Frederic V. Malek*

Fred Malek was born in 1936 in Chicago and was raised in Berwyn, a Chicago suburb. Back then, his father worked for a beer distributor, making deliveries to taverns. "My dad was a hardworking man," he said. "He didn't have the benefit of a college education, but he was very gregarious and friendly. My mother also had only a high school education, but she was more disciplined and directed. She ran the family, and I thought of her as my boss. She told me I could be anything I wanted to be, but I would have to work hard for it. She expected me to work hard."

The Malek family lived in a blue-collar neighborhood inhabited mostly by descendants of immigrants from Eastern Europe. Malek said most of the houses were two-story bungalows like his, in which one family lived on the top floor and one on the bottom floor. That was his family's situation too; his parents owned the house and rented out the top floor. Eventually, his father built an apartment in the basement, and Malek's aunt and uncle rented it.

Malek's parents came from large, working-class families. Many of his uncles were policemen or firemen. "No one in my family had ever gone to college," he said, "but they were imbued with a kind of Old World ethic of hard work, thrift, and cleanliness. They were good role models because they worked hard, they persevered, and they always tried to put a little in the bank for savings. We all came together on Sundays, and I liked being with my family. My parents were straightforward, honest people who taught me to always do the right thing."

From the time he was 16, Malek worked every summer. He drove a delivery truck for a bakery and then packed beer bottles at a brewery. At one point, he hauled beef for a meatpacking plant, a grueling job. His parents wanted him to attend college and encouraged him to be a doctor. Malek had no concrete career ideas of his own and was willing to give pre-med a try. Still, money was a problem. He enrolled in Morton Junior College in Cicero, Illinois, to save on tuition. However, he had heard great things about the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and after watching a movie about West Point, he began seriously considering it. He was intrigued by the values, the culture, and, of course, the free education.

After taking an entrance exam on which he did well, he was designated first alternate. Malek became a cadet only after the top candidate failed his physical. "The day the letter arrived admitting me to West Point was the happiest day of my life," he said. "I couldn't believe I'd been selected, and nobody else could either."

But Malek's enthusiasm was clipped once classes started. The first year was tough, and he feared he would not make it. "I had no military experience," he said. "I had never been anywhere except for vacations in Michigan, wasn't worldly, and didn't understand a lot of what was expected of me. At first, I hated it and wanted to quit every day. Especially tough was having to spend Christmas there, but I stuck with it, worked hard, and finished that first year in the top 10 percent of my class."

Even though he earned a degree in engineering from West Point, Malek never learned to like the place. Yet looking back on it, he said that the school greatly influenced his life and that he now views his time at West Point with affection and reverence. "I'm deeply devoted to the school. It taught me honor, perseverance, and the importance of discipline," he said.

After his 1959 graduation from West Point, Malek chose to serve in the infantry. He went through the U.S. Army Infantry School and then through Airborne School and Ranger School. He volunteered to join a Green Beret unit in Vietnam to train local rangers. Six months later, he transferred to the Army Finance Corps stateside and married his sweetheart, Marlene.

To pay for graduate school, he sold encyclopedias door to door. "My first job selling encyclopedias was dismal," he said. "I got to the point that I hoped nobody would be home so that I wouldn't be rejected. But one day someone must have felt sorry for me and bought a set of books. That changed the whole thing for me. I became confident and became the highest selling salesman in Hawaii."

Malek saved enough money from this job to finance his graduate education at Harvard Business School. While there, he worked on the school newspaper selling advertising, and he created a side business arranging the typing of résumés. After Harvard, he went to work for McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm.

Looking for more opportunities, he and two friends bought and developed their own company. To put their plan in place, they drew straws. The one who drew the short straw would quit his job and work full time to find a company to buy, and the other two would pool their earnings and divide it three ways. A year later, they decided on Utica Tool Company in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Malek invested his life savings of $17,000, as did his two partners. They found a few investors and borrowed the remainder of the $9 million needed to buy the company.

Malek quit his job and drove with his wife and son to Orangeburg, where he rented a house and worked to turn around Utica Tool, which was struggling. Within two years, the company was thriving and went public. At the same time, Malek received a call in 1969 from Robert Finch, President Richard Nixon's new secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, to become the deputy undersecretary at HEW. Malek immediately accepted.

In 1970, Malek joined the Office of Presidential Personnel, where he supervised the recruiting and hiring of all White House cabinet appointments through boards and commissions. Later, he became deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. He worked through the devastating Watergate scandal but knew his time in government service was coming to an end. "I was standing on the White House lawn when the president resigned," he said. "I felt that it was time to get back into the real world."

Malek served the Ford administration for a short time and then accepted a job with Marriott Corp. in 1975. After turning around Marriott's cruise ship division, Malek was promoted to executive vice president. In that position, he took over the food service division and increased profitability and growth. He became president of Marriott Hotels & Resorts for the next eight years. Under his direction, the company saw a fivefold increase in profits and an eightfold increase in stock value.

Remaining politically active, Malek was named by President Ronald Reagan to several presidential boards and commissions. When George H. W. Bush asked Malek to run the 1998 Republication National Convention, he interrupted his business career, resigned from Marriott, and ran a successful convention in New Orleans.

"I think more Americans should serve their country, but it's not easy," he said. "I wouldn't trade my political experiences for anything, but I can't recommend it to everyone because it is quite a difficult career path. I never considered the power that was behind the government jobs. Instead, I relished the achievement. It was exhilarating. My team at the Office of Management and Budget was one of the best teams of people ever assembled in government."

In the ensuing years, Malek returned to business. He led the buyout of CB Richard Ellis and served as its co-chairman, he co-led the buyout of Northwest Airlines and served as its president, and he led Marriott's buyout of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. He partnered with George W. Bush, before Bush became president, in buying and owning the Texas Rangers Baseball Club. Malek also served Bush as director of the Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations, which earned him the lifetime rank of ambassador. Later, Malek led Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.

Malek went on to head financing of the presidential campaign of Senator John McCain (R-AZ). Malek chaired the Republican Governors Association's finance committee as well as its executive roundtable. In 1991, he co-founded Thayer Lodging/Brookfield Hotel Properties, a Maryland-based private equity firm that owns a portfolio of 13 hotels and 3,975 guest rooms.

"I have a much fuller plate than I'd like to have," he said. "I have had a lifelong quest for achievement. I learned at an early age that satisfaction comes with achieving. But it is also important to work hard on behalf of the principles you believe in."

Malek said West Point molded his personal philosophy to "choose the harder right, rather than the easier wrong. That's my advice to today's young people. Try to achieve those goals that are pointed in the right direction, and treat every person you meet with dignity and respect. You will get greater satisfaction from helping others, rather than yourself."

Furthermore, Malek believed education is more crucial than ever. "It's hard to compete without it," he said. "We are in the age of specialization. I think it is extremely important for the country to ensure our youths are educated."

Even though Malek clearly achieved much in life, he said success is never final. "As soon as you think you are successful, you will be at the top of the hill sliding down" he explained. "I think it is better to just take pride and satisfaction from achievement. And if you get knocked down, get right back up on the horse and get going. It's discipline, perseverance, and dedication that will lead to success."

Malek was founder and chairman of the American Action Network, a Washington-based nonprofit group that advocates center-right policies. He has also co-chaired the largest capital campaign ever sponsored on behalf of West Point, where he became chairman of the West Point Board of Visitors. He chaired the American Friends of the Czech Republic and served on the board of the Aspen Institute, the Bush Library Foundation, and the America-Israel Friendship League.

"