Chase Alumni Association

 

From Leslie Bains: 46 years of friendship. I owe my career to Art Ryan and Tony Terracciano. Art was a devoted husband to his late wife, Pat Ryan, loving father and grandfather, and mentor to so many. I remember his financial expertise, his strategic vision, his supportive ways, his expectation of excellence from everyone, his high moral standards, his nicknames for all of us, his fun loving ways after hours, his ability to get the best from all employees whether you were an administrative assistant or top business leader. He would walk the floors of the Bank and ask, "How are you doing and what are you working on?" After retirement, he and Pat supported many philanthropies. He was a sought after Board Director, but most of all a true family man. He will be missed by so many. 

 

From Manuel Peña-Morros: Having learned with sadness of Art’s passing, my family and I extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and all who had the privilege of knowing him. Art was an exceptional person and consummate professional, a distinguished banker, truly one of a kind, and a loyal friend to many. 

 

From Gene Ret: I first met Art shortly after being hired within the Securities Services Group in 1974. He was part of the consulting group charged with automating the system to track the receipt and delivery of customers' securities, which would be called the STAR System. Always the charismatic leader, Art was known for his staunch support and recognition for high performers and set an example and standard of excellence to strive for. His systems acumen help launch the Bank into the 21st century. He left his mark in many ways and he will be sorely missed.   

 

From Charles Block: Art Ryan was an exceptional manager and a friend. I knew him and his wife, Pat ,quite well, several years ago. As my boss, I Iearned many things from Arthur, and I am grateful for that.

 

From Matt Wasilevsky: I worked under Mr. Ryan for a few years in the early days of my Chase career. I remember his work ethic – always rushing to handle situations. His hard work was inspirational to me. I’m not saying that Mr. Ryan was Superman,  but in one of those Superman movies there was a scene where Clark Kent rushes past a desk and all the papers go flying. It brought me back to the days when he would rush pass my desk and do the same thing. During a transit strike we used his office to sleep over and handle any emergencies that might occur. Condolences to the Ryan family.  

 

From Elizabeth Resnick: Such a great leader. I feel like I saw him recently, at an alumni event. He was surrounded by so many admirers, as always.  

 

From Brahm Nirgunarthy: I am deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Art Ryan. He was truly one of the finest leaders at Chase, and I feel so fortunate to have worked under his leadership.

     I still vividly recall his drive to streamline securities processing across the bank and his hands-on approach to leadership in Operations, where I was one of the team to streamline the process. One memory that stands out clearly is his visit to Hong Kong, where I had the privilege of presenting our team's progress to him directly. He made a lasting impression on all of us. 

     May his soul rest in peace. My thoughts go out to his family and all who had the honor of working with him. May his soul rest in peace. My thoughts go out to his family and all who had the honor of working with him.

 

From Jim Peyman: Very sorry to hear this news. A great leader in the Bank's history as well as being personable. My best to his family. 

 

From Jeff Jones: I worked for Art indirectly in the early 1990s. I’m sorry to hear of his passing. Please pass my condolences to his family. 

 

From Nancy Petersen: Condolences to the Ryan family on the great loss of Art. He was a great person and I was lucky enough to meet him during the Chase days when I was lucky enough to call Chase home for 22 years. Rest well, Mr. Ryan. 

 

From Rafael Salama: So sorry to hear about Art. A great manager, a vice chairman at the time, brought a new era to Chase back in the late 1980’s. Dynamic, a man of action and capable of delivering results, Sometimes restructuring, but often in creative sales and commercial approach. He understood the business. Led a huge generation of bankers all around the world, especially in Europe with Georges Vergnion and Francis Vassallo, and myself, among many others! Rest in peace, dear Art! 

 

From Habib Faris: It was 40 years ago when I first met Art Ryan, in Boca Raton, FL. At the time, I was a VP and Division Executive at Private Banking in London. Being successful in establishing FX leveraged trading at PBI (Chase pioneered this product), it took off rather exponentially and profitably.

     A major relationship joined PBI with a $100MM Collateral for a total trading facility of $1B (10% margin). Institutional Banking pushed to have this account taken away from PB and given to them on the grounds that PB wouldn't be able to manage it!

     Back to Boca Raton: Mr. Ryan was also present, and we took this opportunity to present our "case" to him. He listened, acted like a seasoned diplomat and asked questions. In the end, he sided with PB.  What a relief that was, and it was, in retrospect, a very wise decision.

     RIP, Art Ryan.

 

From Kuldeep S. Tuteja: Mr. Art Ryan was admired, and respected, by his colleagues and staff members at all levels of Chase Manhattan Bank. May God rest his soul.

 

From Bill Nipper: On January 30, 1988, I first met Art Ryan, Pat and the kids at the NFL players hotel in San Diego, in advance of Super Bowl XXII, between the Washington Redskins and the Denver Broncos. Art was a huge Redskin fan, as I was. Several weeks earlier, I was in my office in Herndon, VA, in a strategy meeting, and my Administrative Assistant Natalie came in and said I had a phone call. I asked her to take a message, and she said it was Art Ryan. Needless to say, I took the call. Art was calling to offer us Super Bowl Experience tickets since he heard we were going to the game from a mutual friend. We met and had a few cocktails the night before the game, then a few beers at the NFL Experience just before the game. That is when I got to know Art.

