David J. Mathies, Jr. – 50th Reunion Essay

David J. Mathies, Jr.

djmathiesjr@gmail.com

Career: Entire career in investment business

Avocations: Photography, www.gettyimages.com (search for dmathies)

College: Trumbull

During my childhood it was by no means a foregone conclusion that I would attend college. No one in my family had ever done so. Both of my grandfathers had been coal miners. Yet my father valued education and he also sensed what an education from a formidable institution might mean for a young man with no family connections. I was fortunate that my father had the foresight to look beyond our immediate surroundings. He pushed me into unfamiliar territory and as a result the first major fork in the road of my life led to New Haven.

My principal objective was basic—I hoped to ultimately have a more comfortable life than my family members before me. I survived the culture shock of moving from a working-class environment and had an unforgettable four-year experience at Yale. I decided at the time that I simply wanted to go into some form of business as my father had done. Upon graduation from Yale, I headed to Manhattan to attend Columbia Business School where I earned my MBA.

After Columbia, I returned home and landed a job at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh. I worked in the Trust and Investment Department helping manage investment portfolios for major pension funds. In 1977 the head of the department presented me with an out-of-the-blue major career path decision—continue in my current role or take a “temporary” assignment to work for several years in Saudi Arabia with the largest bank in the Kingdom and assist them with their investments. The Kingdom was awash in petro dollars and I thought it might be a way to get involved in some high-profile investing. I chose this new path. At the conclusion of three years I returned to Pittsburgh and my former job. However, Mellon Bank had another assignment for me—to manage the startup of a new bank being established by Kuwaitis in the nearby country of Bahrain. Being an “old hand” in the Middle East (at the age of 33), I moved to Bahrain and started up this new institution. Shortly after I returned home at the end of the startup assignment, the founders of the Bahraini bank approached me with a job opportunity. They wanted me to create and then run their US-based investment business. I started that effort in 1987 and then ran it for the next 15 years.

The decision I made in 1977 for a short-term adventure in Saudi Arabia ended up being a 25-year career working with Middle East investors. Many steps along the way of this journey I found myself way outside my comfort zone. But I am so glad that I chose to take that step down a very different road in 1977.

In 2002, I decided to conclude my work career. It was time to devote myself to family, grandchildren, travel, and photography. This new chapter of life has been just as fulfilling as the career-dominated earlier period.