Profiles

When he heard his name called over the public-address system, he was not quite sure what to expect. “Mark Van Lith, please come to the principal’s office,” the voice said.

There was a phone call from Brandeis, half a country away from Van Lith’s hometown of Watertown, South Dakota, telling the high school senior that he had been accepted to the University and informing him of his eligibility for the Wien International Scholarship Program.

“I was aware of Brandeis’s academic reputation in the sciences and I was interested in experiencing life on the East Coast,” Van Lith recalled during a recent interview. “A confluence of factors caused me to accept – and I am glad that I did.”

Van Lith ’90 gives Brandeis much of the credit for his professional success. Starting 17 years ago as a financial analyst, Van Lith has risen rapidly to become a senior managing director at Bear Stearns in New York. He directs the firm’s media and entertainment investment banking department, one of the leading groups on Wall Street. The department counts the world’s largest media companies as its clients.

“I had always been a good student, but Brandeis changed the way that I thought,” Van Lith said. “It taught me to think in a different way, to think critically, to exercise judgment. At every turn since I graduated, that has served me well.”

Van Lith’s self-described “A-ha!” moment at Brandeis came during a freshman chemistry class taught by since-retired professor Emily Dudek. Intrigued by her teaching style and mastery of the subject, he sought out Dudek for extra help. She taught him how to think in a more advanced way.

“In the first major exam in the class, I remember looking at a series of questions and drawing an absolute blank. I was in a dread panic. Five minutes passed and I did nothing,” Van Lith said. “But then, rather than drawing on memorized fact, I discovered I had developed a thought process that I could apply to the unknown. In a class with 100 kids, Professor Dudek still managed to have a significant impact on me.”

He arrived at Brandeis with the intent of pursuing a career in medicine and majored in biology, but began to rethink his career path as graduation approached. “I came to the conclusion that I was intrigued by the science, not the practice of medicine, so I rethought my career objectives,” Van Lith said.

Family members of many of his Brandeis friends worked on Wall Street, and he soon shifted his post-Brandeis focus to the business world. Although he lacked the traditional pedigree and did not have an MBA, Van Lith applied for jobs with a number of New York investment banks.

“Many schools design investment bankers, but Brandeis provided me with a broad acumen. Fortunately, I was able to convince others that I could think and could do something that I had never done before,” Van Lith said. “Bear Stearns took a bet solely based on that.”

Van Lith came to Brandeis as a Wien Scholar through a since-discontinued program designed to diversify the campus by recruiting students from historically underrepresented regions of the United States. Van Lith found the social and cultural atmosphere at Brandeis to be as stimulating as what he learned inside the classroom.

“I was immersed in the East Coast environment,” Van Lith said. “I adapted quickly and relished the change in pace. I was very excited and intrigued by everything around me. Many of the friends I made at Brandeis are still my good friends.”

Since graduation, Van Lith has generously supported the Wien program. “I had a fabulous experience at Brandeis,” he said. “I consider myself in debt to Brandeis for a long time to come.”