A Teacher at Heart: Glenn Crafford Gives Back in the Classroom

When you’ve completed a long and successful career in the financial world, what do you do for an encore? If you’re Glenn Crafford ’77 you go right back to work in investment banking.

And you return to your alma mater as the teacher of a new and revolutionary course.

“I failed miserably at my first attempt at retirement,” says Crafford with a laugh. “Now I’m a principal in a small boutique in New York with responsibilities that enable me to both work and teach.”

Indeed, thanks to Crafford’s retirement from retirement, the Mason School now offers “Business 492: Applied Financial Concepts.” First held during the spring 2011 semester, the course exposes students to practices and recent developments within several specialized areas of the financial services sector using a case method format.

Crafford floated the idea for the course to Dean Larry Pulley not long after retiring from Deutsche Bank in early 2009. He was glad to find his ideas in sync with members of the finance faculty who were likewise considering a similar course.

“I wanted to do something in the classroom that took advantage of my banking background and experiences, and enhanced the competitive position of William and Mary students interested in finance,” Crafford says.

According to Crafford, the course gives students a broader perspective and confidence that will be of value through the interview process and first year of their career in financial services. Even if students are not interested in financial services, they will benefit from the analytical requirements of the course and the emphasis on oral and written communication.

Not surprisingly, classroom participation is paramount. “The skill set required to be successful in business often requires you to not only be smart, but also vocal,” Crafford says. “You need to voice an opinion that can be defended through a well-crafted argument before your peers, managers, and clients.”

Crafford believes the course is about as close to the real world of finance as undergraduates can get in an academic setting. It covers roughly eight distinct subjects, each led by an active financial services executive who comes from the ranks of committed and successful alumni.

“Executives in financial services are teachers at heart, since a great deal of what we do is explaining ideas to our clients,” Crafford explains. “It’s a testimony to the strength of the College that these executives will donate their valuable time to traveling to the College to lead a case segment.”

The case method is especially relevant to Crafford in that it interjects ambiguity and dissonance to the matter at hand. “You have to define the problem before you can determine how to solve it,” he says. “I encourage the students to discuss cases together to reduce the natural anxiety of analyzing cases. In addition to individual case preparation, we also have a major group project toward the end of the semester in which each group presents its findings and recommendations to a ‘client board,’ who in turn critique the presentation on a real-time basis by questioning the project team.”

This is not the first time Crafford has gone to bat for William and Mary students. During his career at Deutsche Bank, he successfully argued for the College’s inclusion as a target school for recruiting corporate finance analysts.

“I interviewed about 25 students on campus and convinced the bank to allow me to invite five students back to New York,” he says. “All five were offered employment, and four accepted--the highest offer-to-interview rate and the highest acceptance-to-offer rate of any school Deutsche Bank recruited that year.” The College remains on Deutsche Bank’s recruiting list.

Crafford considers his own time at the College instrumental in his success in the financial world. Born and raised in Newport News, with several family members as alumni, he spent a lot of time around Williamsburg and the College when he was growing up.

Transferring in from another school before his junior year, he arrived at the College as a junior in the fall of 1975, somewhat uncertain as to how easily he would adapt to the rigors of a more challenging academic environment. Fortunately, people like the late John Randolph, the College’s legendary track coach, helped ease the transition.

“My two years at the College were a transformative experience; I was challenged academically by terrific teachers as well as by the pressure of being among bright, highly motivated classmates,” Crafford says. “Professor John Quinn’s Intermediate Accounting class was a rite of passage for accounting majors, where surviving the course was a great bonding experience.”

Upon graduation, Crafford discovered the advantages of a William and Mary degree as he embarked on his career. “There is a debt I can never adequately repay: the benefit I received from my association with the College, exemplified by Coach Randolph’s infectious positive outlook, Professor Quinn’s commanding classroom presence, and Professor James Smith’s generous recommendation supporting my business school application.”

From 1977-80, Crafford worked as a CPA with Coopers & Lybrand before earning an MBA from UVA’s Darden School in 1982. He then began his career in investment banking with Dean Witter Reynolds, and later, was a founding member and shareholder in the advisory boutique of Peers & Co. From 1994-2009, he was a senior banker in mergers and acquisitions with Deutsche Bank and its acquired firms, and was a member of the firm’s North American Operating Committee for the Mergers & Acquisitions Department. 

As an alumnus, Crafford has donated his time and talents as a member of the Mason School’s Business Partners' Board, and has served as chair of the Steering Committee of the Finance Academy Project. In 2007 he received the Howard J. Busbee Finance Academy Alumni Award.

Busier than ever post retirement, Crafford hopes his efforts in the classroom pays off for today’s students. Working with faculty and colleagues to fine tune the course, he is glad that Business 492 will again be offered in spring 2012 as a three credit elective. A number of classroom hours will be added for more guest lecturers, leading to an even richer experience.

“My involvement with the Mason School has been simply to give back and hope that, in some small measure, I can have a positive impact on students,” Crafford says. “One very satisfying side benefit has been the opportunity to meet and get to know the staff and faculty members at Mason. They are an outstanding group.”