The modern Kidder, Peabody was dominated by Albert H. Its clients also included two stalwarts of establishment respectability, United States Steel and American Telephone & Telegraph. Early on, Kidder raised capital for the railroad boom, primarily for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. in 1865, just before the end of the Civil War. One of America's oldest investment banks, it was founded in Boston as Kidder, Peabody & Co. Kidder, Peabody's aristocratic aura appealed to Siegel. Siegel envisioned a fast climb to the top.
GREED CORP CONQUEST POINTS FULL
The firm was full of old men, but had a roster of healthy blue-chip clients. But Siegel saw unique opportunities there. Shearson Hayden Stone offered him the largest salary - $24,000 a year. A Goldman recruiting partner phoned, and asked, if Goldman made him an offer, would he accept? Siegel didn't commit. He had narrowed his choices to three firms: Goldman, Sachs, Shearson Hayden Stone, and Kidder, Peabody. Only investment banking offered the prospect of an immediate market verdict on a new stock issue or the announcement of a big acquisition. Siegel was looking for variety and excitement. Siegel was the first Jew it hired in corporate finance. Kidder, Peabody remained firmly in the WASP camp. Giant Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith, something of an anomaly, had once been considered the "Catholic" firm. Morgan's financial empire - First Boston, Dillon, Read, and Brown Brothers Harriman. Firms like Goldman, Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and Kuhn Loeb (made up historically of aristocratic Jews of German descent) had joined the ranks of the most prestigious WASP firms: Morgan Stanley - an outgrowth of J. At an earlier time, when major corporations and banks had discriminated overtly against Jews, Wall Street had rewarded merit and enterprise. Though the winds of change were apparent in 1971, Wall Street was still split between the "Jewish" and the "WASP" firms. It didn't rank in the elite "special" bracket with Salomon Brothers, First Boston, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, or Goldman, Sachs. In the hierarchy of Wall Street, Kidder, Peabody was in the second-tier, or "major" bracket. Kidder, Peabody, with about $30 million in total capital, barely ranked in the country's top 20 investment firms. He had applied to 22 all had shown interest. Siegel, one of the top graduates in his Harvard class, had had his pick of nearly every major investment bank and securities firm. In 1971, with the Vietnam War still raging and spurring opposition to the Establishment, few top students were going to business school, let alone Wall Street.
Siegel's partner on the project made little impression on him, except for his name: Theodore Roosevelt IV, or maybe V Siegel could never remember which. He and his new wife hadn't even unpacked before he was thrown into a day-and-night project to win some new underwriting business from the Federal National Mortgage Association.
Siegel tried to absorb the images of this strange and rarefied world of old money and discreet power. Gordon, and others that hung above the Oriental rugs and slightly threadbare carpets. That morning, the 23-year-old Siegel wandered through the halls looking at the portraits of Henry Kidder, Francis Peabody, Albert R.
Martin Siegel, the youngest member of the class just graduated from the Harvard Business School, reported for work at Kidder, Peabody & Co.'s Manhattan headquarters at 20 Exchange Place in August 1971.
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