Lazard chairman-CEO and Harvard alumni Bruce Wasserstein joined other global financial experts during Harvard Law School’s capital campaign to discuss prospects and recommendations for the financial industry. Wasserstein graduated with Juris Doctor in 1970 from Harvard Law School and received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1971. During the discussion, Bruce Wasserstein described what he calls the leaderliness required of CEOs in times of economic turmoil. As a Wall Street veteran, the 61-year old Wasserstein has witnessed the twists of finance and offered valuable advice on ideal leadership and the proper approach to the crisis. Bruce Wasserstein observed that leadership has deteriorated and to counter this problem, he provided two integral traits for CEOs to develop: integrity and common sense. He further added that “a little bit of thinking” will help a lot, especially for issues concerning Wall Street. To illustrate this point, Wasserstein said that although firms employed hundreds of Ph.D. toting risk managers, they still made loads to non-creditworthy customers and even securitized them, which resulted in portfolios worth triple their equity capital. When the collapse happened, whatever delays in selling risky assets of write downs made did not help. Leadership, according to Bruce Wasserstein, means looking ahead, to the future, and giving importance to the present while exercising common sense. Source: http://harvardmagazine.com/breaking-news/lawyers-perspective-on-a-time-of-turmoil