On Oct. 21, 2001, McKinley was one of the first people who moved back downtown. Since then, he’s watched the area start showing signs of life. Public transportation, although not ideal, has improved, and some of the restaurants have reopened, along with the Century 21 Department Store, an Embassy Suites Hotel and a movie theater. A Merrill publication called the North Tower Newsletter kept employees informed about what services were available in what felt like an island in the midst of a disaster scene.

"I can’t understate the emotional impact of it," says McKinley, sitting at a table in his airy corner office on the 32nd floor. "It’s still emotional. You are no more than one or two degrees of separation removed in financial services. Either you knew somebody or you know a family impacted by it. It’s tough," he says. Merrill lost three people in the attacks. "You’re making me sad again," he says with a wry smile, trying to lighten the mood.

He can’t afford to be sad, though, as he struggles to help make the company profitable again. Revenue was so bad that more than 10,000 employees were laid off. (The brokerage has also launched an ad campaign to try to mend its image, scarred by a $100 million settlement that ended an investigation of stock analysts’ possible conflicts of interest and, more recently, the suspension of Martha Stewart’s stockbroker after allegations of insider trading.)

McKinley’s efforts, while tied to Merrill’s quarterly fortunes, also transcend them. For example, based on lessons learned during 9/11, he and his colleagues have made some changes in Merrill’s overseas operations, looking at data centers and alternate trading floors in London and Japan. And discussions about how concentrated to be continue.

"The dialogue around real estate strategy has gone up several notches," McKinley says. "Where should you be geosourcing your talent base, your human capital? You’re constantly balancing the synergies of colocation with the resiliency and recoverability of a more distributed model, and where should you be on that continuum? I think it’s not a binary answer."

For a while after 9/11, there was a lessening of the competition?competitors helping each other out, sharing ideas about recovery. "Now it’s back to the brass knuckles," he says, pounding the knuckles of one hand with the palm of another. He laughs. That’s a good thing, he says. It means business is running again.

The PragmAtist

"You’re more dependent on your vendors than you think."
-Glen Salow, CIO, American Express