The Chairman

Christian Gillette #1

by Stephen W. Frey

No one knows the dark side of “The Street” better than master storyteller Stephen Frey, author of such riveting novels as Shadow Account and The Day Trader. Now, in his most ambitious work to date, Frey proves that no writer can put a high-powered hero at greater risk, nor offer readers more thrilling rewards.
A towering legend among New York private equity partnerships, Everest Capital is aptly named. When its founder meets an untimely death, thirty-six-year-old superstar Christian Gillette gets the top job. But with the power and prestige come risks. The day he narrowly escapes a fiery explosion that consumes his limo and takes two innocent lives, Gillette instantly understands how intense those risks are.

It comes as no surprise to him that he has enemies in the world of multibillion—dollar deals. But now that he controls Everest, he’s not going to let those enemies keep him from taking the firm–and himself–to even greater heights. Gillette has never hesitated to be aggressive, even ruthless, in his pursuit of success. This time will be no exception.

But in order to forge the alliances necessary to achieve his goals, Gillette forsakes a cardinal Never trust anyone. The only certainties are the insidious campaign of corporate sabotage that could cost Gillette his job and the relentless assassination attempts that could cost him his life. To break a deadly conspiracy of greed, he’ll be forced to walk–then run–an ever-blurring line between loyalty and betrayal, attack and retreat, survival and destruction . . . in the ultimate game of profit and loss.

With The Chairman, Stephen Frey presides with intensified skill over the market he has so dramatically cornered–sharpening his patented brand of hard-boiled high-finance intrigue to its keenest cutting edge yet.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Audiobook, Legal Thriller, Mystery Thriller

432 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 29, 2005

About the author

For the last 15 years I’ve been lucky enough to be a novelist. Until recently the books were set in the worlds of Wall Street and Washington. In addition to writing, I’ve also had a career in finance with specialties including merger & acquisition advisory and private equity at firms like J.P. Morgan in New York City and Winston Partners just outside D.C. in northern Virginia.

So, it seemed natural to write about those two worlds and, fortunately, the publishing industry agreed. My first book was published in 1995, The Takeover; about a secret group of men who were trying to destroy the U.S. monetary system by engineering a massive corporate takeover. I have followed The Takeover with 13 more novels all set in high-level finance and national politics.

Recently, I decided to alter the theme. The novels will still have a financial focus, but Wall Street won’t be the backdrop. We’ll get out into the world more. And there will be a man versus nature element for the hero in every novel. Hell’s Gate, available August 2009, is set in Montana and involves forest fires and why many of them start.

I live in southwest Florida with my wife, Diana, and we have since 2004 after moving down here from northern Virginia. Given the new direction of my books, it seems like a hurricane ought to make an appearance in a novel sometime soon.

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. It sounded like an interesting plot. Maybe it is one that is better read than listened to because of two things. First, I know nothing about the financial world; so I was a little lost in what was occurring. Second, there were so many different characters presented quickly at the beginning, I had a problem keeping them straight. I will try another of Frey's books because others rate him highly, and maybe I'll learn enough about high finance to understand it.

[Zornitsa Rasim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Хареса ми, защото ми напомня на един сериал от преди няколко години, на който обаче не мога да си спомня името 🤔.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid thriller. Took a little bit, but sucked me in. Many of the characters were a little too stereotypical; from central casting for wall st types. Many characterize Frey as Grisham for finance. Dead on. I really liked Stiles, the security guy. The main character could have been more heroic in my view. Still, it was fun and I'm sure I'll read more Frey in future--though I am in no rush.

[Tom B · Rating 2 out of 5]

*spoilers ahead*

It was OK. Not a bad thriller, but a little too many weak points.

One of the main issues I have with this story is how men find their downfall from having affairs with women:
1. Troy Mason, a guy who's worth 60 million dollars, can't control himself with women, knowing that he'll lose his job and share in the company when he gets caught. Especially now that his enemy is the new chairman.
2. The only reason Gilette is able to counter a plot against him is because the senator and presidential candidate is stupid enough to have an affair and let himself be photographed with the woman.

Then you have the pop-star who turns spy, the Puerto Rican girl who turned assassin, the underdeveloped story line as to why the Hispanic men working working for Gillette, and the rushed ending where we go from shoot-out in a cabin in the woods to Gillette's desk in a heartbeat, where Whitman just disappears, together with the McGuire brothers (one of which was kidnapped by Gillette?), where Cohen just gets arrested and that's it... Just too many weak points that made the book worse than it should've been.

