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I would like to thank the members of this committee for this opportunity to speak on the important issue of employing our country’s veterans. I hope that my own experiences as a veteran who transitioned into the private sector might provide you with some useful insights.

As background for the committee on my professional and military experience, I am currently the Chairman of UBS Financial Services Inc. and the Chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Prior to my career, I enlisted in the armed services in 1967 and became a Captain of the United States Special Forces, Green Berets. I completed my service six years later after being severely wounded and assigned the status of 60% permanently disabled. After serving my country and facing the rigors and challenges of military duty, I decided that the closest thing I could find to combat was the brokerage business. I therefore chose to enter the fray of the financial services business as a Merrill Lynch broker in New Haven, Connecticut.

During my sixteen years at Merrill Lynch, I was fortunate enough to become the firm’s youngest vice president in Manhattan and serve in numerous senior positions, including Director of National Sales. I then joined PaineWebber in February 1988 as President of Retail Sales and Marketing, and became President of the entire firm in December 1994. As President, I was able to oversee a series of significant restructurings at the firm, including the acquisition of Kidder, Peabody in 1995 and J.C. Bradford in 2000, culminating with the merger of PaineWebber with UBS in 2000. In 2001, I was named Chairman and CEO of UBS PaineWebber.

I now also have the privilege of serving my country again. In July 2002, I was appointed Chairman of the President’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, where members of industry, academia and the government can work together and lend their talents to the great security challenges we face today as a nation.

I have no doubt in my mind that I owe a great deal of my career growth to many of the skills and leadership attributes that I acquired as a soldier for the United States of America. Indeed, discipline, the ability to quickly assess and react to your environment and efficient communication and interaction with your comrades are as important to success in the private sector as they are in the armed forces.

All of my experiences in the private sector – from being a financial advisor with hundreds of demanding clients to running a 20,000-person financial services firm – have certainly been positively colored by my military experience. I know for a fact that I was able to leverage my military experience when I worked and communicated with clients on a one-on-one basis and strategically plotted appropriate financial paths for them. During periods of market turbulence, clients also need someone who could act as a leader and weather them through the turmoil. Having been a senior executive, I also know the importance of making difficult decisions based on assessing the environment and a firm’s strategic capabilities to address it. I also believe that during the most difficult times, crisis management and re-enforcing morale of the corporate troops are absolutely essential. In short, while corporate battles are by no means the equivalent of real-life combat, they require many of the same skills to achieve success.

While these skills and attributes have been critical for me personally, they are also precisely the same types of characteristics that millions of our fellow citizens have acquired while honorably serving their country. That is precisely why I am here before this committee. I have a tremendous amount of respect and appreciation for the sacrifices our men and women in uniform make on a daily basis, especially during times of combat, as we’re in today. I therefore wanted to express my thoughts about the obligations all of us have as private citizens, as HR directors, as any executive – from line manager up through the ranks of CEO.

Indeed, I believe that it is the duty of every patriotic CEO and American to create opportunities for returning veterans. As a firm, my organization tries to ensure such opportunities are indeed available to the men and women who served our country. We’ve learned that this can be accomplished through very simple actions, like participating in Corporate Gray job fairs and advertising in their books -- "From Army Green to Corporate Gray", "From Navy Blue to Corporate Gray", and "From Air Force Blue to Corporate Gray.” Representatives of our firm have also made presentations at military installations and partnered with those who directly interface with veterans throughout the United States (e.g., the Noncommissioned Officer Association). We post job opportunities on websites such as the Destiny Group and the Marine Executive Association. We also provide job descriptions to the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard so they can be incorporated into transition packets for returning veterans.

All of these activities are easy enough to do. They merely require that private sector firms have executives who care enough about this issue to do something about it. However, beyond the obligations the private sector has to these fine men and women, this is also about tapping the tremendous talent and resources that our veterans possess. For those firms wise enough and informed enough to realize it, veterans have many qualities that can add significant value to an organization. UBS Financial Services has clearly been a beneficiary of the benefits they bring, with approximately 5% of our employees being veterans and about 8% of our financial advisors – the lifeblood of our organization – having served their country. As a real-life example, the ex-commandant of Fort Hamilton, Colonel Frank Clepper, now serves as a Senior Vice President at our firm and we are a stronger organization for it.

I firmly believe that if other managers in companies across the country more fully leveraged the veterans talent pool, they would not only be supporting these courageous citizens but also positioning themselves ahead of their competitors. One step that this commission might consider in this regard is promoting a voluntary effort where participating companies strive for some standard percent of job applicants to come from the veteran population. A goal of up to 5% - especially for those positions that are most applicable to the skill sets of veterans - would perhaps be a good target. I believe that such efforts should focus on non-commissioned officers as a priority, so that a young, but eager and talented pool of veterans can be groomed into future corporate leaders. In order for this to be successful, the government will however also need to do its part, and more fully leverage programs like the Department of Defense’s Transition Assistance Program to better align and communicate the skill sets of our veterans with the human resource needs of the private sector.

In closing, I know that many of you on this committee contribute a great deal of time and resources to this and other important veterans issues. I’m certain that hearings like this will only help bring about even more positive developments for the many veterans who have been invaluable to this country and hope that my input has been of assistance to you.

Joseph J. Grano, Jr.
Curriculum Vitae

Joseph J. Grano, Jr.

Mr. Grano is Chairman of UBS Financial Services Inc. (formerly UBS PaineWebber). Mr. Grano is also the Chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council reporting to Secretary Tom Ridge under the U. S. Department of the Homeland Security. In addition to being one of the financial service industry’s leading executives, Mr. Grano is involved in a wide range of educational and philanthropic endeavors.

Mr. Grano joined PaineWebber in February 1988 as President of Retail Sales and Marketing, and became President of PaineWebber Group in December 1994. As President, he oversaw a series of important and dramatic restructurings at the firm, including the acquisition of Kidder, Peabody in 1995 and J.C. Bradford in 2000. Finally, Mr. Grano was instrumental in helping to bring about the merger of PaineWebber with UBS in 2000, when Mr. Grano was named President & CEO of UBS PaineWebber and the following year was named Chairman & CEO.

Prior to joining PaineWebber, Mr. Grano was with Merrill Lynch for 16 years, holding various senior management positions including Director of National Sales. In 1987, he was named the industry’s best retail marketing executive in a survey conducted by Investment Dealers’ Digest.

Before joining Merrill Lynch, Mr. Grano served in the U.S. Special Forces (Green Berets). He became one of the Army’s youngest officers, achieving the rank of Captain. He was a highly decorated Company Commander in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor.

Mr. Grano holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Pepperdine University and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Queens College, City University of New York. He served as Vice Chairman of the Queens College Foundation Board of Trustees, and was on the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Greater New York. He is a member of the Council for the United States and Italy, a member of the City University of New York’s Business Leadership Council and a member of the Board of Directors at Lenox Hill Hospital.

In October 2002, Mr. Grano received the Corporate Leadership Award from the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund for his commitment to education. In 2000, he became the 39th recipient of the USO Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Service, and was named Business Leader of the Year by Georgetown University’s School of Business. In 1998 he received the “La Bellissima America” award for his leadership role in preserving the heritage of Italian-Americans, and in 1996, Mr. Grano was a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in recognition of distinguished contributions to our country.

Joseph J. Grano, Jr.
Statement Regarding Federal Grants or Contracts

UBS Financial Services, Inc. and Mr. Grano have not received any Federal grant or contract during the current or previous two fiscal years relative to the subject matter of the enclosed testimony.