Henry Jarecki

Henry George Jarecki, MD (born April 15, 1933, Stettin, Germany,^[1] now part of Poland) is an American academic, psychiatrist, entrepreneur^[2] and philanthropist.

Early life and career

Henry Jarecki is the son of Max Jarecki, a physician, and Gerda Kunstmann,^[1] the scion of a shipping family.^[3][4] As a child, he fled Nazi Germany for the United Kingdom and subsequently United States with his family.

Jarecki graduated from the Medical Faculty at Heidelberg University in 1957,^[5] and subsequently spent more than a decade as an academic, teaching at the Yale Medical School, and as a psychiatrist private practice New Haven, Connecticut, and at the Yale-New Haven Hospital. Jarecki remains an Adjunct Professor at Yale.^[6] With Dr. Thomas Detre, Jarecki was the author of Modern Psychiatric Treatment,^[7] a 733-page study of psychopharmacology therapies published in 1971. As an academic, he was author or co-author of a number of articles in the psychiatric field,^[8][9] notably about psychopharmacology, psychiatric units in general hospitals,^[10] combined amitriptyline/phenelzine poisoning,^[11] and drug addiction.^[12]

Business career

In 1967,^[13] Jarecki became involved with the London bullion house, Mocatta & Goldsmid, Ltd. In 1969, he established the American counterpart to Mocatta & Goldsmid, known as Mocatta Metals Corporation. In partnership initially with Hambros Bank and subsequently with Standard Chartered Bank, Jarecki managed the Mocatta Group until he sold his shares in the late 1980s.^[14] Jarecki’s activity in the bullion market was as a dealer in precious metals and particularly in options.^[15] He became a figure in the money markets when Mocatta became a principal counterparty to the Hunt Brothers in the Hunts' attempted silver corner of 1980.^[16] Mocatta & Goldsmid had previously been involved with stabilization of the markets under similar circumstances, such as the 1913 rescue of the Indian Specie Bank.^[15]

During his involvement with the Mocatta Group, Jarecki served as a director of the Futures Industry Association, the National Futures Association, COMEX, the Chicago Board of Trade,^[17][18] and the Chicago Metals board of trade, and was an adviser to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission^[19] in the years following its establishment. Jarecki was also the founder of a number of other business ventures, notably Brody, White & Co., a brokerage firm that is now a part of Newedge Group.^[20]

Jarecki was known for pioneering the use of computers in the commodities markets,^[14] for making Mocatta the first prominent Wall Street firm to employ ethnic minority and female traders^[21] and for introducing exchange-traded options to the American futures markets.^{[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]}

After leaving Mocatta, Jarecki was the Chairman and lead investor in the pioneering movie information and ticketing company Moviefone,^[32] which was sold to AOL in 1999.^[18]

Career as a producer

Henry Jarecki has also been a motion pictures and theater producer, with credits including Gardeners of Eden (2004), Cuba: Island of Music (2005),^[33][34] Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death (2007), The Third Wave (2008),^[35][36] Tyson (2009),^[37] Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2009),^[37] and A Streetcar Named Desire (2012).^[38] Jarecki also makes an appearance as himself in the Melvin Van Peebles biopic, How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It) (2005).^[39]

Philanthropy

Jarecki serves as Vice-Chairman of the Institute of International Education (IIE)'^[40] He is the founding Chairman of the IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund^[2] about which he, with Daniela Kaisth, has written a book entitled Scholar Rescue in the Modern World.^[41]

In 2004, he co-founded the Gloria and Henry Jarecki School^[42] in Ratanakiri, Cambodia. Previously, he served as a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History^[43] and the Classical Theatre of Harlem.^[44]

Jarecki has been a member of the Advisory Council at the Department of German at Princeton University'^[39] and of the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. He presently serves as a Governor of H. Lavity Stoutt Community College in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, as a trustee of the Island Resources Foundation,^[45] and founded the British Virgin Islands' first youth center, the Youth Empowerment Project, in Tortola.

Family

Jarecki is the husband of Gloria Jarecki,^[2] formerly a film critic at Time magazine. Together, they "were nominated for the Travel Industry of America's Hall of Leaders for their environmental work in ecotourism on Guana Island." He is the father of four sons; the finance executive Thomas A. Jarecki, and the filmmakers Andrew Jarecki, Eugene Jarecki and Nicholas Jarecki. He is the brother of Dr. Richard W. Jarecki, also a physician and formerly on the faculty of the University of Heidelberg, who is noted for the development of statistical analysis of gambling facilities.

Residences

Jarecki has a home in Rye, New York^[2] and is also a part-time resident of the British Virgin Islands, where he owns two islands within the archipelago: Norman Island and Guana Island. Jarecki was made an honorary Belonger of the BVI.

In 1978, Jarecki bid on the former Stuyvesant Fish mansion at 19 Gramercy Park South on the corner of Irving Place in Manhattan, New York City, but was outbid. When the property – which has more than 37 rooms on six floors for over 18,000 square feet (1,700 m²) of living space – became available again in 2000, he was able to purchase it, with plans to use it as both a home and the headquarters of the family foundation, the Timber Falls Foundation.^[2]

Awards and honors

In 2005, the Futures Industry Association launched a "Hall of Fame" to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary and to honor "the accomplishments and recognize the significant contributions individuals have made to the futures and options industry."^[45] For his contribution to the industry, Jarecki was one of the initial 55 honorees, among whom were also Alan Greenspan, Senator Robert Dole and Leo Melamed.^[46]

On 22 May 2010, Bard College awarded Jarecki a Doctorate of Humane Letters degree, calling him, “One of the most respected voices in the US investment community today.”^[47]

Quotations

“All new knowledge subverts old ideas and attitudes, and it is in the nature of governments that are afraid of their own people to prevent troublesome ideas from spreading. We know and even they know that we need these new ideas.” - Speaking of the Institute for International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund, of which Jarecki is the Chairman.^[47]

“Transmuting calculating power into gold” - Henry Jarecki, on the business of commodity trading.^[47]

References