The Shafir brothers, who will be honored as co-recipients of the 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award, can be said to have reached the highest heights in their respective industries. For Robert Shafir ’76, that distinction involves serving as the chief executive officer at Sculptor Capital, having previously served in a number of executive positions, including CEO and chairman of Credit Suisse Americas. Meanwhile, Mark Shafir ’74 serves as the global co-head of mergers and acquisitions at Citibank, having previously worked at Lehman Brothers under the same title and at Goldman Sachs as vice president, among other high-level positions. Their financial industry stature notwithstanding, it was actually the eldest brother, Jerry Shafir ESB ’70, a food industry entrepreneur, whose relentless pursuit of profitability was once featured on the front-page of the Wall Street Journal.
“One of the jokes in the family is that while I was stirring soups and kettles and cleaning pots and pans, they were making big bucks in Wall Street,” Jerry said. The co-founder of Kettle Cuisine, Jerry nurtured his company from soup making for restaurants and other bulk customers in the mid-1980s to more recent marketing and distribution success, selling individual servings to grocery store customers seeking high-quality heat- and-serve soup.
Jerry’s 50th Class Reunion was postponed due to Covid-19, but he has good memories of his time at the Englewood School for Boys, marked by academic rigor and the lifelong relationships he cultivated at the school. He credits his success at Yale University and beyond to his foundational education at ESB. “Mr. Malcolm Duffy was my 7th and 11th grade English teacher. I remember the first paper I got back had more red ink and words of his than I had written for the paper!” Jerry recalled. “He was very intimidating but really great. I had him again in 11th grade where we did a lot of theater. I ended up doing a little theater at Yale, and I felt like I had gotten a foundation in literature and plays, which was incredible.”
After Yale, Jerry decided to enroll in law school at Boston University, but it did not suit him well. “I hated law school so much that I took classic piano lessons just to give me an outlet,” Jerry said. In the meantime, he began working within the seafood industry at Legal Sea Foods in Boston and got married to Lorna, his wife of 28 years and counting. With more entrepreneurial experience under his belt and a growing family on the way, Jerry pivoted to enroll at Harvard Business School, subsequently using his professional connections and legal and business knowledge to launch Kettle Cuisine.
Meanwhile, Robert and Mark were pursuing business and finance. Robert received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Lafayette and an MBA from Columbia Business School. Mark received an MBA from University of Pennsylvania and became a Marshall Scholar at Kings College, Cambridge. The Shafir brothers’ shared passion for business can be attributed to their family roots. Their father, Jere, was a Polish immigrant and businessman who owned a scissors and shears company, and their mother, Mary, was a born-and-raised New Yorker from Irish immigrants. Both strongly believed in a well-rounded education.
For Jerry, running Kettle Cuisine for 25 years became an education unto itself. From staying late in an industrial kitchen making chicken broth to building relationships with prospective investors, Jerry got a taste of everything in the industry. In the 1980s and 1990s, when rapid globalization and mass production were burgeoning, Jerry focused on fresh ingredients and homestyle cooking methods. Gradually, painstakingly, he brought his company to profitability, and by 2011 Kettle Cuisine had grown to over 250 employees. In 2013 Jerry sold the company and retired, although he has recently taken a venture in the sports complex industry. He spends his time now between Fort Myers, Florida, and Newport, Rhode Island. Not to mention that he and his brothers—always competitive with each other—still get together to play golf.
Reflecting on the hard choices he has had to make and what wisdom he’d pass on to younger alums, he said with a laugh, “I would say go work after college before going straight to law school and committing three years of your life.” He added, “I’m a big believer in continuous learning. Life is continuing education, and I’m never going to stop learning.”
Editor’s Note: All alumni were welcome and encouraged to attend the “Epic 3X” Alumni Reunion 2022 events in June, when the Shafirs were recognized as Distinguished Alumni Honorees.
