THE RIGHT COMBINATION


JEFF BROWN HAS WHAT IT TAKES FOR QUEENS’ DEFINING MOMENT


By: Jodie Valade


efore Jeff Brown MBA ’03 graduated from Queens, one of his professors asked his class of about thirty people whom they thought would be the most successful product of that group. Tere were top executives and business founders in the class, people who already were leaders at large companies and solopreneurs. Still, two-thirds of the class forecasted that JB, as he’s known, would be the star to shine brightest among them all. Brown was at Bank of America at the time, and not yet in


the treasurer position he would reach by age 34. Te Ohio native wouldn’t move to Ally Financial for another year, where he would be named CEO in 2015, so it wasn’t his achievements that won him this superlative; it was his potential. “You could see it in him,” recalled classmate Reggie


Willis MBA ’03 and now the chief diversity officer at Ally. “He had the ability; he had the aptitude. And more importantly, he had what it took to connect to people and to get people to follow him as a leader.” For Brown, being a good leader involves simply leading by example. He learned from role models like Hugh McColl at Bank of America and Rick Hendrick of Hendrick Automotive Group. Both connected with their employees on a personal level and tried to exemplify the excellence they craved in others. “Being a really good leader was not about being the


smartest person in the room,” he said. “It was about how do you get people to believe in what you’re trying to accomplish and what the company is trying to accomplish.” Nearly two decades later, there’s a good case to be made that Brown’s MBA classmates were onto something,


25


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52