1st Pan-European Chase Alumni Luncheon,
10 May 2025, London
Letter from CAA-Co-Founder Hans van den Houten
HANS van den HOUTEN
"Het Rechthuys"
Wierdensestraat 4-14
7607 GH Almelo
The Netherlands
1st Pan-European Chase Alumni Lunch
Dear Chase Alumni,
As a co-founder of the Chase Alumni Association, I would have liked to have been with you today. A family gathering in the Netherlands, however, precludes my participation. Hence this note.
At the outset I would especially like to greet those former colleagues I remember personally, such as Wolfgang Fenkart-Fröschl and his wife Gerlinde, Anna Gilhuley and Simon Mansfield.
It was in late 1987, when I was working for Fitch Investors Service in London, that I met for lunch with the late Pierre Borel. Pierre and I first met during Credit Training in New York, and we stayed in touch though we both pursued different career paths after Chase. Over cocktails, we spoke of the many very close Chase friends we had retained after working at the bank for many years.
We wondered what we could – and should – do to continue these friendships and leverage these contacts for business relationships.
And so, following the lunch, we started the Chase International Alumni Association and contacted the many connections we still enjoyed with former colleagues in various European countries. Shortly after these initial efforts, I returned to New York and connected with Chet Brauch and Tony Lord, also alumni of Chase. We decided to broaden the effort Pierre and I had started in London, and officially founded the Chase Alumni Association in 1988. A more detailed report is available on the website of the Chase Alumni Association.
From the years I chaired the Association through the John Ward era, to the present, under the leadership of Ken Jablon, the CAA has grown in essential ways: We’ve launched new chapters and activities. While today is the first pan-European event for alumni who worked in the UK or on the Continent, we have had several reunions that have brought together alumni from around the world. We have almost nine hundred dues-paying members and thousands more who receive our newsletter, in 71 countries on six continents. We have a dedicated Board of Directors and great support from Andrea Axelrod to keep us all informed about the various activities and developments.
Dear Alumni present here today, I thank you all for continuing your support and enthusiasm for this organisation first conceived in London. I wish you all a great gathering, and happy reconnections with colleagues from Chase Manhattan and other JPMC heritage banks. Let us find another opportunity to meet again!
Hans van den Houten