HWS News
14 November 2024 Hajim Shares Insight and Knowledge During Campus Visit
Ed Hajim, Wall Street executive and author, shares his inspiring life story with the HWS community through The President’s Forum.
Author and Wall Street leader Ed Hajim recently visited campus as part of the President’s Forum, where he shared insights on resilience, leadership and personal growth, drawing from his book The Island of the Four Ps: A Modern Fable About Preparing for Your Future.
In a conversation moderated by Jack Meagher ’26, a business management and entrepreneurship major, Hajim shared stories from his life and career journey.
“In your first 18 years, you are a product of your genes and environment, neither of which you control,” Hajim explained. “When you arrive at a place like Hobart and William Smith, you can begin to define yourself: deciding what to keep, what to let go and what to add. You begin to take control.”
Watch the President’s Forum.
Hajim’s early life had significant challenges. Kidnapped by his father at the age of three, he later lived in foster care and orphanages. Despite these hardships, he was determined to pursue higher education in a private setting and attended the University of Rochester. He went on to have an incredibly successful career in finance, holding senior roles at companies such as the Capital Group, E.F. Hutton, and Lehman Brothers. He also served as chairman and CEO of firms including Furman Selz and ING Furman Selz Asset Management. Today, he is the chairman of High Vista, a Boston-based money management company.
Hajim says his path to Rochester, and later to his M.B.A. from Harvard University, taught him an important lesson: education is the solution to everything.
During a question and answer period with students, in which they asked questions such as “What’s the next big thing?” and “If you could give advice to your college self, what would it be?” Hajim emphasized that there are two kinds of education: how to make a living, and how to make a life. “In college, part of your job is to determine how to make a difference in all four buckets of life: with yourself, with family, at work and within your community.”
“I thought Ed Hajim’s perspective would be great for our students to hear, because of his life story, his resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, and the innovation he has brought to his profession,” says President Mark D. Gearan said. “I’m especially grateful to former Trustee James F. Anderton, IV '65 for introducing Ed to me, and for his efforts to bring Ed to campus to meet with our students.”
Preceding his talk, Hajim met with several groups of students, including members of Sigma Phi fraternity and students who participated in the FLX Summer Internship Program. Facilitated by the Salisbury Center for Career, Professional and Experiential Education, the FLX interns read Hajim's book over the summer for professional development.
Career Services will also read Hajim's book with the Salisbury Diversity Fellows next semester.
President's Forum with Ed Hajim
Following the talk, students lined up for nearly an hour to receive signed copies of Hajim’s book. “His perspective on not having a victim mentality was powerful,” says Nikolina Stanic ’26, an economics and mathematics double major. “Hearing about the challenges he faced, and how he overcame them to build a successful life with his family, was inspiring. It’s a great reminder of resilience.”
His contributions to higher education include an historic $30 million gift to the University of Rochester which established the Hajim College of Engineering. Hajim served as Board Chair for 12 years at the University of Rochester. He is also the author of On the Road Less Traveled: An Unlikely Journey from the Orphanage to the Boardroom.
The event was cosponsored by Career Services and Sigma Phi fraternity.
