By By Stefanie Stoler
Starting as an engineer major at the University to becoming a marketing vice president at a consultancy company is quite an achievement. A challenging but successful journey is something students all dream of after graduation.
Paul Krauss who graduated from the University exactly 50 years ago, joined the Navy Officer Candidate School as an officer, which allowed him to graduate a semester early in January 1955. After two weeks of being an engineer major and a minor in psychology, Krauss changed to economics.
Krauss’ career brought him to Harvard Business School after the Navy. This opened many opportunities for him and marked the beginning of a thriving career. Krauss spent five and a half years at General Foods in marketing and afterwards joined an entrepreneurial venture as marketing vice president. Only 18 months later, he found himself at McKinsey & Co where he was active as a senior partner through 1996.
Until today, Krauss is connected to the company, teaching a leadership course 10 weeks a year.
Not only was Krauss’ position at McKinsey demanding, but he had the opportunity to live in Japan, Switzerland, Paris, Chicago and Lisbon during his lifetime.
“I became office manager while in Paris from 1977 to 1982, right before I moved to Chicago,” Krauss said. “I still love Paris as a stimulating, interesting place.”
Now he resides in Switzerland and Illinois with his wife, Anne.
Krauss remembers his life at the University; professors and students.
Thinking of his French professor, Henri Brugman, Krauss said “I am sure he would be surprised I lived in a French-speaking environment.”
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His academic achievements left enough room to succeed socially. He became vice president of the Delta Tau fraternity in his last two years of college. “The focus of the fraternity was Dixieland jazz and jazz was my passion,” Krauss said. “The fraternity brought people together by organizing annual jazz festival and regular lunch tables.” Whenever his fraternity did not keep him busy, Krauss spent his free time driving a moving van and socializing with his neighborhood, high school friends; everyone who hadn’t gone away to college or the military.
“Those were really fun times,” Krauss recalls.
Even though we sometimes tend to think that back then things were so different, Krauss and his college friends indeed partied in the city.
“I went to New York to go to Greenwich Village to hear Dixieland Jazz at Nick’s or Condon’s,” Krauss said.
Through his involvement in campus activities, Krauss met someone who shaped the rest of his life: his beloved wife Anne, who was spending her one and only year at the University in 1954. She was studying retailing and business working toward becoming a buyer.
“She still loves clothes and fashion, and therefore, was probably following advice. Though she didn’t yet know me,” Krauss said.
The two met in May 1954, became engaged in December and married right after graduation. Nowadays Anne and Paul Krauss are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. They chose a very personal and meaningful place for this extravagant occassion: Garden City.
“We had our reception in the Garden City Hotel 50 years ago and my wife’s bridesmaids are friend of hers from Hofstra who still live in Hempstead,” Krauss said. “They all will be coming along with relatives in the area.”
When asked about Krauss’ key to success, he responded: “Avoid work at all costs – it won’t be much fun and success will be difficult.”
Krauss emphasized how important it is to find something enjoyable.
“You need to invest heavily in educating yourself and applying yourself, therefore it is essential to find something that is in line with your natural talents,” Krauss said. “This will increase your chances for success and any level of achievement will be more fun and more satisfying than any other alternative.”
Krauss applied this life philosophy by finding a meritocratic, non-political and relatively non-internally competitive environment to work in.
The University paved his career path after finishing college, however his attitude towards school was not academically based.
“I treated Hofstra as an activity, checking off requirements until I could meet the minimum and leave,” Krauss said. “As a result, I missed the opportunity to exploit the college years more. But how this exactly affected me remains a mystery.”
Krauss said learning the most at school is important. “Overall, reflecting on my college experience, it was a stepping stone I should have worked harder on – but more or less worked out okay,” he said.
Yet, it can be said for sure, it did not hurt his success.