Company Description: John Hancock Financial Services, Inc. is a leading financial services company providing a broad array of insurance and investment products and services to retail and institutional customers. As of June 30, 2001, Hancock and its subsidiaries had total assets under management of $122.7 billion.
Education: B.A., Boston College
J.D., Wayne State University School of Law
Department Size: 50
Immediate Prior Position: Group President, Bell Atlantic-New England
1. How does participation in community activities help your career?
Participating in community activities is enormously helpful to my career because it provides me with an opportunity to give back—to do some good. By participating in certain activities, you can do good things within your own community as well as for the larger community. Frankly, I feel that such participation has been responsible for me being where I am today.
Finally, it is a valuable networking opportunity because you become known in the community as one who cares.
2. What is the best career advice you have ever received?
“Stay loose!” That is the best career advice I have received. I believe that you must be prepared to reach out— perhaps beyond your immediate grasp—for opportunities. I was at a small firm before I joined the U.S. Justice Department and became the chief federal prosecutor in Massachusetts. I didn’t have much experience in that area. Moreover, when I became the Associate Attorney General in Washington, I had no in-depth experience in environmental law, taxation, natural resources, or antitrust law. However, I had to be open and loose enough to take advantage of those leadership opportunities.
There have been occasions when I accepted a job sometimes without knowing what the future might bring. But I concentrated on taking a position based on its own value, and the opportunity to leverage it into something else. In other words, I have tried to be risk tolerant and not risk-adverse and hence I have stretched to reach for opportunities.
You don’t always get what you reach for. You must be resilient and able to bounce back. You try again or take another approach. So being loose also means you must be persistent.
3. Please describe a defining moment that was pivotal to your success.
Being president of the Massachusetts Bar Association was a defining moment for me because it helped to open the doors to many of my subsequent opportunities. In this position, I got to know many lawyers in the state and that helped me in the development of my practice and afforded me certain notoriety. Subsequently, my positions as U.S. Attorney, as Associate Attorney General in Washington, and other opportunities seemed to flow.
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From the December 2001 issue of Diversity & The Bar®