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The workaholic - Forbes
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Scott McCormack
Most Read on Forbes
NEWS
6/15/1998 @ 12:00AM
The workaholic
BREWSTER KOPP greets his guest at the Greenwich, Conn. train station, his
dog, Biscuit, a golden retriever­standard poodle mix, in tow. As the three of us
pile into his 1988 Buick Park Avenue, I cannot help noticing two items: a
cassette of the Bible sticking out of the tape deck andjust belowa radar detector
mounted out of sight from any prying police officer.
With closely cropped white hair, tweed jacket and tie slightly askew, Kopp
resembles countless successful executive retirees who inhabit this leafy
suburb. He still speaks in fluent bankerese, peppering his language with
“synergies,” “leverage” and “tax efficiency.” But several winding country roads
later, his speech takes a different turn. “It is much more blessed to give than to
receive. I’m more sure of that than ever,” Kopp says. He repeats that line
throughout the rainy afternoon.
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Kopp is a consummate dealmaker, with numerous LBOs under his many­
careered belt. He’s still at it, only now his deals are humanitarian. “I think of
myself as a full­time helper,” he says. On this particular day, he is waiting for a
house guest, a prominent Iranian exile with whom he cofounded Friends of
Iranians. The group has just raised $6 million worth of medical supplies for
earthquake victims in remote northeast Iran. Kopp’s connections to other
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philanthropies have lined up another $5 million in aid.
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Kopp, now 72, is a former chief financial officer of Digital Equipment Corp.
Android with iOS8
Earlier, he was one of defense secretary Robert McNamara’s Vietnam­era whiz
kids, managing a $30 billion budget for the Army. Even after his sons went off
to college, Kopp continued his hectic business life as a dealmaker.
Then one day in his mid­60s, Kopp decided it was time to reevaluate.
Ever the analyst, he made a detailed list of his activities, calculating that 70% of
his days were going to for­profit projects and only 30% to charity. He flipped
the scales and penciled in 90% for nonprofit work and just 10% for
moneymaking.
“I’m more of a workaholic now than ever. But now I can choose every day what
I get to do, who I talk to on the phone. I feel a little like a kid in the candy
store,” says Kopp, still slightly hyperactive and prone to jump from one topic to
another.
Kopp is as disciplined in his nonprofit activities as in his business life. When
home in his modest bachelor condo, Kopp eats a hard pretzel after lunch and
washes it down with half a can of beer, carefully saving the rest for the next
day. He jogs for an hour every other day with Biscuit. He reckons exercise is
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The workaholic - Forbes
important for their longevity.
On top of his relief work for Iran, which has recently taken up 90%of his time
but usually hovers around 10%, Kopp helps look after a $20 million
investment portfolio for the International Bible Society. The group provides all
those Bibles that end up in motel rooms across the country and in villages
around the world. He has served as a roving ambassador for the organization.
One trip took him to northwest Kenya, where he visited missionaries who were
living with three primitive tribes and trying to reduce their spoken languages to
writing to produce a Bible for them.
In his charity work, Kopp uses the skills he learned in the business arena. He
provides strategic advice to the Bible society on fund­raising and budgeting.
A large chunk of Kopp’s 16­hour days is spent working on the Stewardship
Fund, a consultancy he set up with a friend to advise people on giving. He
approaches the task as a professional money manager would.
“There is a lot of money floating around. I try to help find that money a good
home,” he explains. The Stewardship Fund has advised clients on $400 million
in charitable remainder trusts. He particularly favors that structure because the
money ultimately goes to charity but the giver avoids paying capital gains tax
and also receives both an income stream and a tax deduction. Uncle Sam is
not on his list of worthy causes.
Much of Kopp’s work stems from his deep religious convictions. In addition to
being an active churchgoer — he met his ex­wife in church — Kopp is also
helping to revive a now­defunct Bible college outside Manhattan and has sunk
a large sum into the venture.
“God is very real, but I don’t believe in wearing your religion on your sleeve. I
believe in doing good things,” he says. He prefers to speak of good deeds in
terms of “logic and numbers” rather than as theology. On his bookshelf two
volumes stand out, casually placed side by side: the Holy Bible, which he calls
the “manufacturer’s handbook,”
and a dense­looking tome entitled Corporate Acquisitions, Mergers, and
Divestitures.
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