Alex Wong

By Gregory DL Morris

Perhaps best know as one of the founders of the legendary firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette( DLJ), William H. Donaldson left a vast legacy in business and higher education. A proud native son of Buffalo, New York, he graduated from Yale and served as an officer in the Marine Corps before earning an MBA from Harvard and blazing a seminal career in finance and government.

President George W. Bush swears in William H. Donaldson as the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission( SEC) while White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales( L) and Donaldson’ s wife Jane( R) look on during the ceremony at the White House, February 18, 2003.

Throughout his long career, business ethics was a great concern to Donaldson. That came through clearly in his memoir— Entrepreneurial Leader: A Lifetime of Adventures in Business, Education, and Government, with Karl Weber( Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2018)— and was echoed strongly by his wife Jane.

“ Ethics was a theme that would come up again and again in his conversation,” she told Financial History.“ Business was getting away from the fundamentals that were the basis of DLJ. Leadership of companies were not in tune with the basics of the business. That extended to the media. I remember him saying to me that the financial press would send people to him that knew nothing about business. He said,‘ I got sick and tired of having to educate reporters about what questions to ask me.’”

When Steve Shepard founded the Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York( CUNY),“ Bill was particularly excited about that,” Jane said.“ It was the whole notion of young journalists being trained to understand business.

“ The Bill Donaldson that people knew was authentic,” Jane continued.“ He was charming and fair, but tough. His persona was low-key, but he was not afraid to play hardball if that had to be done.”

Donaldson is renowned and respected for the way he led organizations, but should be equally lauded for his instrumental role in creating organizations, from DLJ to the Yale School of Business, suggested David J. Cowen, president and CEO of the Museum of American Finance.“ He was an incredible trailblazer. For instance, it was groundbreaking and a huge deal

18 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Spring 2025 | www. MoAF. org