Bruce McGuire, Bobby Walker. Jr., and Scott Stuart deliver Day 2 Opening Remarks at Greenwich Economic Forum (Greenwich, CT)
HIGHLIGHTS
- Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich was founded in 1908
- In 2018/2019, the club won 2 national awards for its programs
- Greenwich Boys and Girls Club ‘Corporate Champion Award’ to Sage View Capital
FULL COVERAGE
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS: Bruce McGuire, Co-Founder of Greenwich Economic Forum, Bobby Walker Jr., CEO of Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich, and Scott Stuart, Co-founder/Managing Partner of SageView Capital
Bruce McGuire – Co-Founder, Greenwich Economic Forum: 00:00
Morning. Welcome. Hopefully you’re enjoying breakfast. My name is Bruce McGuire. I am the other cofounder of the Greenwich Business Institute and the Greenwich Economic Forum. People have been asking me and asked me all day yesterday how I could appear to be so relaxed. And the answer to that question is our partners at the Financial Times. So the Financial Times is our partner in this conference and the team of FT Live has just been doing a fantastic job and I really can’t thank them enough and recommend them to all of you, including my good friend Jason here who was asking for a recommendation. This is our second year, right? This is our second year of doing this and we couldn’t do this without the support of our corporate partners. And I’m going to list for you some of our leadership or all of our leadership and board circle sponsors. Just bear with me as I go through the list and if you will join me in a round of applause to thank all of our partners when I’m done. I’m beginning with Bridgewater Associates, Grammercy, Churchill Nuveen, Bank of America, Ropes and Gray, NOAH wealth management from China, Aurora capital from LA Gullo, Goutai Junan Futures, Standard Chartered Bank, RockCreek, and Afsaneh Beschloss pulled double duty for us yesterday. So thank you Afsaneh and then Titan Advisers. So please join me in a round of applause for our corporate sponsors.
Bruce McGuire – Co-Founder, Greenwich Economic Forum: 01:18
Again, it’s just our second year. So having early adopters like that is extremely important to us. People have been asking me about the cover art on the program guides. So take a look at your program guides and you’ve seen an example of this also out in the lobby. This is a piece called “The Exchange” by a London based artist named Diego and it’s available for purchase at Zoria art gallery right here in Greenwich, Connecticut, where we will be having a reception later on this evening. After the reception here closing the program today, I have a, an important right in okay to the program guide. So this is important. It didn’t make it into the program guide. It’s on the website, but at 3:50 PM today we are having our closing keynote presentation. And we have Bob Roth who is the CEO of the David Lynch Foundation and this is going to be a really interesting talk that Julia is going to moderate for us. So I really encourage everybody to stick around for that. And we’ll talk a little bit about that at the break to give you a little more detail on that. So right now I’m going to welcome Bobby Walker from the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich who’s going to talk a little bit about the club and give a presentation for us. So Bobby.
Bobby Walker. Jr. – CEO, Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich: 02:48
Morning everyone. My name is Bobby Walker jr. I’m the CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich. And for many of you who know Greenwich, Greenwich is a town, sometimes lives up to a stereotype, whether you’re looking at big houses, fancy cars, elite private schools, which all three of my children attend. But if you really examine our town, you’ll find that Greenwich is actually significantly more diverse. Not everyone’s wealthy. Not everyone lives in a big home. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of people in our town that struggle to find affordable housing at all. A growing number of residents don’t drive. And while everyone attends great schools. Cause I truly believe that Greenwich has some of the best schools around the achievement gap between those of the upper economic spectrum in their poor peers has been a persistent issue for our town. So our town actually needs a place that provides access to opportunities for all of Greenwich residents.
Bobby Walker. Jr. – CEO, Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich: 03:49
A place where a family’s financial situation will never be a barrier to accessing out of school homework, help, coding classes, swimming lessons, character development, athletic teams, etc. A place where children with one or sometimes two working parents has a safe place to be in the hours after school when no one’s home to greet them. A place where any child, regardless of background, looking for fun place to be with friends from diverse backgrounds under one roof can go and have a good time. And that’s where the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich steps in our club has 1,450 members. We average 350 kids every single day after school. We have at least one member from all schools in town, including the private schools or the members who attend most often, 74% live at low income levels for this area where they’re working parents actually struggle to make ends meet nearly 55% on fear and reduced lunch and 43% come from single parent households.
