[vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” background_image=”33182″ css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”150px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” use_row_as_full_screen_section_slide=”no” text_align=”left” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column_inner width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1621449695789{padding-top: 15px !important;padding-right: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;padding-left: 15px !important;background-color: rgba(24,41,87,0.8) !important;*background-color: rgb(24,41,87) !important;}”]<\/p>\n
[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”150px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” text_align=”left” background_color=”#7eb1dc” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”25px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n
[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”25px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”full_width” use_row_as_full_screen_section_slide=”no” text_align=”left” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_single_image image=”33542″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” mkd_css_animation=””][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”25px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_column_text]Ed Hajim tried to hide the story of his life from most of the people who know him. Even his wife, Barbara, and their children, G. B., Corey, and Brad, didn\u2019t get the entire account until 2008, when Hajim was named chair of the University\u2019s Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n
Despite a five-decade connection to the University that began when he was a student, Hajim kept his background as a child who grew up in foster homes and orphanages as private as he could. Today, as a successful philanthropist, Hajim sees himself in a position to help students with hardscrabble backstories like his.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end, adversity is a gift,\u201d Hajim writes in his new memoir, On the Road Less Traveled <\/em>(Skyhorse Publishing, 2021). \u201cIf you don\u2019t experience it, you\u2019ll never know how to overcome it. The disadvantages I endured sparked my ambition and work ethic. So it wasn\u2019t fate. It was drive\u2014some call it grit. It\u2019s the one thing privileged people who feel entitled to everything and have nothing to fight for often lack. That was never me.\u201d<\/p>\n His life\u2019s story is harrowing but ultimately a story of success. As a toddler he was, for all intents and purposes, kidnapped by his father, led to believe that his mother was dead most of his life, and was left to fend for himself in foster services and orphanages. He worked to become one of the late 20th-century\u2019s most successful Wall Street executives as well as a major philanthropist. A generous supporter of education, Hajim committed $30 million to Rochester, the largest single gift in the University\u2019s history.<\/p>\n Working with his family, Hajim spent seven years on the memoir. In completing it, he realized that recounting his story might help other people.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, if you could help a few people have it a little bit easier on their trip through the forest, then you\u2019re doing something,\u201d he says. \u201cLove is doing things for other people. And this seems like the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n I was very embarrassed by my back history, so I buried it for most of my life. In fact, my wife, Barbara, really didn\u2019t get the whole story for a long time. The kids got pieces of the story. Nobody got the story until I came to Rochester to become chairman of the Board of Trustees. I was planning to make the gift anonymously, but Jim Thompson [then chief advancement officer] said, \u201cWe can\u2019t do that.\u201d And Mark Zupan [then dean of the Simon Business School] started digging into my background\u2014typical research guy\u2014and found some details. I watched this, and I thought, \u201cYou know, you\u2019re 72, we\u2019ve got to get this down on paper.\u201d Once I started writing it, I really wanted it to be private and self-publish it and give it away to friends. But you start to learn things when you start to write.<\/p>\n Your background is very important to you. It can give you advantages and disadvantages. Even when you have a very disadvantaged background, it gives you certain definite advantages that other kids don\u2019t have. Think about me, going 15 different places before I was 18 years old. Am I adaptable? You bet your ass I am. People say, \u201cGive me a one-liner on the book. Is it, \u2018Anything is possible?\u2019\u201d Anything is <\/em>possible, given my background.<\/p>\n Am I the exception or the rule? Well, that\u2019s the essence of what I think I have to share. Am I just unusual, or are there other aspects to it?<\/p>\n There are certain things you get by having a background like mine. Like adaptability, resilience, the ability to bounce back, perseverance. And gratitude and appreciation for having to earn what you have. There are advantages to having a challenging background. Luck is certainly a factor, and so is the context you find yourself in. I refused to accept the fact of my circumstances.