Griswell cleaned out his desk, followed his heart
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Retire and move to Florida? Nah. Live near the grandchildren in Austin, Texas? Sounds good – real good – but no. Start another career in another city? Don’t think so.
As the clock ticked down at Principal Financial Group Inc., retiring CEO J. Barry Griswell ran through his choices just like everyone does when it’s time to clean out the desk.
Then an offhand comment he had made came back not to haunt him but to help him.
Businessman and civic leader Jim Cownie and others came to him and said: Hey, were you serious when you said you would like to run an organization like the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation? Because, you know, the job is opening up.
“Let me think about whether I’m serious,” Griswell told them. It turned out he was. Now he’s the foundation’s president.
It’s good for the organization, and good for him, too. “It would have been a shock to leave the CEO job without this” to move into, Griswell admitted. “It’s important to have something to go to, something you care about, not just something to fill time.
“It’s almost like this was meant to be.”
So instead of spending his days golfing, he’s working with a fund that his predecessor, Johnny Danos, helped build to $184 million at the end of 2007.
After those years in the plush headquarters of Principal, the big guy doesn’t seem all that out of place at the Finkbine Mansion at 1915 Grand Ave., home of the Community Foundation. This place also whispers “wealth”; he’s still surrounded by efficient young women; and as I walked out the other day, Steve Zumbach was walking in to do some moving and shaking.
But there’s more to this than money and a nice office. Des Moines is where Griswell realized he owed something to society, and that epiphany helps hold him here. It also helps that other successful people have given this small city their stamp of approval. David Hurd preceded Griswell as the Principal CEO, and he’s still here, serving on the Community Foundation board. Fred and Charlotte Hubbell moved back from Europe.
“A certain example gets set,” Griswell said. “It creates a camaraderie, a feeling that we’re all in this together and not just during our working years.”
The foundation’s stated goal is to reach the $400 million level by 2011. That’s just a taunt to a competitive player like Griswell. He’s thinking about how to get to $500 million “as fast as possible.”
“Last year, the foundation gave out $26 million in total distributions,” he said. “In five years, I’d like to be giving $50 million.”
Griswell has a few tactics in mind.
“We’re experimenting with finding ways to reach out to other financial institutions that might see us as a competitor,” he said. “And we’re trying to figure out a new group of donors. The next Bill Knapp, the next Marvin Pomerantz, the next Barry Griswell are out there, and we need to find out who they are and get them involved.”
He plans to get together with foundation staffers and board members to study other foundations of similar size and “do some benchmarking,” he said. The foundation in Kansas City reportedly has more than $1 billion in hand, and Griswell intends to go down there and talk strategy.
There’s check-writing, and then there’s an even deeper form of influence.
“Much more important than the money,” Griswell said, “is to make the foundation a major player in identifying needs and convening people. When there’s a problem to be solved, I want a group to get together and come to the Community Foundation.”
But let’s not downplay the check-writing too much. It just so happens that good intentions are intertwined with healthy bank accounts. Fortunately, Griswell said, “what I like to do best is extract money from wealthy people.”