7 Years After Collapse, Lehman CEO Has 7 Security Guards for First Public Appearance

Seven years after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and played a large role in the late-’00s U.S. financial collapse, the firm’s final CEO Dick Fuld made his first public appearance.

Crain’s reported on the somewhat awkward speaking event, noting how “Laughs—and applause—were in short supply as Mr. Fuld took the crowd of 1,300 through a sometimes blinkered history of Lehman.”

“Please understand, not a day goes by when I don’t think about Lehman Brothers. Not a day. I’d love to tell you I’m over it; it’s behind me. It doesn’t happen. But having said that, I do have to move on and this is part of it,” he did say at one point.

But here’s perhaps the most interesting nugget: “Mr. Fuld still appears to travel carefully—five security guards flanked the stage, and two stood next to almost every entrance to the hotel ballroom in which he spoke.”

The sting of the financial collapse hasn’t worn off for a lot of people — apparently Fuld and his handlers realize that when booking such a large group of security guards for one speaking gig.

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