[Ashok Banker · Rating 5 out of 5]

You would hardly expect a novel about equity fund managers to be a nail-biting edge-of-the-seat action-packed thriller, would you? This is Stephen Frey at the top of his game. The story starts with a funeral for a murdered man--and a car explosion attempting to kill his successor. And bang, the race is on. This is a terrific thriller, a quick, breathless read with never a wrong note or a dull moment. Maybe a tad too much machismo for me, but that is the world being portrayed after all, and people like these are apparently macho--even the women at times. There's little not to like. I couldn't put the book down till I finished it and that's not something I say about most thrillers since I first discovered Robert Ludlum as a coed. I am so definitely going to read the sequel The Protege and then go back and get the Freys I missed and hope they're all as good as this one. Terrific fun!

[5ngela · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book that make me know about financial thriller. I love the story, it was complex but easy to be understood. Unlike some thriller novel, we don't know who is the bad guy. It give us some hints about who is the bad guy so you don't feel cheated. I like the ending because it was predictable and yet unpredictable at the same time. Cannot wait another book from Mr. Frey.

[Wayland Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an uneven book. It had some good concepts with bad execution.
The main character, Christian Gillette, becomes head of a major business when his predecessor dies. Christian inherits a lot of responsibility and a huge number of conspiracies swirling around him.

He's supposed to be a master schemer and manipulator, yet manages to either miss or guess wrong on most of what goes on around him. The main character is niave on some fronts, and several of the concepts here don't make a lot of sense. One of the supporting characters, for example, was given the hook of being a junk food junkie, but then is eating something different every time we see him, including scenes minutes apart.

Christian, the main character, sets up kidnappings, violates Federal reporting laws, but then has an issue with someone carrying lockpicks and using them. One of the antagonists is way over played as making people bow to his whims, including others calling him either "Mr." or by hsi first name utterly at random.

Also, on the technical end, the author needs to do some more research. With guns, a clip and a magazine are not the same thing. I can't speak to the corporate games he depicts, but some of this seems a bit off.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Chairman is a great financial thriller written by an author who really knows his stuff.

Stephen Frey not only knows finance....he is a terrific storyteller and because of his skill, readers without financial expertise will be able to understand, learn from, and enjoy The Chairman.

I thoroughly enjoyed, and highly recommend this book.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of his best novels. It is well written and full of excitement. A solid 9 of 10 stars!

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio book: Excellent narration, well written, and the author gave you clues and solutions in a natural ambience. I will go on to book #2

[Magda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to put down

[Jonathan Rintala · Rating 5 out of 5]

top read, grisham for PE. the type of fiction business books i love!

[Katherine Clark · Rating 1 out of 5]

OMG, what an amazingly bad book. And bad in so many ways. First, the protagonist, and he is supposed to be the hero, is the new chairman of a private equity firm. This chair is worth 70 million, and he controls multiple billions of dollars. He uses violence, when necessary, but he does do the occasional nice thing as well. The depiction of women is from the 1950s (at least). No one can be trusted at the firm. They are all out for themselves/money. Which is OK if you are the chairman, but not if you are a managing partner. And the Chair makes the most amazingly awful decisions on ethical issues, but seriously, we are to admire him for being so pragmatic and concerned about making money. He is an alpha male and proud of his strength. Wow--the more I talk about this book, the more I hate it. It is so strange. This guy (named Christian Gilette--really?) is only good in that the people he primarily surrounds himself with are worse than he is. It is a bizarre apologist account for capitalism that makes it look even worse than I thought it was. I can't believe his books are so popular. What is wrong with people? In other words, I will not be reading further in the series.

[ElaineY · Rating 3 out of 5]

REVIEW OF AUDIOBOOK; MARCH 31, 2017
Narrator: Scott Brick

Kept listening to the end but all the financial wheeling-dealing did go over my head when it got too technical. Despite my enjoying it, I couldn't quite suspend belief enough to get really sucked in - I've worked in the financial industry and yes, while I, and anyone else, can believe the greed that drives people, I have not seen the kind of murder and mayhem that occurs in this book. But then, I wasn't in the billion-dollar deals club so what do I know?

