By most accounts, John Mack is a tenacious, intimidating, demanding, no-excuses kind of manager. Get called into his office, and you better be prepared. Show him up, and you've made an enemy for years. His verbal dressing downs while at the helm of mighty Morgan Stanley left underlings nearly needing a change of underthings. He is, it seems, just the tough s.o.b. to rescue scandal-ridden Credit Suisse First Boston--and restore a badly needed ounce of credibility to Wall Street. Hello, Mack the Knight.
Mack took over at CSFB, like Morgan a power player in global banking and trading, after its...