Jan. 8, 2008
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Former Notre Dame baseball player and current advisor for the 2007-08 Monogram Club Board of Directors, Bob Lopes (’85), was recently spotlighted in the New York Times. Lopes serves as President and CEO of Veritude®, a division of Devonshire Investors, the private equity investment arm of Fidelity Investments.
Here is the article, which ran on Dec. 9, 2007.
THE BOSS
A Sporting Chance
By ROBERT A. LOPES; as told to AMY ZIPKIN
When I was growing up, I loved baseball. There are pictures of me in the family album at 3, 4 and 5, holding a bat in my hands. When I was 7 or 8 I tried out for Little League. Early in the tryout a fly ball hit me in the nose. I had a bloody nose throughout the day. I made the team. I put my glove underneath the mattress so it would stay broken in. My mother told me it would.
Growing up, I played baseball every day. By the time I was 11 it really encompassed my life. One day I had an argument with my parents. I don’t remember what it was about. They told me I was wrong. I packed up all my baseball gear and ran away from home to my grandparents’ house. My grandparents told me I was wrong, too. I left there and spent the day camping out two blocks away at the baseball diamond until the day’s game. My parents came to the game, took me home and all was forgotten.
My parents had never gone to college; I was recruited as a baseball player. The University of Tampa called. So did the University of Notre Dame. I traveled to Brown and Amherst. The recruiting season was capped off when I got a letter from George H. W. Bush, then the vice president, encouraging me to go to Yale.
I chose Notre Dame. The coach at the time, Larry Gallo, sat in my parents’ living room and said he would ensure that I would come out a man and that academics would be as strong as athletics. The sincerity with which he delivered the message convinced me. I majored in management information systems. The summer before my senior year, I played for the Cotuit Kettleers in the Cape Cod League. My roommate was from the University of Minnesota.
During the day we washed boats and did other odd jobs. In the evening we practiced and played under the watchful eyes of major league scouts. We lived with a family and felt just like members of the community.
One night when I was warming up in the bullpen for my turn as pitcher, I turned to watch a play and took a thrown baseball in the eye. I was hustled off the field and transported to Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. It was a severe injury to the right side of my face. I lost the majority of vision in my right eye.
I returned to Notre Dame my senior year and had the desire to play but I wasn’t the same player. I had to learn how to do everything with vision in one eye. My depth perception was way off. My roommate and best friend spent hours throwing a tennis ball to me so I learned how to get a natural feel again. Still, baseball felt like a job instead of a passion.
That year, 1985, I was picked in the 31st round of the draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Rather than sign with them I accepted a job offer in Chicago with Hewitt Associates. I had been called Buster through high school and college. When I took the job I became Bob.
Five years later, I moved to Towers Perrin. I learned the value of having a mentor. His name was Bob Haver. One day I sold a significant contract worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I was riding high in the meeting with the client. After the meeting Bob grabbed me by the ear and told me, “Once you make the sale, shut up and don’t unsell it.” He also told me I needed to listen better. His exact words were that I spoke too much.
Two years ago I got a call from a recruiter telling me about Veritude®, a staffing and work-force consulting firm in Boston. At the time I was living in Philadelphia and flying back and forth to Plano, Tex. I’ve been a road warrior my entire working life. I didn’t know the company at the time, but there aren’t that many chances in a career to grow things that are tangible. For me, the joy is the ride itself.
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Lopes joined Veritude® in January of 2006 and brought significant professional experience in HR services and proven ability to successfully grow businesses to the role.
Throughout his career, Lopes has focused on driving the value and improved delivery of critical HR functions. Prior to Veritude®, Lopes was a key member of the deal team that created ExcellerateHRO, a jointly owned business of EDS and Towers Perrin. When the new company was launched, Lopes assumed the pivotal role of vice president, Global Client Management. He brought together two cultures and more than 400 clients in five geographic regions to ensure a positive transition to the new company.
Prior to the formation of ExcellerateHRO, Lopes held a number of increasingly senior positions during his 15-year tenure at Towers Perrin. Most recently, he was the global managing director of Towers Perrin Administration Solutions, with responsibility for all global administration services operations employing approximately 3,000 professionals generating revenues in excess of $300 million. He began his career in HR Services with Hewitt Associates.
— ND —