This book would not exist were it not for the extensive cooperation of my sources. Quite a few took professional or personal risks to speak to me, while others dug up painful memories. I am grateful for their help and patience.
None more so than Val Broeksmit. Over the past five-plus years, we have spent what must be hundreds of hours talking on the phone, meeting in person, and exchanging text messages. This hasn’t always been easy for either of us. Val, so eager for his and his father’s stories to be told, dealt with repeated delays and fended off numerous other journalists following this project’s inception in early 2018. This has been the most intense source relationship I’ve ever had, and I have learned much about Val—and also about myself. Thank you, Val, for your patience and trust.
I am immensely grateful to The New York Times. A few months after arriving from The Wall Street Journal in September 2017, I told my bosses, Rebecca Blumenstein, Ellen Pollock, and Adrienne Carter, that I planned to write this book in my spare time. They were less than thrilled, predicting (accurately, it turned out) that it would distract me from my day job. I am thankful for their patience and good humor (even you, Adrienne!). Ellen, Adrienne, Randy Pennell, and Nick Summers helped turn my Deutsche factoids and musings into Times articles. All three of them—as well as Mohammed Hadi and Ashwin Seshagiri—repeatedly picked up my slack. Dean Baquet and Matt Purdy provided more-or-less constant inspiration. Thank you, too, to Joe Kahn and David McCraw.
Quite a few of my Times colleagues generously contributed reporting or research or introduced me to sources. Among them: Sue Craig, Emily Flitter, Ben Protess, Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Jesse Drucker, William Rashbaum, Kitty Bennett, Jo Becker, Matina Steuis-Gridneff, and Susan Beachy. Natalie Kitroeff and Emily Flitter read drafts of the manuscript, and their advice made it better. (Thanks as well to William Cohan.)
I also am in debt to some of my former Wall Street Journal colleagues. Jenny Strasburg was the one who initially pushed to dig into the circumstances of Bill Broeksmit’s death, and she has consistently inspired (and irritated) me with her deep sourcing and sheer doggedness. Bruce Orwall, the bureau chief when I was in London, encouraged our Deutsche Bank passions and is perhaps the greatest editor and mentor in journalism today. Kirsten Grind and Keach Hagey were early supporters of this book, giving me well-timed confidence boosts.
My agent, Dan Mandel, immediately embraced this project and has been a steady advocate throughout. At Custom House and HarperCollins, Geoff Shandler offered wisdom, pushed me for more, and improved every page of this book with his meticulous line-by-line editing. His assistant, Molly Gendell, kept things on track. Maureen Cole, in charge of publicity, wisely urged me to avoid early overexposure on radio and TV. Kyran Cassidy provided much-needed legal counsel. Thanks as well to Nancy Inglis, Ryan Shepherd, Liate Stehlik, Ben Steinberg, Rachel Weinick, Andrea Molitor, Fritz Metsch, Ploy Siripant, and Ed Faulkner.
Finally, my family.
My parents, Peggy and Peter, provided motivation and fuel—and emotional support during sleepless nights when I worried, among other things, that I would never get this done. From the other side of the world, Liza and Jay were the source of infectious enthusiasm. Nick and Jords asked tough questions that forced me to think harder about the way I was telling elements of this story.
Henry and Jasper didn’t help on the book, but they bring me pure joy (most of the time!), and this project took me away from them on so many nights and weekends. Thank you to Kristina Monteleone for serving as something of a surrogate parent.
This brings me to Kirsten. This could not have happened without her. The night that I told her my idea for this book, she was on board—even though she must have known it would put an enormous strain on our family. While I obsessed at all hours about Deutsche Bank, while I immersed myself with sources, while I agonized over draft after draft, while I shirked my parenting responsibilities, she kept our lives running. She handled my many ups and downs. She dispensed sage advice. Oh, and she read four versions of this manuscript!
Thank you, Kirsten. I love you.