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Harvard quarterback It's a new ballgame for Harvard University quarterback Neil Rose.
sacks Wall Street
for job in Hawaii
Neil Rose turns down six figures
for a chance to remain in the islandsBy Dave Segal
dsegal@starbulletin.comNumbers flash across computer screens rather than on the backs of football jerseys. The playing field is the stock market instead of the gridiron. And he's analyzing bulls and bears rather than opposing defenses.
In the 12th-floor office of Honolulu investment counseling firm Cadinha & Co., Rose is far removed from Wall Street in his new position as a portfolio manager and analyst. But he'll take a break beginning Jan. 27 to strap on his pads one final time for the Feb. 1 Hula Bowl on Maui.
"Playing quarterback at Harvard was more educational than anything else I've ever been associated with for so many reasons in terms of the way I think or the way I view the world," said the 22-year-old Rose. "You realize you make a difference. You have to be up to date, prepared and you're also responsible for moving other people. Eventually, that will come in handy down the line when I'm in a position where maybe I get to lead a project and see it through."
Rose, a University Laboratory School valedictorian, graduated cum laude this month with a degree in economics and had offers from major investment banks and brokerages on Wall Street. His highest offer was just over $150,000, he said. But Rose, resisting temptation to run with the football, er, money, decided to return to Cadinha, where he worked as an analyst during the summer of 1999 and the spring and summer of 2002.
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A brain drain in reverse, if you will."I love Hawaii and everything, but, honestly, when I left for college, I thought I'd stay there because I thought there were no opportunities in Hawaii," Rose said. "It's just my generation. The mindset is to go away and stay there because people feel there's nothing here. After awhile in college and working with (Cadinha) a little bit and staying in correspondence, I learned there was significant opportunity at this firm. So it was really the firm that brought me back."
Not that Rose didn't have ample opportunities to go elsewhere. He said Harvard attracts recruiters like ball carriers draw tacklers.
"They come in with formal offers written up," Rose said. "Just about every bank, and then you've got the money management firms. All the big players. You can go to Smith Barney, Morgan Stanley, Goldman. We're lucky in that we're in a position where we can work where we want."
For Rose, that turned out to be at Cadinha, which has 22 employees, about 500 clients and manages more than $600 million in assets.
"I was thinking about what I could put my name on, what I could feel good about doing," Rose said. "And, in the end, Cadinha's service and philosophy is something that I really believed in. I couldn't say that about a lot of the other opportunities I had."
Besides his two stints with Cadinha, he spent the summer of 2000 with Bear, Stearns and Co. in Boston working as an intern in institutional equities and then in the summer of 2001 was an analyst in investment banking with Bear, Stearns in New York.
It was that experience that convinced him he might like working for a smaller, growing company.
"You're grinding numbers 100 hours a week in a cubicle," Rose said. "You learn a lot in finance but you're really not leading anything. It takes years and years to do that.
"One of the privileges in coming back here is that Cadinha is in a situation where they can do some exciting things and I felt I could contribute more to that progress than at a bigger, more established investment bank."
Wall Street's loss turned out to be Cadinha's gain, much to the delight of Cadinha Chief Investment Officer Brad Totherow.
"I was very surprised (he came back here)," Totherow said. "It's not often that we get a talent coming out of Hawaii like this in terms of a scholarly athlete, as well as his academia in terms of what he's done in his short career."
Rose is humble when it comes to talking about his academic and athletic achievements at the Cambridge, Mass., campus. While that may be his nature, it also might stem from the company he kept at Harvard.
"Everyone there seems to be very talented at something," Rose said. "You have world-class musicians, you have Hollywood actresses, you have kids who have formed new drugs and other achievements in sciences. Pretty much what I brought to the table was I could throw a football. So people loved me for that and I loved everyone else for everything they did."
Still, Rose was hardly just a face in the crowd. He was both quarterback and captain of the football team, led the squad in 2001 to its first unbeaten, untied season in 88 years and was the recipient of a handful of awards and honors. He finished his career sharing or owning 18 school records, including 5,949 passing yards and 41 touchdowns.
Harvard head football coach Tim Murphy said the extra dimension Rose brought to the football field will serve him well in his new career.
"Neil was like having a coach on the field in terms of his preparation, grasp of the game plan and ability to perform under pressure," Murphy said. "That's the kind of guy I want handling my money."