The Badgers Abroad Blog

As a young man, George McReddie didn’t plan to travel or have a career in international finance. He had no idea he would become Senior Managing Director at Bear, Stearns & Co., a leading global investment banking, securities trading, and brokerage firm based in New York. Back in the 1960s, he was just your average American teenager growing up on Long Island, New York.

Then one day, when McReddie was a sophomore in high school, his father, who was born in Argentina, announced to the family he was moving them to Buenos Aires. A few months later, McReddie (BA, Political Science/Ibero-American Studies,’76) was living in that capital city, enrolled at the American Community High School. “It was quite an upheaval,” he says. He spoke very little Spanish at the time.

Fate stepped in again when it was time for McReddie to go to college. His high school principal in Buenos Aires, Thomas Kalish, had earned his B.B.A., M.S. and Ph.D. (Educational Administration) at UW-Madison. Kalish encouraged McReddie, who was becoming interested in both political science and Latin-American studies, to go to Madison. “It was a campus that was engaged in world affairs and that appealed to me,” McReddie says.

At UW-Madison, McReddie threw himself into studying the history, politics and economics of Argentina and the rest of Latin America. “What better place to try and figure it out, or at least have the tools to gain some academic perspective,” McReddie says, “than in Madison.”

He took courses in Spanish and Spanish literature, as well as Portuguese. His senior honors thesis focused on the failure of the Argentine military government from 1966-1973. He befriended international exchange students from Mexico and joined Community Action on Latin America (CALA).

McReddie’s three and one-half years at Madison gave him a strong educational foundation in Latin American studies, in his words, “the academic framework and perspective to pursue a ‘Latin Americanist’ career within an international business context.” From Madison, he went to Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management, in Glendale, Arizona, where he earned an M.B.A. in International Management. McReddie then embarked on what would become a multi-faceted career in commercial and investment banking, capital markets, and brokerage.

Shortly after graduating from Thunderbird in 1978, he married his wife, Lisa, whom he had met at the American Community High School in Buenos Aires. They have three children: Sarah, 24, Adam, 20 and Matthew 14.

His first job was at Republic National Bank in Dallas, which sent him to Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1980 to be assistant representative covering Argentina and Chile. This led to a position at Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust, which took him back to Buenos Aires. After returning to Chicago, McReddie worked in Argentina again, this time for Bankers Trust. In 1987, he joined Bear Stearns in London, and then New York, and has been there ever since. He currently manages a group that provides equity sales and trading support to institutional clients, such as hedge-funds, pension funds, and asset managers in the major financial centers of Latin America.

“Bear Stearns has an extraordinarily entrepreneurial culture,” McReddie says, appreciatively, adding that the company has grown from 6,500 to over 14,000 employees worldwide in 20 years.

McReddie recently returned to UW-Madison for meetings with students, faculty, and staff in the International Institute’s Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies program. While he was in Madison, he offered students interested in international careers some advice.

According to McReddie, there will be ups and downs in every career, times when an individual needs to “read the tea leaves” and be flexible. But McReddie believes that some things will remain constant over time. Among these are language and area studies skills, which help graduates better understand the environment in which they’re operating.

“A solid understanding of the socio-economic dynamics and political risks that are so prevalent in Latin America is critical for success in any endeavor that involves this region,” he says.

Also important, McReddie believes, is for students to make themselves “different plus,” to build, as he did, on interests and background that set them apart.

“Capitalize on your strengths and try to differentiate yourself,” McReddie says.