will end his five-year tenure as vice chairman of the Board. The best preparation for becoming chairman has been watching Nelson Gifford and Nathan Gantcher, the Board's past two chairmen, Stern said. "They're a very difficult act to follow," he said.

In 1999, Stern donated funds to endow a chair in the History Department in honor of his parents. He also played a critical role in raising support for the Gantcher Family Sports and Convocation Center. "My ambition has always been giving something back to make it a better place -- not that Tufts wasn't a great place when I was there," he said.

Off Walnut Hill, Stern has worked with the Jewish Museum and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. "I even raise a few bucks every once in a while for the school down the street," he said, referring to the Harvard Business School.