Jeffrey Pollock – 50th Reunion Essay

Jeffrey Pollock

4928 Stony Ford Drive

Dallas, Texas 75287

jpollock@shawneeadvisors.com

347-678-6908

Spouse(s): Nancy T Pollock (1971) 47 years

Child(ren): Justin Pollock (1975); Jordan Pollock (1982)

Grandchild(ren): Henry Pollock (2004); Max Pollock (2006); Stella Pollock (2010)

Education: Yale, BA, 1969

Career: 8th grade science teacher 1970; Partner on Wall Street at Mabon, Nugent, 22 years; health care finance Shawnee Advisors, 25 years

Avocations: Cooking, News junkie, my wife’s art studio

College: Berkeley

I think my 70th year was a transformative year for me. My daughter, who is my best friend, got married to someone she had been dating since law school and became head of immigration in the public defender’s office for the County of Dallas. We have all lived in Dallas for the last five years.

My grandchildren go to the same school in Brooklyn Heights, St. Ann’s, that my son and daughter attended.

I have been involved in finance for 47 years, but not as successfully as some of my classmates. I was a partner in a bond and Federal Funds brokerage company. We sold control of the 100-year-old partnership to an Italian bank in 1992, which was a bad idea. The firm was run into the ground and liquidated two years later, costing me all my capital. I have never quite recovered financially, which has been an embarrassment to me until now.

I think those challenges made my family closer and my children more appreciative of what was important. My wife of 47 years, Nancy Pollock (nancypollockstudio.com), is the most talented person in my life and in her career in fashion, Hollywood PR, mosaic art, and fiber sculpture introduced me to a wonderful circle of friends in the arts that I never would have met on Wall Street.

Several years ago, a young analyst asked me what I thought were the keys to success. I thought a moment and told him that I had learned only three things in 40-plus years.

1) You have to wake up every morning and love what you are doing.

2) You have to believe that you deserve to be successful.

3) The good days are defined by the good people and the bad days by the assholes. Success is maximizing your interaction with the first group and avoiding the second, because life is too short to work with bad people.

I am proud that I learned over the years that the third rule was most important.

I did not do so good on the second rule over my career, sometimes being more concerned that I not make waves rather than using my talents.

This really began at Yale, where I was not very happy because I didn’t commit myself to the opportunities Yale offered me academically, and I was just guilty about it. I enjoyed editing The New Journal and the Yale Film Society, but they were escapes. Also, Yale was not co-ed then, which I found unhealthy.

I am empowered now by what we are doing in health care, which is the culmination of all I have learned and everyone I have worked with over the past 25 years. Our company is doing transformative work in reducing the cost of caring for seniors.

I have not attended a Yale reunion since our 20th. I am going to attend the 50th.