A Man With a Mission

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Mitt Romney and I were members of the Cranbrook pep squad -- also called cheerleaders. We were un-coached and only barely organized. We did lead the occasional cheer, drawing on whatever we could remember from television or movies. Someone gave me a domesticated duck and suggested that I bring it to one of our football games as the unofficial school mascot. We were the Cranbrook Cranes, and the school mascot, an elegant, regal, long-legged crane, is emblazoned in many places around campus, including on every chair in the dining hall. So I thought it was quite the joke for the pep squad to show up with a squat, fat pseudo-crane mascot to cheer on the football players. The problem came at the end of the game. We had no place to keep the duck. Giving it to a restaurant was all I could think of. Then Mitt stepped forward and volunteered to take charge of our little mascot. He'd put it at his parents' house, where there was a small pond and it could live in a natural, duck-friendly setting until the next game.

The next week, however, as I carefully set up the duck pen on the sidelines, Mitt showed up at the game sans duck. It seems that when he went to get the duck to bring it to the game, all he could find was a small patch of feathers. A fox had gotten there first. Mitt could have laughed this off, as probably the rest of us would have. But he didn't. It was quite obvious that he not only felt sorry for the duck, he also felt sorry that he had let us down. We tried to let him off the hook as best as we could, but I suspect that to this day, he still feels bad about that duck. In fact, as the years went by, it was one of those things you knew not to bring up.

-- Gregg Dearth, Cranbrook classmate

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I will never forget Mitt calmly rattling off and quantifying the different financial problems of the Salt Lake City Olympics. He had been running the operation for a few weeks, and the magnitude of the issues was coming into focus. Tens of millions here, tens of millions there, and the media and sponsors riveting their attention on the scandals he had inherited. I asked how I could help. Because his Bain Capital had been my first institutional investor at Staples and he had been a member of our board for 15 years, he said he knew full well that I was too cheap to buy an Olympic sponsorship for $10 million or so. A few months later he called with a different opportunity. He had personally solicited Office Depot and Office Max to be Olympic sponsors. Both had turned him down. Thus, he could now offer me an opportunity to become an official Olympic "supplier." Much less money, but the ability to use the rings and tickets. I jumped at it. However, for weeks his normally crackerjack staff did not follow through with our marketing department.

Then Mitt called. "Tom, I am terribly sorry. Right around the time of our meeting, IMG persuaded the brand new Office Depot CEO to take a major sponsorship. You are out. I feel terrible given my history with you and Staples, but I have to respect what is best for the Games versus my personal relationships. I will get you guys some tickets, but unfortunately they will not be great. " I wasn't happy, but I knew it was how Mitt operated: he did the right thing, whether his friends liked it or not.

-- Tom Stemberg, founder and former president and chief executive of Staples Inc.

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When Mitt assumed leadership as president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, everybody saw our Olympic Games as having a very black mark on them. The Justice Department was considering indicting us as an organizing committee. Finances were in very troubling condition. We simply didn't have the money to put on the Games. Mitt immediately worked on raising revenue and on cutting costs. Before he arrived, the organizing board used to have elaborate lunches accented with elegant decorations. I wasn't there, but that high-end catering was the stuff of rumors. For Mitt's first meeting, he served pizza and charged a dollar a slice. The message was clear: be responsible about how you spend money.

However, the budget challenge was nothing compared with the obligation to keep people from 83 nations safe at the Olympics just five months after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

I will never forget the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games and watching Mitt, President Bush and Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, standing at attention as the flag from the World Trade Center was brought in to the stadium by several athletes. A hushed, reverent crowd, more than 50,000 strong, listened as our national anthem was played.