Wonder if Robinson ‘developed’ any new clients in Philadelphia while with Loop? Interesting timing of career changes.
http://www.projo.com/sports/billreynolds/sp_bkc_rencol10_02-10-08_RR8V36O_v13.32c51e2.html
EXCERPT
He became a two-time Ivy player of the year at Princeton, was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers, spent two years playing overseas.
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(no link)
Trading it all for basketball
Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) - Sunday, April 13, 2008
Author: PAUL BUKER, The Oregonian
PAUL BUKER
In the cutthroat world of Wall Street bond trading, Craig Robinson was a rising star.
(snip)
Robinson, now 45, was a vice president for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter from 1992 to 1999 before he took a managing director’s position at the investment banking firm Loop Capital Markets in Chicago.
This was before Robinson _ a two-time Ivy League basketball player of the year at Princeton _became better known as being Michelle Obama’s brother, and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s brother-in-law.
This was before Robinson gave up his near-million-dollar salary, his luxury cars and his European vacations to serve as an assistant coach at Northwestern for six seasons at one-tenth the pay. Before he turned around the basketball fortunes of Brown University. Before he stunned some of his East Coast friends last week by becoming the head coach at Oregon State, a once powerful program gone bust. A program that needs a miracle . . . or a maybe former Wall Street bond trader.
(snip)
The biggest knock on Robinson’s resume is his relative inexperience as a head coach, but his years as a bond trader just might be equivalent to three years as head coach at a mid major.
At OSU, Robinson agreed to a six-year, $5 million-plus contract laden with incentives that guarantees him a base salary of $750,000 in 2008-09. Although it is a raise from what he was making at Brown, it doesn’t compare to the salary he raked in on Wall Street and in downtown Chicago.
(snip)
“Athletes do very well in investment banking,” said Loop Capital CEO Jim Reynolds, who hired Robinson after he left Morgan Stanley. The two men remain friends, and Reynolds has closely followed Robinson’s coaching career.
At Loop Capital , Robinson worked “client development” and recruited new talent.
(snip)
Robinson explained why he blew off investment banking to become an assistant coach at Northwestern for one-tenth the salary in very simple terms.
“Here I was, making all this money, but I wasn’t really excited with what I was doing,” he said.
“You know, excited like you should be, if you sort of have arrived? . . . What I got the most pleasure out of was coaching my kids in youth basketball or T-ball, or soccer, all that stuff. . . . I had a passion for coaching. I didn’t have that passion for business. . . . I didn’t feel that excitement in my stomach that I feel every day when I get up and coach.”
What bothered Robinson the most about Wall Street, and the financial district in Chicago where he worked, was the fact that “I wasn’t helping people. I had been raised to try and give back. And that’s what I felt was lacking in that industry.”
When Carmody called in 2000 with the Northwestern job offer, Robinson said it was a life-changing experience. He said he took a cab ride on his lunch hour to mull it over.
Then he walked into Craig Reynolds’ office at Loop Capital .
“He said he was resigning,” Reynolds said. “I asked him how much he was going to get paid at Northwestern, and he didn’t even know. He just knew he was following his passion, and you’ve got to respect and admire that.”
Robinson said he talks almost daily with pals he knows from Morgan Stanley and Loop Capital . They follow his teams, cheer his victories and commiserate with him when he loses.
(snip)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/sports/ncaabasketball/16brown.html?_r=1
Robinson went to Princeton. A 6-foot-6 forward, Robinson developed into a two-time Ivy League player of the year (1982 and ‘83) under the Tigers’ longtime coach, Pete Carril . Robinson was drafted in the fourth round by the Philadelphia 76ers, then played professionally in England for two seasons before returning to the United States. He decided he wanted to be a teacher and a coach, but Carril talked him out of it.
So Robinson returned to Chicago and received a master’s of business administration in finance from the University of Chicago. He was a vice president at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter from 1992 to 1999 and then a partner in a boutique firm, Loop Capital Markets.
But his six-bedroom house, closet full of tailored suits and driveway filled with luxury cars did not translate to happiness. “I’m so embarrassed to admit it,” Robinson said. “I had a Porsche 944 Turbo. I had a BMW station wagon. Who gets a BMW station wagon? It’s the dumbest car in the world. Why would you buy a $75,000 station wagon?”
What did give Robinson happiness was basketball. Despite working long hours in business, he scouted area high school games to help Princeton coaches find prospects. He also spent a season as head coach at the University of Chicago High School.
In 2000, Robinson received a phone call that changed his life. Bill Carmody, who was an assistant to Carril during Robinson’s senior year at Princeton, had taken the head-coaching job at Northwestern and wanted Robinson to be his assistant.
He would be making one-tenth of his salary in the business world, but Robinson, who was going through a divorce, did not consult with anyone. He quickly accepted the post.