AN ADVOCATE FOR DIVERSITY

When William Lewis was an undergraduate student at Harvard University, there was no question of his plans: The Richmond, Va., native would work on Wall Street for two years so he could be in New York City, return to business school and then become an economist.

But although he graduated cure laude with a degree in economics in 1978, Lewis never did become an economist. Instead, he would make his way in the mergers and acquisitions business, advising heads of major corporations on whether to buy other companies, sell all or part of a company, merge with another, or stay on their own. Fed by the junk bond craze of the 1980s, M&A became a hot business indeed--and one with very few African-American players in leadership positions.

When Lewis left Harvard Business School in 1982, he returned to Morgan Stanley Group Inc., where he had worked as an analyst in the M&A department before graduate school.

In 1985, Lewis assisted in defending Union Carbide Corp. against GAF Corp., a chemical concern, which attempted an $8.3 billion takeover. The following year, Lewis' advice helped prevent Bilzerian & Mack Associates' $1.3 billion attempt to snag Hammermill Paper Co.

In 1988, as Wall Street entered the height of the M&A craze, Morgan Stanley sent Lewis to Chicago to start and head its Midwest M&A department. In late 1989, with a big year behind him, Lewis was named managing director. He remains one of only four managing directors in the United States in his department and is the only black managing director firmwide.

Lewis remained in Chicago through 1991, although his group was folded into the corporate finance department during that year. In early 1992, Lewis returned to New York, where, despite the general fall-off in M&A activity throughout the industry, he continues to juggle four to 10 assignments simultaneously with various teams reporting to him on each deal.

While complex financial strategies, in-depth analysis and intense negotiations are the lifeblood of the investment banking industry, Lewis insists, "what we do is not rocket science. People ask for our advice and we must give sound advice. However, there's no reason to believe that only people who go to Harvard or Stanford Business Schools can do this."

Lewis, 36, is a member of a task force at Morgan Stanley examining how to better recruit and retain black talent. He believes that key to such efforts must be broadening the net that Wall Street firms cast to include traditionally black schools such as Florida A&M University, Morehouse College and Howard University. "Hopefully, in this recessionary season we should be able to get beyond our very narrow views of what it takes to be successful on Wall Street," Lewis says.

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