<\/p>\n Some of my success was due to the fact that I had a certain innate talent. I had capabilities in engineering and math. But I also had a dream. I really wanted something, and I felt I could get it. I think some of these things can be learned. If someone like me can communicate that with kids, it can make their trip a little bit easier.<\/p>\n When I came to Rochester, I decided to hide my life. I didn\u2019t want pity. I didn\u2019t want sympathy; I didn\u2019t want to get something I didn\u2019t deserve. It just didn\u2019t do me any good. After the first year at Rochester, I decided I was really going to join campus life as much as I could. I got a crew cut, went down to a store in Rochester and bought a tweed jacket. The whole transition. I wanted to be accepted, so I made those changes, but people didn\u2019t know the story.<\/p>\n I always tried to look ahead. People say to me, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you look for your mother?\u201d When I was six years old, I realized she wasn\u2019t there. Until I was 60, I thought she was dead. I had enough things to cope with, so actually it was a defense mechanism, in many respects. I didn\u2019t realize what I was doing. In my business life, my magic two words are, \u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d What are we going to do here to stay ahead of our competitors?<\/p>\n At the Nantucket Golf Course, we have a foundation that supports 40 to 50 charities on the island and has put 25 kids through college. Our newest effort is vocational scholarships for kids who want to become chefs, welders, carpenters, or pursue occupations that don\u2019t require a four-year college degree. This is one of my new mini crusades since I believe vocational education is one of the solutions to our US employment problem. I may try to take our model to other clubs in communities like ours.<\/p>\n I also have a couple more books that I\u2019m working on. One is focused on what I\u2019ve often described as the importance of defining the \u201cFour P\u2019s\u201d of your life\u2014your passion, your principles, your partner, and your plans\u2014but it\u2019s really about the conversation you need to have with your inner voice. Your inner sense of yourself is one constant you have in your life, and you need to develop ways to keep going back to it and listening to it.<\/p>\n Every year you should sit down and review certain characteristics that you have. I do that, and then every three years, I do a deep dive. It isn\u2019t business strategy but personal strategy. Self, family, work, community\u2014 reviewing each one of those areas and saying, \u201cAm I doing those things correctly?\u201d<\/p>\n In my business life, I really tried to make sure there was a certain amount of balance. I had a goal of having a family. One of my legacies is having a family. Having three children and eight grandchildren is a pretty good deal. That\u2019s a pretty special experience[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”25px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”full_width” use_row_as_full_screen_section_slide=”no” text_align=”left” background_color=”#e9e5d7″ css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height=”25px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1621452884161{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”]<\/p>\n Now the chairman of High Vista, a Boston-based money management company, Hajim has more than 50 years of investment experience, holding senior management positions with the Capital Group, E. F. Hutton, and Lehman Brothers before becoming chairman and CEO of Furman Selz.<\/p>\n In 2008, after 20 years on the University\u2019s Board of Trustees, Hajim began an eight-year tenure as board chair. In recognition of his gift commitment of $30 million\u2014the largest single donation in the University\u2019s history\u2014the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences<\/a> was named in his honor.<\/p>\n Through the Hajim Family Foundation, he has made generous donations to organizations that promote education, health care, arts, culture, and conservation. In 2015, he received the Horatio Alger Award, given to Americans who exemplify the values of initiative, leadership, and commitment to excellence and who have succeeded despite personal adversities.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”25px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1621450473461{border-top-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 10px !important;border-top-color: #999999 !important;border-top-style: solid !important;}”]<\/p>\nWhy did you want to write a memoir?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What did you learn?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
You\u2019ve overcome extraordinary odds. Do you think your story is exceptional?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
You arrived at Rochester in 1954 from an orphanage. Why didn\u2019t you want your classmates to know your background?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
For someone who wrote a memoir, you seem keen to look ahead rather than back.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What\u2019s next for you?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Do you have advice for listening to that inner voice?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
From Leather Jacket to Board Chair: About Ed Hajim<\/strong><\/h3>\n