Richard Severin Fuld Jr. (born April 26, 1946) is an American banker best known as the final chairman and chief executive officer of investment bank Lehman Brothers.
[4] Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 on September 15, 2008,[5] and subsequently announced the sale of major operations to parties including Barclays Bank and Nomura Securities.
Fuld was named in Time's "25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis" list[6][7] and in CNN's "Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse".
in 1969 from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he participated in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program and was president of the school's chapter of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.
[30] According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Fuld "famously demanded loyalty of everyone around him and demonstrated his own by keeping much of his wealth tied up in the firm", even buying Lehman shares on margin, according to a friend.
[9] In addition, Lehman's board of directors, which included retired CEOs like Vodafone's Christopher Gent and IBM's John Akers, were reluctant to challenge Fuld as the firm's share price spiraled lower.
[9] Fuld was criticized for not completing several proposed deals, either a capital injection or a merger, that would have saved Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy.
Hugh "Skip" McGee III, then-head of the Investment Banking Division, had earlier disagreed with COO Joseph M. Gregory's appointment of one of his subordinates, Erin Callan, as CFO.
[36] In his 2009 book A Colossal Failure Of Common Sense, Larry McDonald—a senior Lehman Brothers trader in the years leading up to the crash—wrote that Fuld's "smoldering envy" of Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street rivals led him to ignore warnings from Lehman executives about the impending crash and that Fuld insisted the firm's chief risk officer leave the boardroom during key discussions.
[38][39][40] On October 6, 2008, Fuld testified before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding the causes and effects of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.
"Regarding liquidity, throughout 2008 Lehman made false claims of having billions of dollars in available cash to repay counterparties when in reality, significant portions of the reported amounts were in fact encumbered or otherwise unavailable for use.
The firm focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises, advising clients on a range of matters, from opening product distribution channels to completing mergers and acquisitions, and sourcing private equity and venture capital funding.
[53] Fuld reserves his most pointed criticisms for his longtime rival, Henry Paulson, who ran Goldman Sachs Group Inc. before heading the U.S. Treasury during the 2008 financial crisis.
[55] The Report of Anton R. Valukas, however, established that Lehman's assets were shrouded in uncertainty around the time of the bankruptcy, due to extensive balance sheet manipulation and accounting fraud.
[59] The total compensation he received from 2000 until the bankruptcy was $484 million [60] Fuld was named in Time's "25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis" list.
[6][7] Fuld at one time served on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a position he ceased holding shortly before the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.