Subscription warrant for stock of the First Boston Corporation, issued to George R. Atkins and dated May 26, 1934.
then granted an option to Credit Suisse
to purchase this interest,” which Credit
Suisse did do with First Boston Inc.
Financiere Credit-Suisse First Boston
(f. 1978, holding company)
In 1983, George L. Shinn left First Boston
Corporation and was succeeded by Peter
T. Buchanan, the president of First Bos-
ton, who became chief executive officer.
A Princeton graduate, Buchanan joined
First Boston as a trainee in 1956 after he
graduated from college. Buchanan had
been named president and chief operating
officer since 1978. Alvin V. Shoemaker,
the chairman of the executive commit-
tee, succeeded Shinn as chairman. Alvin
Varner Shoemaker was a native of Penn-
sylvania. He worked as “an attorney for
the Comptroller of the Currency in 1963
in Washington.” He joined First Boston
in 1969. His father owned a clothing
business and later worked for a lumber
company. His grandfather was a livestock
dealer. A Wharton and University of
Michigan law graduate, Shoemaker had
briefly left First Boston in 1978 to become
president and chairman of the operating
committee of Blyth Eastman Dillon, but
he returned to First Boston in 1981. He
retired in 1989.
CS First Boston Inc.
(parent company, f. 1988)
Credit Suisse First Boston (f. 1997)
Credit Suisse Group
(parent company, f. 1997)
In 1988, before Shoemaker retired, First
Boston, Inc. merged with Financiere
Credit-Suisse First Boston to create “a
new worldwide investment-banking
32 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Fall 2019 | www.MoAF.org
concern-CS First Boston Inc.” At that
time, ownership of Financiere Credit
Suisse-First Boston passed entirely to
The First Boston Corporation and, at the
same time, The First Boston Corporation
acquired all of its own shares held by the
public. As a result of this reorganization,
CS Holding became a direct shareholder
of the newly renamed CS First Boston,
Inc. In 1993, CS First Boston integrated
its three regional subsidiaries, “The First
Boston Corporation in the United States,
Financiere Credit Suisse-First Boston in
Europe and CS First Boston Pacific in
the Asia/Pacific region…into one global
investment bank and operated under a
single name, CS First Boston…” Then in
1997, CS First Boston and Credit Suisse
consolidated to become Credit Suisse First
Boston, whose parent company was called
Credit Suisse Group.
By that time, Allen D. Wheat, a former