Robert F. Greenhill

Robert F. Greenhill
Born	1936 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, investment banker
Known for	Founder and chairman of Greenhill & Co.

Robert F. Greenhill (born 1936) is a prominent American entrepreneur recognized for establishing the contemporary mergers and acquisitions advisory sector on Wall Street. He founded and chairs Greenhill & Co., an investment banking firm based in New York City that has provided counsel on deals totaling nearly $3 trillion. The company maintains 17 offices worldwide, spanning the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. In May 2023, the Japanese conglomerate Mizuho completed a $550 million all-cash acquisition of Greenhill & Co.

Early life

Born in 1936 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Greenhill earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Yale University in 1958. He later obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS) in 1962, graduating as a Baker Scholar, a distinction awarded to the top 5% of his class.

Career

Greenhill began his career at investment bank Morgan Stanley in 1962 and achieved partnership status by 1970. In 1972, he was tasked with establishing and leading Morgan Stanley’s inaugural dedicated mergers and acquisitions division, where he also innovated the modern analyst training program. Throughout the 1980s, he was a member of Morgan Stanley's management committee; he served as Vice Chairman from 1989 to 1999 and held the position of President between 1991 and 1993.

Between 1993 and 1996, Greenhill acted as Chairman and CEO of Smith Barney, a subsidiary under The Travelers Companies, while also sitting on Travelers’ board of directors. Departing Smith Barney in 1996 due to internal conflicts, he founded his own investment bank, Greenhill & Co., which concentrated exclusively on independent advisory services without engaging in lending or financial structuring activities. He remained CEO until his retirement from that role in 2007, continued as Chairman until 2018, and stayed on the board until 2021. Currently, he holds the title of Chairman Emeritus and serves as a senior adviser.

Greenhill has long been involved with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) as a trustee and has been affiliated with the prestigious Kappa Beta Phi society since 1985.

Personal life and philanthropy

In September 1958, Robert married Gayle (née Gussett) Greenhill in Des Moines, Iowa. They moved to Boston during Robert’s time at Harvard Business School before settling in New York City in 1962 when he began his career on Wall Street. The couple had three children and shared a love for adventure, including an Arctic expedition in 1975 that was highlighted in an advertisement for DuPont Kevlar canoes. Robert accumulated over 15,000 flight hours as a pilot, frequently flying alongside Gayle, who earned her pilot’s license at age 50.

Both were actively engaged HBS alumni; their children and their spouses also graduated from Harvard Business School. Robert made substantial contributions to HBS through committee participation, leading fundraising efforts, and founding the Robert F. Greenhill Award in 1987. In recognition of their generosity, HBS named "The Greenhill House" after them in 2003 following their major endowment—the Gayle and Robert F. Greenhill Family Endowment for Global Research—which supports international research initiatives and curriculum development. This building currently hosts the HBS Global Initiative established in 1996. In 2009, Robert received the HBS Alumni Achievement Award for his significant influence on business and society.

Gayle served as trustee and Chair of the International Center of Photography from 1985 to 2016 and was a member of MoMA’s photography committee between 1989 and 2013. After her passing, Robert donated more than 300 photographs from her collection to MoMA as a tribute. This collection includes works by renowned photographers such as Edward Steichen, Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman, William Eggleston, André Kertész, and Imogen Cunningham. It also features documentary images covering World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, early aviation including experiments by the Wright Brothers, as well as Antarctic explorations with prints by Herbert Ponting documenting Robert F. Scott’s expedition.