Hello from Serakorn Gerjarusak, PhD 1993

Dear Professor Howard and Carolyn,
First, a big thank you to Phillip Westmoreland for informing me (and other former students) of Professor Howard's illness.
Since I left MIT in 1993, I have not been in touch with Jack Howard and Bill Peters, my thesis advisors. I returned to Bangkok, Thailand, with the intention to join Esso's refinery (known as Exxon in USA). However, I was recruited by a course X alumnus, Chartsiri Sophonpanich, whose family was a big shareholder of Bangkok Bank (he is currently the bank's President). I worked at Bangkok Bank for a year as a foreign exchange trader. I then decided to put engineering on hold and took a plunge into investment banking. I travelled to Hong Kong in the summer of 1994 and have lived here ever since. I worked for Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Lehman Brothers, and HSBC. I am currently with Goldman Sachs, working as Managing Director and head of macro structuring for non-Japan Asia.
In case you are wondering what exactly is my job, I will try to explain it the best I can. I work for the largest securities firm in the world. Goldman Sachs is kinda like MIT of investment banking! Everyone in an investment bank aspire to be a manging director. About 6% of the employee at Goldman Sachs are managing directors (although there are different levels of seniority, Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Golmand Sach is also a Managing Director, but at least 10 levels above me). I am in charge of coming up with trade ideas in foreign exchange and interest rate, working with salespeople and traders to execute the idea with our cleints. It is nothing like the movie "Wall Street." I get to use some algebra and basic calculus plus some basic probability and statistics. I try to dress like a true banker, i.e. dark suits and tie, now that I am really one!
I have been married to Tiaranad for six years, we have two beautiful children Tara (5, girl) and Trin (3.5, boy). We all live in Hong Kong.
Like Dr. Peters, you rescued me from self imposed confusion. Like Dr Peters, I was at Yale before MIT. I absolutely disliked New Haven and wanted to move north to Boston. Although many said it could not be true, I was recruited to MIT because of my interest in combustion. Lucky me!! Supposedly there was a shortage of students in the field of combustion in the late 80's. After the first semester, I took the doctoral qualifying exam. I also registered for the Practice School as an insurance. If I didn't want to continue, I could graduate with a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering Practice and go straight to work. I passed the qualifier and you were so kind in assuring me that I really passed and that you really wanted me to work on coal combustion.
And I never looked back. My years at the Ralph Landau (Cheese Cake) Building were some of the best years of my life. I probably said it many times before, but I can't say it enough. Thank you, Professor Howard, for being there for me. My experience at MIT kicked started my career in, ahem, banking, and my banking friends and colleagues are still fascinated by the fact that I have a Ph.D. from MIT.
I am returning to Boston in 2 weeks for college recruiting. The secret is out, and investment banks are recruiting science and engineering students, especially Ph.D.'s. I hope that I can visit you at your home and please reply to my email if you think it is OK.
I have also been touched by the poem posted by Carolyn in the blog. Because of you, Dr. Peters, and many friends from MIT, my cup is over flowing. Let's be cheerful and keep drinking from the saucer.
Happy belated 70th birthday and get well soon.
Sarakorn Gerjarusak, Ph.D. '93 (Plasticity Kinetics of Different coal Types)Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLCFixed Income, Currency & Commodity Division(O) +852 2978 2977 (M) +852 9155 0555bobby.gerjarusak@gs.com