     Several months later, I called Art in NYC to let him know that the bank I was working for in Washington, DC was being sold, and they would be closing their Data Center. Since my background was in IT, I asked him if there might be any openings at Chase. He laughed and told me that Chase was in the process of hiring mid-career people to help boost the Chase workforce.

     I flew up to New York from DC to interview with someone whose name I don’t remember. A good friend of mine who did some business with Chase picked me up, took me downtown for the interview and waited for me. I went in for the interview, told the receptionist who I was, and she said “he” wasn’t in the office today but out on Long Island. She looked in his calendar book and I was in it. I thanked her and walked over to see my friend, who said, “That was quick,” and I told him the story. I flew back to DC. The next morning, Art called me to apologize for what happened. He said Chase would fly me up, put me up in a hotel to talk about their opportunities. I flew up the following week, and met with Art, John Scicatella and John Farrell. We met at the bar at Delmonico’s at 6 pm, where I met the two Johns for the first time. We had cocktails and some snacks, and a lot of conversation about me and about Chase. Before I knew it, it was 11 pm. Art asked if we wanted dinner. Each of us looked at each other and said no. In Art’s parting conversation as we were walking out of Delmonico’s, he asked me when I could start!

     I flew back to DC the next morning, and John Scicatella called me in the afternoon. We discussed position, title, salary and start date.

     Four weeks later I moved the family up from Herndon, VA to Fort Salonga, Long Island, where I started my 25-year career at Chase.

     I was fortunate to work for Tony Schultz and got to know him so well. We had coffee every morning before work. I continued my relationship with Art, both in work and on the golf course. In the early 1990s, I was sent out to Tempe, AZ and Salt Lake City, UT to try and find a western Call Center that would help Chase customers out west and also have a better time zone internationally. We started in Salt Lake and found out that people there do not work on the weekends or past 5 pm on weekdays, as that is the Mormon Schedule. We then flew down to Tempe, where the University of Arizona students were looking for Call Center jobs on any day or any time of the week. We came back to NYC, met with Art and shared our findings. The next week, I got a call from Maureen Fricken, Art’s Number 2, who asked me if I could join in a meeting with Art, Orin Hatch and the head of the Mormon Church, as they wanted to know why we didn’t choose Salt Lake. I said sure and went to the meeting. Art introduced me as the lead guy on the trip and Senator Hatch did not waste any time asking me why we chose Tempe over Salt Lake. I had read in The New York Times a couple of weeks earlier that Senator Hatch was in Tokyo for a week or so with his family. So, I answered, kindly, “Senator Hatch, whilst you were in Tokyo a few weeks ago, if your Chase card had gotten hacked, and you had tried the Salt Lake Call Center to find that it closed every day at 5 pm and was closed Saturdays and Sundays, what would you have done?” He stared at me for a few seconds, he and the head of the Mormon Church got up, said thank you very much for explaining this to me, shook my and Art’s hands, and left the office.  Art walked around his desk and gave me a hug and said he would have never thought of saying that.

     I was part of a group that started the “Global Day of Service” at Chase, a program that was started by the newspaper USA Today, where on a given Saturday in October, companies would find a charity to support. We chose all of our Chase Global sites and encouraged them to find a local charity to “adopt” and select a group of Chase volunteers to participate. I chose Trinity Church for our team and met with the Sister who ran their "Feeding the Homeless” program on Saturdays. I asked who supplied the food and she said that she did. I asked her where she got the food, and she said Balducci’s (a pricey local store) and I almost choked.  We talked for quite a while and I got a list of the food items, most of which I bought at Costco, and other more discounted places. We brought our team down on the third Saturday in October that first year and had a great time helping her feed the homeless. At the end I asked her how much she spent a month on food, and she told me about $4,000. The next week I stopped by to see Art, told him what we did here locally and that I would send him a report of our Global effort. I mentioned that I had asked this Sister what she spent and shared that with him. He immediately said Chase would send them $3,000 per month for food. I was gobsmacked. I went back up to Trinity the next Saturday and told the Sister; she must have cried on my shoulder for 10 minutes.

     Chase moved me down to Tampa in 2001 to help grow our business down here. When Art retired, he moved down to Vero Beach, and we stayed in touch. Several times he came up to Tampa and we played golf or would get together for dinner somewhere. When his wife, Pat, passed away, my wife and I drove to Vero Beach for the Celebration of Life; we got to see the kids again, and be there as a part of his extended family.

     There was never and will never be a better leader, a more compassionate, caring and embracing person that I will ever meet. He would talk to anyone any time if you needed his help, and he was always the first to say, “Thank you for all you are doing."

     We will be driving down Wednesday for the visitation and hope to see the family and give them a very big, but gentle hug.

 

From Gerard Lang: Art was a great inspiring leader who would often stop and randomly chat withemployees. I was honored to follow him and many other  Chase employees to Prudential, where he left a life long legacy.