From playing on the green to making green, Jeff McCormick has always been a leader.

McCormick, a Syracuse University alumnus, not only led his teammates in high school and college to winning several lacrosse games, but also led businesses toward earning profits.

Now he wants to lead the state of Massachusetts.

His SU history consists of a degree in biology and a national championship ring. His personal history includes founding a company that finances growing businesses. In February, McCormick announced his run for governor as an independent candidate.

“He is truly a Renaissance man,” said Tom Foley, executive associate dean of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

During his time at West Genesee High School, located just outside of Syracuse, McCormick was as an All-American lacrosse player and a respectful student. When McCormick attended SU from 1979–83 as an undergraduate, he played men’s lacrosse, winning a national championship in his senior year as captain, while pursuing a degree in biology on the pre-med track.

After completing his MBA in finance in 1986, McCormick ventured into the business world. In 1994, he founded Saturn Partners, a company that finances early-stage businesses, in Boston.

McCormick said his interest in business — and applying his scientific background to solving business problems — drove him toward finance. Eventually, his work made him realize that state government needed someone who is business savvy, leading him toward running for governor.

“That approach to solving problems — breaking down a problem, bringing in experts and creating solutions — is what drew me to the political side of life. It’s that skill set that we desperately need in the public sector,” McCormick said.

McCormick said he is where he is today because of those who have always been by his side. On long bus rides to and from games, his coach, Roy Simmons Jr., would talk to McCormick not only about specific plays, but also the direction of McCormick’s life and the effect he could have on people, he said. Simmons and many others took an interest in McCormick, shaping his life and influencing the character he has today.

Throughout the years, McCormick said he still keeps in touch with his former teammates, both in the good times and the bad times. Earlier in March, one of McCormick’s teammates from both high school and college, Randy Lundblad, died after a two-year battle with liver cancer. McCormick traveled to Michigan, where he delivered the eulogy for his beloved teammate.

McCormick was exceptionally close with Lundblad and his other teammates, considering that about half of them in 1983 were also seniors, McCormick said.

“When that happens, you’ve been through the meat grinder for a lot of hours — thousands of hours,” he said. “So you can appreciate the kinds of bonds you get as team. Given the nature of lacrosse as a true team sport, you live together, you work together and you die together.”

But not everyone was a fan of McCormick or his team. He said some people have a preconceived notion about student-athletes, despite his teammates becoming successful businessmen, producers, lawyers and teachers.

McCormick said he remembers talking to Bob McClure, a professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, about the issue, and McClure told him that people don’t realize how tremendous the demands of student-athletes are.

“You have to be hyper-efficient; especially as a pre-med student, to get your work done and still perform every day at the highest level,” he said.

It was a tough balance to manage, McCormick said. But, he added, the key to a great education is to be as deeply and intensely engaged as possible.

“Regardless if it’s sports or music or programming or a club or a sorority, just go at it with your heart and your mind and your soul, and you’re going to get a lot out of it,” he said. “But you won’t if you’re passive.”

Foley said he was a football coach at West Genesee when he met McCormick. Foley ended up becoming a counselor in the College of Arts and Sciences and would meet with McCormick to talk.

But they lost touch after McCormick left SU until they reconnected in the 1990s, Foley said. After learning about McCormick’s success in business and his charity work, such as the Sean McDonough Charitable Foundation, Inc., he said he was amazed at what McCormick had accomplished and how he wanted to give back to the community by running for governor.

Foley said he thinks it is tough to be an independent candidate, especially competing in a state like Massachusetts, where Democratic candidates tend to be more popular.

Pete Wilson, the press secretary for McCormick’s campaign, said although McCormick has not had much experience in politics, his outsider perspective could benefit the Massachusetts government.

“Others have said they have business experience, but not the experience growing businesses that he does,” Wilson said. “I think having a fresh look at problems that the state faces is one of his strong suits.”

Mike Messere, the head coach of boys varsity lacrosse at West Genesee, first met McCormick when he participated in a summer recreation lacrosse program when he was in middle school. When Messere learned that McCormick was running for governor, he said he thought it was great because McCormick was the kind of person that people needed.

“His whole life and his work were in business, in the business of developing businesses, the business of evaluating whether businesses were going to be responsible or viable,” Messere said. “That’s number one. Number two, he gets along with everybody. He’s very good at personal contacts.”

But that doesn’t stop others from worrying. Foley said he had a friend run for Congress before and saw how people get “chewed up” by the process because of how others generally treat politicians.

Yet, McCormick’s announcement to run for governor didn’t surprise him, Foley said, because of McCormick’s real, good-natured ambitions.

“There’s no hidden agenda,” he said. “It really is him trying to do the right thing for his community.”

Wilson also noticed McCormick’s consideration for others since he started working with him. McCormick and Wilson attended a St. Patrick’s Day parade on Cape Cod with Wilson’s wife and baby. As Wilson’s wife struggled to carry both her son and a diaper bag, McCormick grabbed the diaper bag from her to help out.

“That’s just kind of the guy he is,” Wilson said.

Foley echoed similar sentiments, adding that there are some little things that the average person wouldn’t know about McCormick, like how he has competed in several marathons or how he has played minor league baseball.

Said Foley: “He’s almost too good to be true.”

Published on April 1, 2014 at 2:16 am

Contact Ellen: ekmeyers@syr.edu | @ellenkmeyers