I liked Christian Gillette despite being iffy about him at the start. He may be ruthless as a Wall St type but he still possesses compassion so I ended up, if not exactly rooting for him, then accepting him as the protagonist for this 4-book series. I have bought the others and uploaded them on my phone.

Scott Brick did okay but I wanted more differentiation between the characters. It was hard to tell who was speaking.

[Diquari Armes · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, this book was really good. If your not into the finance world, Stephen Frey provides a lot of exposition on the things that are happening. At the same time, the events that happened in the story are intriguing and sometimes fast paced. I had to reread a few paragraphs just to make sure what i read just happened. In the first few chapters I had the impression that Christian was going to be annoying and a pompous jerk. But as I continued to read I understood that he was just a calculating, analyzing person. And by explain details of the financial world, Stephen made you understand just why Christian had to be this way, what his job entailed, and the vast scope of Everest Capital. Overall I enjoyed the corporate wars and espionage of the book and look forward to The Protégé.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was interesting. However I was not too far into it before there was a very graphic sex scene and shortly there after a woman taking off and throwing her clothes off the balcony. Really ? The book had plenty of action and certainly did not need this type of stuff to keep the reader interested. Too bad, I really wanted to read it, negatory - back to the library it went. Feed the lust and they will come, shame. Only about thirty pages before I stopped reading; I didn't want to fill my mind with that sort of thing. Review says I read it twice; no, only once and only thirty pages or so.

[Redbird · Rating 2 out of 5]

The more I got into this book, the less I liked it. Its essential flaw is that the author tells instead of shows. It drags the pace to an even slower crawl. More frustrating are the explanations when none are needed, or at least not to the extent provided.

There was extensive profanity and a few sexual situations.

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I can say is wow! What an amazing, edge of your chair story from beginning to end! Each disk brought more twists and turns . . . kept me guessing nearly to the end when I finally figured out who the antagonist was. Intense suspense -- 9 out of 10 for me on this one!

[Rupesh Goenka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Impressive style of writing & equally good story makes this financial thriller an enjoyable & exciting read. The novel portrays the manipulative & ugly side of the Wall street in the fight for power & money. FAST & FEROCIOUS.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of his best novels. It is well written and full of excitement. A solid 9 of 10 stars!

[Chriss · Rating 3 out of 5]

i picked this up for free in audiobook-on-tape form and honestly? best way to listen to this book. not that a physical copy would have stopped my running mst3k style commentary but there's something about outdated (and in a lot of cases well meaning for the time, i admit) ideals that goes well when listening to it on an outdated media format. i kid i kid. it's well written, even tho it showed its age and i, being a progressive queer woman pushing closer and closer to 40 than i'd like to admit, was annoyed by... a lot, i can't say i didn't enjoy it and i can't say it was a bad book.

spoilers ahead

pros:
-i know enough about how capitalism works to have cackled multiple times "i love capitalism so much" like im hasanabi talking to chat on twitch every time a business guy (because they were all men in this first book) did something WILD
-christian seems like a genuinely good person or tries to be. he's got the same flaws as all the other late ninties/early naughts liberal men (with a smattering of ones rich men have), but it was nice to have a novel where the mc was a liberal and not someone on the side to be mocked
-frey clearly knows what he's talking about and even tho there were times i literally fell asleep during the business talk scenes (tbf i would also listen before bed), i did come away knowing more about investments and mergers
-im sure this was wholly unintended because boys club shit always feels like this but the homoeroticism of certain scenes was amazing
-this isn't about the writing but the very white narrator for the audiobook (again on CASSETTE TAPE) saying "wilding" with a G was absolutely hilarious

cons:
-like i mentioned before, it really showed its age. some were there to show christian's character and how "liberal ideas" as my dad used to call them also are a cost saving measure. cool. but then there will be things like christian hiring a lesbian assistant because he can't trust himself to keep it in his pants if she wasn't and thinking that any male-attracted woman would fall in love with him
-there was something about the women in this that... kinda bugs me. like all of them needed a man to save them and that man being christian. even pop star faith cassidy needed his help

overall not a bad book at all! kept me entertained (even if some of the time it was unintended). disappointed that i can't find the others on tape. had to resurrect my audible account to listen to the next one.

[Nuno Freitas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun book if you are into drama and intrigue wherein high finance is a big driver of the action. It is the story of a man who becomes the chairman of one of the largest private equity funds in the world, how he consolidates power and, ultimately, how he deflects challengers to his reign.

