Mack's first job in finance was as a clerk at a small brokerage house during his junior year at Duke, after a cracked vertebra made it impossible for him to continue on his football scholarship.
Rising steadily to positions of increasing responsibility, Mack eventually headed the firm's Worldwide Taxable Fixed Income Division from 1985 to 1992.
[9] Mack's time at Credit Suisse was marked by much restructuring and by compliances issues created by Frank Quattrone's Technology Group.
[10] On June 30, 2005, Mack returned to Morgan Stanley as chief executive officer and chairman of the board, replacing Purcell.
[11][12] Mack was noted for stabilizing the firm and reenergizing its culture and client franchise,[13] despite an economic downturn.
[18][19] In 2013 Mack joined Rosneft, the Russian, state-owned, oil company that has BP as an investor of approximately 20%.
During the crisis, Mack was advised by U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and the head of the Federal Reserve Bank Ben Bernanke to sell Morgan Stanley.
His career is also covered in detail in a 2007 book by Patricia Beard, Blue Blood and Mutiny: The Fight for the Soul of Morgan Stanley.
The 2010 documentary Plunder: The Crime of Our Time by Danny Schechter opens with a demonstration outside his home by people who lost their houses in the Great Recession.
[38] Mack's personal memoire and career retrospective, "Up Close and All in: Life Lessons from a Wall Street Warrior," was published by Simon & Schuster in October 2022.