Duncan MacMillan is an American mathematician, philanthropist, and businessman known for being one of the four founders of
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately-held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Ze ...
MacMillan is not to be confused with
Whitney Duncan MacMillan, who inherited his billions in agribusiness.
Early life and education
MacMillan served four years in the
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...
after which he went to college.
[INSTITUTE for ADVANCED STUDY: Attributions - Nancy S. and Duncan L. MacMillan, Leading by Example]
2003 - issue one In 1966, MacMillan earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from
Rutgers University
Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...
. In 1967, he began his career working at
Bankers Trust.
[The Cancer Institute of New Jersey: Board of Directors - Duncan L. MacMillan"]
retrieved March 30, 2013
Career
MacMillan worked at the investment bank
Salomon Brothers
Salomon Brothers, Inc., was an American multinational bulge bracket investment bank headquartered in New York City. It was one of the five List of investment banks, largest investment banking enterprises in the United States and a very profitabl ...
with
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman and politician. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., and was its CEO from 1981 to 2001 and again from 2014 to 2023. He served as the 108th mayo ...
,
Thomas Secunda and
Charles Zegar.
After Bloomberg - who was Salomon's former head of equity trading and sales and then head of computer systems and data - was fired when he opposed the takeover of the company by
Phibro, a metals trading company, he invited Zegar, Secunda, and Macmillan to start up their own financial data company.
They accepted and together they founded
Innovative Market Systems, with Bloomberg investing $300,000, the majority of seed capital.
Secunda, who was a mathematician, was responsible for analytics; MacMillan was the expert in customer needs; and Zegar created the software.
In 1982, they got their first customer,
Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...
who ordered 20 data terminals and invested $30 million in the company (receiving a 30 percent ownership interest).
The company grew rapidly thereafter and presently has $7.6B in sales and over 15,000 employees. Bloomberg owns 88% of the company and the three other partners 4% each (In 2008, Bloomberg purchased back Merrill Lynch's original 30% share).
Philanthropy
MacMillan is a Member of the Dean's Advisory Committee; he is a member of the Foundation of The Medical Center at Princeton. He has endowed a Professorship of Genetics at Rutgers University and a Professorship in Theoretical Computer Science at The
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
.
He is also a generous supporter of
The Cancer Institute of New Jersey where he serves on the board of directors.
His wife Nancy is a trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study and the
American Repertory Ballet.
MacMillan and his wife are signatories of
The Giving Pledge
The Giving Pledge is a charitable campaign, founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, to encourage wealthy people to contribute a majority (i.e. more than 50%) of their wealth to philanthropic causes. , the pledge has had 236 signatories from 28 ...
.
the Giving Pledge: "Duncan and Nancy MacMillan"
retrieved March 30, 2013
Personal life
MacMillan is married to Nancy MacMillan whom he met while working at Bankers Trust.Connecticut College
Connecticut College (Conn) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. Originally chartered as Thames College, it was founded in 1911 as the state's only women's colle ...
, a M.A. in economics from Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...
, and a Master of Business Administration
A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...
in finance from Rider University
Rider University is a private university in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, United States. It consists of three academic units: the Norm Brodsky College of Business, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which includes Westminster Choir Coll ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macmillan, Duncan
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Bloomberg L.P. founders
21st-century American philanthropists
United States Marines
Rutgers University alumni