While entertaining, I would have loved it to be a bit more intelligent in how some of the events unfold in a sense that I would have preferred that the financial machinations would have been more prevalent than they were. I genuinely don't understand how everything needs to turn into an action book/movie to be entertaining these days, and this book unfortunately falls for that same trap towards the end. The main premise is already interesting enough without the main character having to become an action hero. It makes no sense that a guy this powerful and with the resources we are talking about in the book takes some of the dangers the main character puts himself in. It is purely for the sake of action and not at all realistic.

Anyway, it is a decently fun, fast-read book but not one that drew me enough to see how the following iterations of the story will unfold.

[Carl Alves · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Chairman has a different setting than what I typically read. This novel takes place in the world of high finance. The story’s protagonist, Christian Gillette, is a young finance mogul, who has just taken over as the chairman of Everest Capital after the previous chairman died in an “accidental” drowning accident. An assassination attempt is made on Gillette as the limo he is about to enter gets firebombed. Gillette is undaunted with his ambitious plans for his company, as he tries to start a new equity fund, which will make his company the largest of its kind in the world. While this is going on, he is trying to remove his competition and there is all kinds of sex, lies, and bad behavior going on.

This novel was up and down for me. I liked the setting of the high finance world, and the characters were interesting. Some parts of the plot were a bit slow and there was a general lack of believability with much of the story line. A few times I had my head scratching at some of the plot holes. Still, it maintained my interest throughout.

Carl Alves – author of The Invocation

[Johnny G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

About 75% of this book is snappy dialogue - and it’s believable, and the characters, although plentiful, were great and deliciously duplicitous. So why am I rating this book just three stars? As a public sector worker, it was hard for me to wrap my head around the BILLIONS of dollars being discussed on many, if not most, of the pages for these monstrously large equity firms. I could not connect to the levels of depravity these ultra-rich people would go to for more, more, more. The financial world of the big city is back-stabbing world in which people are always angling to make even more money in top of the small investments from the little guys...like me.

[Monzenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arguably the lowest five star book by Frey. Lots of Frey stories have been fascinating to me - the ones about the vulture fund and the day trader are standouts to be (can you guess the title?) The only reason this is likely the lowest among the five stars is the lack of technical stuff that appeals to me specifically (e.g. WHAT specific percent decline did the portfolio companies get hit? WHICH specific statute of the law did they break). Because otherwise, this is yet another great book from Frey, this time about the private equity industry. Thrills and spills galore, intrigue to the max.

[Gerry Swimmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book over a few days and it captured my interest. It is the story of a hedge fund leader who is tough and very start. He takes over the fund when the founder dies (murdered) and the firm reacts to his death. Many twists and turns and comes to a satisfying ending. I do not want to say any more because I do not want to spoil it. In conclusion when you think about it after book is finished you realize it really does not make much sense but it was fun while reading

[Beata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super książka, dla osób, które interesują sie choć trochę finansjerą, światem polityki i zarządzania to idealny wybory, jednak biorąc się za taką pozycję należy dokładnie analizować jej treść przy czym odznaczając sobie lub zapisując poszczególne osoby bo jest ich dość dużo w książce, aczkolwiek jak ktoś się wciągnie w książkę i poczuje że to jego typ to zapamięta wszystko to co najważniejsze :) Polecam !!

[Muffazal Arsiwalla · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first Stephen Frey novel. I like the way he writes. Crisp, fast-paced and easy to read.

Not many unwinding pages of drivel spent developing characters. And characters were real and relatable - not hero's who do unbelievable things. Although coming from the financial services sector myself, some of the deal making described was a bit over simplified and cinematic.

Nonetheless, will certainly give Book #2 a read to see how Christian's character further grows and the story develops.

[Levi Horton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a true Stephen Frey financial thriller that has business and political plots. The main character, Christian Gillette, is true Stephen Frey form of a relatively young finance dude is thrown into an amazing role but suddenly finds himself within a conspiracy. Throughout the entire book, Frey made you want to keep turning the page. I will definitely want to read the other books in this series.

[Linda Whisenhunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read constantely and I am very critical. This was an extremely good book. Good twists and turns. I liked the way he got to the meat of everything. No pussy-footing around. Got to the end of one thing, didn't explain what happened, and then went on to the next, and left it up to your imagination to fill in the blanks. If all his books are like this one, he will become my favorite author.