Boston's best.

The following is the next in our continuing series of highlighting long-time FEI members with extraordinary careers and stories to tell--particularly related to their time with FEI and the value gained from their membership.

In recognition of his long-time service to FEI, 40-year member F. Gorham Brigham was honored by the Boston Chapter at a dinner last December. At the event, it was announced that the chapter had generously underwritten a special study, "Corporate Governance: Best Practices for Financial Management," in Brigham's honor. The study was recently published by Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF).

This is not Brigham's first award with FEI--he was the first winner, in 1991, of FEI's prestigious Distinguished Service Award. In addition, he's received other awards during his distinguished career. After receiving an MBA from Harvard in 1939, he began working with [then] Price Waterhouse, and, at age 89, he still serves on the senior management team of Citizen's Financial Group.

He was also awarded the Legion of Merit for his military service, and has been a leader in many community service activities. Brigham says he considers his most outstanding accomplishment the cofounding of The Carroll School for children with dyslexia.

Clearly, Brigham has meant a great deal to FEI and the community at large. Asked to reflect on what FEI has meant to him, a recurring theme was "friends."

"The friendships you form in FEI are very, very important to you," he said in an interview. "When you are CFO, oftentimes you don't have to spend a lot of money talking to lawyers, underwriters and accountants, when you can find out what fellow members have done to help themselves, [and] improve themselves."

Also, as one who has been the leading influence in the Boston Chapter's successful career services program, Brigham notes, "As a senior person, talking to junior people it is important; [both can] learn how to do a better job." Many members of the Boston Chapter say that Brigham's enthusiasm, energy and collegiality is the model that everyone in the chapter follows--and that the chapter is what it is today, due, in part, to him.

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Always a strong supporter of the chapter, Brigham says he thinks about recruiting new members, explaining that he recently checked a list of large companies in his area and noted that many didn't appear to be members. "The membership committee should go after them," he said.