Bobby Walker. Jr. – CEO, Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich: 04:51
And I want to share a story of one of them because he’s one of our biggest success stories named. Cameron. And at a young man named Cameron, so at a young age, Cameron’s father man and his family, he and his mother and his frustration led to cam having a very difficult time in school and with most authority figures. Teachers whom I’ve met, some of his teachers now described him as angry, hard to work with, and one even called him a problem child. So his mother who was forced to work two jobs, needed a safe place for a son to go every day after school. And that’s where she found the Boys and Girls Club at Greenwich. So at age six she enrolled a son and there Cameron found the role models he needed who stepped in to be the father figure he never knew. He worked on becoming not just a great athlete, but a good sportsmanship as well.
Bobby Walker. Jr. – CEO, Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich: 05:38
He became a leader among his peers and one of the biggest prizes in Cameron’s life, in 2010 Cameron was named our clubs youth of the year, which is the highest honor that any child could ever make in our club. So after leaving the club, he went on to St. Lawrence university, played football, and made some of the best grades of his entire academic career, including high school. And when he graduated, Cam came home and he came back to the club and I asked him all the things you can do, why do you want to come back to the club? And Cam’s answer was perfect. He said, the club helped to make me the man that I am and I want to do the same for other kids who need this place like I did. Cameron’s story is not atypical for our area. Young children enter our doors for a variety of reasons.
Bobby Walker. Jr. – CEO, Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich: 06:25
Their needs and met for only $50 per year. This important work could never be accomplished without the support from generous individuals and from the many businesses in our community. And so I’m up here to actually honor one of those businesses today. I arrived at the club in July of 2014 and one corporate partner has stood out above all the others from sponsoring special events to making donations to support our programs. Sage View Capital has stood out among all the others. We can count on Scott Stewart in this team to be there for the kids in our town who need our club the most. They’re unwavering connection with our club has helped to make a positive impact on countless members over the years, like Cameron, whose lives have changed because our programs and the staff who care for them. So today I’m here to present our first ever corporate champion award to Sage View Capital. And Scott Stewart, the inscription reads, the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich presents this corporate champion award to an organization that has remained a steadfast support of our mission and through contributions from its people and its resources has helped to ensure that great futures are possible for all children. Scott, all of us at the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich want to thank you for your years of making our club the place where youth go to find their greatness. Scott Stewart.
Scott Stuart – Co-founder/Managing Partner, SageView Capital:08:01
Thank you, Bobby, and good to see all of you. So as you just heard from Bobby the Greenwich Boys and Girls Club is a remarkable place. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with it, but as Bobby said, every day 350 kids spend their afternoon hours between school and pick up. So they’re working parents can support their families. They get tutored, performing plays, get fed, play sports, basketball, lacrosse, swimming. My favorite statistic is over the history of the club they have taught 35,000 kids how to swim just amazing. So our connection started 25 years ago at the Stuart family when all four of our kids learned how to ice skate there as toddlers. And since then, we’ve been involved in numerous activities. Basically whenever one of my kids complained having to take the bus to school or the broken screen on their iPhone 11, I would take them to serve Thanksgiving dinner or to hear heartbreaking and inspiring stories from youths of the year like Cameron. And it’s a great way to get their attitude reset. And then proudly everybody in the Stuart family watched my wife chair the board for four years, Lisa Stewart, who’s sitting over here.
Scott Stuart – Co-founder/Managing Partner, SageView Capital:09:29
So my from Sage View Capital is a growth equity firm. We provide capital to talented management teams to help them create great businesses. We’ve been really fortunate over the past 13 years to be involved with some real success stories. But I have to say, and it’s not just because this guy is like three times my size but our best investment has been backing Bobby and his team at the Greenwich Boys and Girls Club for all they do for the kids and the families in town. To those of you who are involved, stay involved to those of you who aren’t, please get involved. This is really a vital institution in this great community we live in. So thank you all.
Julia La Roche – Correspondent, Yahoo Finance: 10:21
That’s so amazing. Bobby, thank you so much for filling us in on all the great work that you’re doing at the Greenwich Boys and Girls Club and Scott, congratulations and thank you for your support.