McGuire, Raymond J.

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Raymond J. McGuire

1957(?)–

Investment banker

Raymond J. McGuire, who became global co-head of investment banking at Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking in 2005, has been recognized as one of the most talented African Americans in this highly competitive field. Before moving to Citigroup, he held positions at First Boston Corporation, Merrill Lynch & Co., and Morgan Stanley, advising corporate clients on strategies regarding multi-billion dollar business mergers. McGuire has also been noted for his work on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, with a particular focus on education and the arts.

Unlike many Wall Street professionals who were trained from an early age to think about managing wealth because their families had inherited assets, McGuire came from a humble background. "I've got a lot of silver now," McGuire told Lynn Norment of Ebony, "but I wasn't born with a silver spoon." In fact, he had never heard of investment banking before going to college. He was raised by his mother—a social worker—in inner city Dayton, Ohio. As a teenager, he worked every summer. His first job was making boxes for Field's dress shop in Dayton. Later, he worked construction at a local Air Force base and as a hospital orderly. Though money was not plentiful, the family emphasized education. "My mother did everything she could," McGuire explained in Ebony, "to be sure that I received the best education that money could buy, even though we couldn't afford it."

In high school, McGuire excelled in both sports and academics, serving as school president and captain of the basketball team. After his junior year, he transferred to the Hotchkiss School, a prep school in Connecticut, where he had been offered a scholarship. The change, he admitted to New York Times, writer Andrew Ross Sorkin, was a bit of a culture shock. But he excelled academically and went on to attend Harvard, where he earned his BA in 1979. In 1980, McGuire attended the University of Nice, France, on a Rotary Fellowship. He then returned to Massachusetts to earn a law degree from Harvard Law School and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1984.

While still in graduate school, McGuire began his association with the First Boston Corporation. As he recalled to Sorkin, he received an interview for a summer job with the firm in 1982 and was told he had five minutes to make his case. Realizing that modesty would not impress his interviewer, McGuire answered that "Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School and Harvard College pride themselves on taking the cream of the crop. I pride myself on being the film off the top of the cream." He got the job.

McGuire remained with First Boston, which later became Credit Suisse First Boston, until 1988. That year, he joined two mentors from First Boston, Joseph Perella and Bruce Wasserstein, as a partner in their newly-established advisory firm, Wasserstein & Perella. In 1993 he left Wasserstein & Perella to become managing director in Merrill Lynch's Mergers & Acquisitions Group. There he served as a strategic advisor to clients interested in buying or selling companies or subsidiaries; he specialized in consumer products and paper and forest products industries. Among the major transactions in which he played a leading role were the merger of the James River and the Fort Howard companies, which created a new company in 1997 with expected annual sales worth more than $7 billion; and Jefferson-Smurfit's 1998 purchase of Stone Container Corporation, a deal worth $6.5 billion that created one of the world's largest manufacturers of paperboard and paperboard packaging products. According to a Black Enterprise article by Nicole Marie Richardson, Merrill Lynch attained top ranking as a handler of mergers and acquisitions during McGuire's tenure at the company, with $220 billion in deals in 2001.

In 2000 McGuire moved to Morgan Stanley, where he became co-head of Mergers and Acquisitions. He played a key role in the $14.9 billion sale of Nabisco Holdings to the Philip Morris Company in 2000, and in Pfizer's sale of its Schick Wilkinson Sword business to Energizer for $930 million in 2003. Among his major achievements as senior banker on the company's General Electric account was his advice relating to the Unilever Group's sale of its fragrance division to Coty, Inc. The terms of the deal, completed in late 2005, included $800 million in cash for Unilever, as well as possible additional payments dependent on future sales. McGuire's other clients have included Dial Corporation and Kimberly-Clark.

The Wall Street world was startled when McGuire announced his resignation from Morgan Stanley in 2005 to take a position as co-head of investment banking at Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking. As Sorkin observed in the New York Times, Citigroup "has not historically had the elite cachet in mergers-and-acquisitions advising," making McGuire's move there all the more surprising. McGuire, Sorkin wrote, hopes to play a major role in improving Citi-group's status as a provider of sound investment advice.

McGuire, who lives in New York City, is a prominent supporter of several nonprofit organizations. An avid collector of art, including works by Harlem Renaissance painter Romare Bearden, McGuire is chairman of the board of the Studio Museum in Harlem and vice chairman of the board and investment committee chairman of the Whitney Museum of American Art. He also serves on the executive committee of the International Center of Photography, is a trustee of the Lincoln Center and chairman of the board of the De La Salle Academy, and is a membership of the board of the Mayor's Cultural Affairs Advisory Committee for the City of New York. In addition, he serves as a trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital. For Harvard University, he has served as a member of the Overseers/Directors Nominating Committee.

In 2002, Black Enterprise named McGuire one of the Top 50 African Americans on Wall Street. He has also received the Alumni Professional Achievement Award from the Harvard Business School, and was named a Distinguished Patron of the Arts by the Pratt Institute.

At a Glance …

Born in 1957(?) in Dayton, OH. Education: Harvard College, AB, cum laude, 1979; Harvard Business School, MBA, 1984; Harvard Law School, JD, 1984.

Career: First Boston Corporation, Boston, MA, associate, 1984–88; Wasserstein Perella & Co., Inc., partner, 1988–93; Merill Lynch & Co., Inc., Mergers and Acquisitions Group, managing director, 1993–2000; Morgan Stanley, Mergers and Acquisitions global co-head, 2000–05; Citigroup, global co-head of investment banking, 2005–.

Memberships: De La Salle Academy board of directors, chair; International Center of Photography board of directors, executive committee; Lincoln Center board of trustees; New York-Presbyterian Hospital board of trustees; Mayor's Cultural Affairs Advisory Committee for the City of New York board of directors; San Remo Tenants' Corporation board of directors, president; Studio Museum in Harlem board of directors, chair; Alex Hillman Family Foundation board of trustees; Whitney Museum of American Art board of directors, vice chair and investment committee chair; Enterprise Foundation board of directors; Joseph and Claire Flom Foundation board of directors.

Awards: Alumni Professional Achievement Award, Harvard Business School; Distinguished Patron of the Arts, Pratt Institute; named one of the Top 50 African Americans on Wall Street, Black Enterprise, 2002.

Addresses: Office—Citigroup, 399 Park Ave., New York, NY 10043.

Discussing his accomplishments with Lynn Norment of Ebony, McGuire commented that the world of investment banking is highly competitive and requires excellence and commitment. "This job is not for everybody," he said. "It is exacting and there really is no room for error…. When you are less than the best, you're just no part of the equation; you're not part of the game."