Archive for May 3rd, 2009

   Sometimes I wander through Letters to Shareholders from chairmen or CEOs. This might have become a habit when I first began following CEOs and brushing up on companies and their reputations. When I am asked about a company or its competitors, I like to download the CEO Letters and get a glimpse of what is on their leaders’ or founders’ minds. Sometimes a lot of personality and perceptiveness shows through, other times not. So I happened to be looking at the letter from Baron Benjamin de Rothschild of the LCF Rothschild Group and these words caught my eye in its closing:

“I take pride in picturing that, in the next generation, our Group will inevitably be presided over by women, for I have four daughters. Like my mother and like my wife, whose intelligence and support are invaluable to me, my daughters will know better than we do how to safeguard substance. Because women beget life, they find it too precious a thing to gamble with. If I may be allowed to paraphrase Alfred de Musset, they do not toy with love or money.”

As a woman and mother of daughters, I found them full of humanity and sentiment, especially in light of the economic downfall surrounding so many banking institutions. I am confident that the reputation of the Rothschild’s banking empire will be in good hands in the generation to come.