Betty Wood, Palmer Smith, Carole Machold, Jack Gaffney, Scott Schaefer, Ray Fernandez, Ulrike Zeilberger, Priscilla Coker, Jay Rodin, Regina McSloy, Nancy Bennett, George Christophersen, Pat Fallon, Jim O’Donnell, Kevin Ertell, Mike Doherty, Brad Bilgore, Bill Scovin, Allison Campenelli, Helene Pientek, and George Vesos.
Second, I had the privilege of conducting business with a large cross-section of institutional clients I greatly respected and who I continue to hold in high esteem. By and large, they were tough (a necessary trait in their profession), but they were also fair and honest, and thus need to be thanked for their professionalism: Barbara Palma, Lou Simpson, Fiona Biggs, Don Strand, Grace McLaughlin, John Shapiro, Glen Greenberg, Rusty Robinson, David Schaefer, Tony Campbell, Alex Lamont, Andy Kneeter, Rod Reed, Roger Yates, Billy Joyner, David O’Connell, Allison Hockler, Kathy Burns, Arch Spencer, and Gloria Westlake.
Other Wall Street citizens who I continue to think highly of are: Rod Berens, Mike Gallo, Michael Kaye, Ed Braniff, Bob Boiarski, John Mack, Dick Fisher, Mitchel Fromstein, and Amy Bonoff.
As I was preparing this section of the book, I encountered the name of another man whom I held in enormously high regard—Jim Gantsoudes. Upon checking, I discovered he had passed away several years ago. That news saddened me greatly. I nearly went to work for Jim at Morgan, Stanley’s Chicago office before being assigned to block trading in New York. He was talented, kind, and a gentleman. I wish his family well.
To all those mentioned, I continue to look back fondly at our association. To the hundreds of others I may have inadvertently omitted, I beg your forgiveness.
I’d be greatly remiss, too, if I failed to single out my mentor from the day I first parked my wet-behind-the-ears self on the Morgan, Stanley trading desk. One of the most talented block traders in the history of the financial markets, if not the most talented, Dick “Skyball” King had the character of a near-saint and the patience of a kind father, all rolled into one. I could never repay him for the lessons he taught me.
With respect to the creation and dissemination of Man in the Middle, I need to lavish special praise on my publisher, Bruce Bortz, and his firm, Bancroft Press, not just for his input in the novel itself, but for his penchant for dreaming big dreams. His work ethic, determination, and doggedness would have made him a Wall Street titan, had he chosen that route instead of the more difficult pathway of publishing.
To my dear friend Leiv Lea, an accountant/CFO extraordinaire, and his wife Deborah, thanks for reviewing the earliest version of this work and the helpful feedback.
I would also like to single out Joel Fishman for pulling my manuscript out of the slush pile and encouraging my early writing efforts. Without his input, Man in the Middle would never have been completed.
Finally, to Paul Korngiebel and Hilary Hinzman, your comprehensive review and literate commentary improved the final product greatly. Thank you.
KEN MORRIS
Del Mar, CA
Author photo: Michael Campbell,
Michael Campbell Photography
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A Southern California native, Ken Morris obtained his undergraduate degree from UC-Santa Barbara, and his MBA from UCLA. In the 1980s, he became a stock trader for Morgan, Stanley in New York, and by the age of 31, had become a celebrated, much-sought-after trader operating at the highest levels of the world’s capital markets.
In 1992, at the tender age of 39, he stunned and perplexed the financial world by turning his back entirely on Wall Street. Returning to California, he set up a part-time consulting practice, and began devoting himself to his family and to writing. Man in the Middle, the first of his financial novels to be published, has already received attention from The London Times' City Diary and Jim Cramer's RealMoney.com. His next novel, The Chosen Man, is due out in March 2004.
He lives in Del Mar, California, with his wife, a fund manager, and their four sons.