Alumnus Bill Powers '79 Shares Capital Market Insights To Campus Community
October 22, 2010 | Football
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By: Princeton Athletic Communications
On Saturday, former All-Ivy football player Bill Powers will join with former teammates and Tiger fans in rooting on the Princeton football team against Harvard. On Thursday night, he spoke to the campus community about "A Tiger's Journey Through the Capital Markets 1983-2010," during the 2010 G. S. Beckwith Gilbert '63 Lecture.
Among those in attendance was fellow alumni Gary Walters '67, the Princeton Director of Athletics, and Bob Surace '90, the head football coach. Members of the football team, as well as fellow student-athletes, coaches and alumni were among the many to listen to Powers' talk.
"We can not thank Bill Powers enough for his support of
the Princeton Football program and the first class facility that is the
standard in our league," Surace said afterwards. "Our entire football team benefited greatly from his wisdom last night, and he truly represents the very best of this
great University, athletic department and football program. He is an
excellent role model for our players, and I am glad they were able to
spend time getting to know him after his speech."
Powers recently retired as managing director and senior portfolio
manager of Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO), based in Newport
Beach, Calif., where his achievements included serving as the architect
of PIMCO's global portfolio teams in Munich, London, Tokyo and Sydney.
He also was a member of PIMCO's Investment Committee from its inception
and a long-time member of its executive committee. Powers currently
partners with investors in real estate, natural resources, commodities,
collectibles and the entertainment industry. Before joining PIMCO in
1991, he worked for Salomon Brothers and was a senior managing director
at Bear Stearns.
In addition to his bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton,
Powers earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
A letterman in football, named All-Ivy in football in 1978 and
winner of the Charles W. Caldwell Memorial Trophy at Princeton that same
year, Powers has been a long-time supporter of University athletics. In
2006 he funded Princeton Stadium's game field, named Powers Field in
his honor. The $10.5 million gift, which was the largest ever to
Princeton athletics, also created two endowments -- one to support field
maintenance and another to provide operating funds for the football
program. He also established two scholarships to support the
University's need-based financial aid program. Powers was also instrumental in bringing FieldTurf to the Finney-Campbell practice fields, which has provided Princeton one of the premier practice facilities in all of FCS football.
At the bottom of this release, you can watch the football facility tour on GoPrincetonTigers.TV and see the beautiful athletics facilities that were made possible through the generosity of Powers.
Powers has been an active volunteer for Princeton, serving as an
Annual Giving volunteer, a member of the Advisory Committee of the
Princeton Varsity Club and a local Alumni Schools Committee volunteer.
Among his other pursuits, Powers is the creator of "The Blues and
Jazz: Two American Classics," an innovative program conducted by the
Thelonious Monk School of Jazz that is designed to preserve and promote
jazz and the blues through music education programs in public schools.
He currently serves as the chair of the Hollywood Bowl, on the
executive committee of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as a trustee of the
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts by Presidential appointment, and
on the advisory board of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Powers is also on the boards of the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Festival and the
Painted Turtle camp for special-needs children. He previously served on
the board of St. Albans School in Washington, D.C.
The Gilbert lecture was established in 1988 to bring innovative
leaders in business, government and the professions to the Princeton
campus to discuss their ventures and the insights gained in their
careers. This year's lecture is sponsored by Princeton's Bendheim Center
for Finance and Department of Operations Research and Financial
Engineering.
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