Content area
Full Text
George Ferris has been a fixture in the Washington business community for more than 50 years. Yet, to hear him tell it, be hasn't gone very far.
"In 51 years," he says, "my progress is two blocks."
While it is true that Ferris Baker Watts' new office building overlooking the White House is but two blocks from the old one, both Ferris and his firm have made a great deal of progress over the last half-century.
Ferris is one of those rare creatures left in the city - a native Washingtonian. Born in 1927, he left D.C. to attend Princeton and Harvard Business School, but quickly returned and immersed himself in the family business, which, at that time, was called Ferris & Co.
Ferris' father, George Ferris Sr., founded Ferris & Co. in 1932 hardly an auspicious time for budding securities firms. Two cofounders, in fact, backed out less than a year later, but Ferris hung on.
In 1988, Ferris & Co. acquired Baltimore-based Baker Watts, creating what now is the third-largest brokerage in the D.C. area, trading only Merrill Lynch and Legg Mason.
Ferris Jr. eventually took over management of the regional investment firm (www.fbw.com), as well as becoming heavily involved in international consulting. His first overseas assignment came at the young age of 32, when a government official observed him teaching a night class on finance and offered him the chance to go to Taiwan.
"I told them: 'If you're silly enough to send me, I'm smart enough to go,"' he says. That trip led to 44 assignments in 11 developing countries. "Evidently," he says, "they liked what I did."
By the early 1980s, Ferris was as busy as ever, with his day job and international gigs taking up the bulk of his time. He also was a governor at the New York Stock Exchange, and, while he tried to stay active locally, it was difficult.
In fact, the single biggest change for Ferris over the last 20 years may be his increasing commitment to D.C., specifically to its educational system. He is a member of the executive committee of the Federal City Council, for example, a powerful group...