In Memory

Jon Kenneth Hartzell - Class Of 1960

Jon Kenneth Hartzell

Jon K. Hartzell  '60  passed away on April 5, 2007.

Jon served as Chairman of KWR International, Inc. (KWR), a firm specializing in the delivery of research, communications, consulting, and advisory services to public and private sector clients; he also undertook independent consulting assignments.  With a principal focus on financial regulation and governance, corporate communications, and investor relations issues, Jon assisted senior management of banks, corporations, and other financial and service firms in the U.S. and overseas markets with their regulatory strategies, resolution of regulatory and policy issues, and external corporate and investor relations needs.

Prior to affiliating with KWR in 2003, Jon spent seven years with investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) and its predecessor Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (DrKB), first as Director, Group Strategy and Economics, and later as Senior Vice President for Corporate and External Affairs.  During that time, as a member of the DrKB North American Management Committee, he launched, staffed, and managed Dresdner's North American corporate communications and external relations program and functioned as regulatory and government relations advisor to the regional CEO and senior management.  He also served as principal press spokesman and frequently represented the firm at external events, business associations, and conferences.

Before joining Dresdner, Jon held senior career positions with the U.S. government for nearly three decades, with hands-on leadership of complex financial regulatory programs and key roles in international policy and regulatory negotiations.  These assignments included multi-year residencies in Japan, Germany, and Switzerland and wide-ranging field visits in some 45 other countries and jurisdictions.  As Deputy Comptroller of the Currency (1990-95), Jon had overall responsibility for supervisory policy oversight of some 75 foreign bank branches under OCC license in the U.S.  He reconstituted and expanded OCC's International Banking and Finance function, initiating and managing OCC relationships with official banking supervisory organizations in about 40 key countries around the world; participated in meetings and work of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision; and was a regular speaker on international banking issues.  From 1983 to 1990, he was chief U.S. Treasury representative in Germany and then in Japan, where he was a key player in shaping and conducting the U.S.-Japan Yen-Dollar and Structural Impediments Initiative (SII) negotiations.  Earlier, he served as a senior member of the Geneva-based U.S. negotiating team for the Tokyo Round of GATT Multilateral Trade Negotiations.  He began his public sector career at the Office of Management and Budget, as a budget examiner in both the International and National Security Divisions.

Jon held an MPA degree in economics from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, an MA in economics and international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a BA in history (highest honors) from Principia College.  He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Foreign Policy Association, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Japan Society, the Korea Society, and the American Council on Germany, and served on the Advisory Board of the European Union Studies Center of the City University of New York Graduate Center.



 
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02/16/15 10:06 AM #1    

Steve Ledder (1960)

Jon was one of the top rated students in our class - He might have even been #1. Looking back, it seems that all the kids in the class of 1960 who excelled in acadamia went on to later be very successful in their professional lives.  They took their school work very seriously and continued the drive for excellence into adulthood. Jon was one of those. A nice guy who I will always remember.   RIP, Jon.


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