After many attempts and prodding, I have finally embarrassed Bob into writing his biography to add to our 50 year reunion collection. Thank you Bob, your path through life was certainly very interesting and accomplished.
Bob Fice
Immediately after graduation, a fraternity
brother and myself spent a month travelling around the western US and Canada.
Our travels took us from Toronto to Louisville (for the Kentucky Derby), to
Kansas and Denver and then down through the Grand Canyon to Vegas and down to
LA and San Diego. We then travelled back up the coast through San Francisco and
Oregon to Vancouver and back over the mountains to Banff and Calgary, through
to Regina and Winnipeg and back around the lakes to ole TO. Staying at our
fraternity houses on various campuses, we travelled in my brand new 1969
Cougar, which, when we got home after one month, had 12,000 miles on it and, as
such, the warranty was up!
Upon our return, I joined Arthur Anderson
in their consulting department for 4 years (during which time I had an
assignment at Hallmark, where I worked with Marie) before moving on to Woods
Gordon. I was only there 1 year, during which I spent several months in
Vancouver doing facilities planning work for the new ICBC (Insurance Corp of
BC). I seem to recall that ICBC only lasted a few years before the government
gave the auto insurance industry back to private companies.
In late 1973 a fraternity brother (Brian
Clark) called saying his company was expanding and looking for some warm bodies.
The company was called Eurobrokers, and was an inter-bank broker, only a few
years old, in a new market called Eurodollar deposits (not the Euro currency as
you may know it. Eurodollars were US dollars held outside of the US that were
traded back and forth as deposits between the major banks of the world). Eurobrokers
was one of less than a handful of brokers that acted like the floor of an
exchange for these products and had links with similar companies in London and
Tokyo. I decided it was worth the chance and took the plunge in early 1974.
Within six months we had moved the company to New York residing in the World
Trade Center. The move occurred over the July 1st long weekend – I returned
home in August to get married to my lovely wife Pat.
I worked at Eurobrokers for about 10 years,
starting new products such as Euro CD’s and running the domestic Term Funds
desk (US dollars within the US traded as loans between the domestic banks and
foreign bank branches). In early 1984, along with 3 other colleagues, started
the first Interest Rate Swap trading desk in the market. It was an instant and
huge success, doubling the profits of the whole company for the fiscal year
after only 2 months of operation. This was the only brokerage desk in the
global marketplace for about 6 months and as such we effectively had a global
monopoly. This was the most exciting time of my career.
Regretfully, around the end of 1984,
Eurobrokers was going through an ownership change which some of us did not
agree with. I left the company for a competitor called Tullet and Tokyo Forex.
I was initially a director responsible to create a Swaps trading desk to
compete with my old firm. After a couple of years (during which we became the
biggest competitor to Eurobrokers), I also initiated an interest rate options
desk, followed by equity derivatives, and LDC debt trading (country loan
agreements from lesser developed countries that eventually became international
bonds). There was also a period of about 6 months during which I ran the IT
department while we searched for a new manager. In 1994, I finally left the
street after a major disagreement on the direction of new products.
During those 20 years on the street, I built
up lots of frequent flyer miles travelling to London, and to clients around the
country.
In semi-retirement at that point, I dabbled
in a few small ventures including a startup called SEFEX (secondary fiber
exchange) involved in recycled paper markets. I also worked for Elliot Wave
International (a market analysis firm).
Currently, in “retirement”, I still manage
to do some part-time marketing work for the company that my wife Pat works for.
Although it is hard to directly connect the
value of the engineering education, it has been a foundation for thinking
through and solving problems that have occurred during my career. And, I must
say, besides the mathematical background, the training we received in writing
reports and documents has been invaluable.
Memories
Playing hearts in the student lounges
(always tried to sit next to John Hood because I could tell when he wanted to
go for “control” – John, when we next see each other, I will tell you the
secret).
Lunches across College street at that
little grill/restaurant and later at the Legion Hall on Spadina (they had beer
and shuffleboard)!
Falling asleep in some of those early
morning classes (after hockey practice at 6 am) and having to borrow notes from
Chief (Bob Craig) or Lewie (Bob Lewis-Watts) who were much more attentive.
That first open book exam in electrical
machines, when everyone cracked open the text for the first time. Even the instructors
were laughing.
Family
I have been blessed with 2 wonderful children
(both married) – and 1 grandson (so far) – still hoping for more to arrive.
Our son lives in south Jersey and works as
a Safety Supervisor for a large construction company having graduated from
Stockton University in Environmental Science.
Our daughter lives in Connecticut and works
as a designer for an expanding crafts company having graduated from Quinnipiac
University in digital design.
During the nineties, we would spend summers
back in Canada at our cottage on Stony lake in the Kawartha’s. Although we no
longer have the cottage, we still like to visit friends and family up in the
area (my wife Pat’s family is in Peterborough) and I still have some family in
Muskoka. Unfortunately, this last year’s virus debacle has sort of curtailed
these plans.
I enjoyed the re-union immensely and am
looking forward to the next one. Hopefully, we can all stay healthy enough to
attend.
