The Partnership with Edward F. Aldrich

 The Partnership: George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the Extraordinary Collaboration that Won World War II.

Historian Evan Thomas wrote that "if the American Century had two gods, they would be Henry Stimson and George Marshall".  Edward Aldrich will bring to light the extraordinary relationship between these two men,  the U.S. civilian and military heads of the Army during World War II and during the seventeen months the two men worked together prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor to prepare the United States for war. History generally puts on a pedestal those on the front lines who are in command of troops and in harm's way. Through an entertaining presentation with a hundred photos and wonderful anecdotes, Aldrich will explain who really ran WWII.  He will first give a background to both men and explain how the Army lifer George Marshall and the Wall Street Lawyer Henry Stimson, sitting side-by-side in adjacent offices where the door between them was always deliberately left open, were responsible for raising, feeding, equipping, and training troops, training their officers, designing and procuring weapons for the U.S., and shipping those weapons along with supplies and ammunition across the oceans to Europe and Asia. On top of all this, Marshall and Stimson had to develop strategy for the Allied Armies in consultation with their British counterparts.  They were also in charge of developing and dropping an atomic bomb.  In short, they were indispensable and Aldrich makes a case that the efforts of these two men represented the greatest feat of management in the history of the world.  Historian Walter Isaacson described The Partnership as a "valuable addition to history." 

Edward "Ted" Aldrich was born and raised in Rowayton, Connecticut.  He attended Colgate University majoring in economics and political science before receiving an MBA in finance from Boston College.  He then began a career in banking with UBS in New York.  He spent thirteen years with UBS working in New York, Zurich, and London specializing principally in commodities.  Aldrich held senior positions at Deutsche Bank and Fortis before launching a trade and commodity finance business at Mizuho Bank, a business he ran for eleven years.  Aldrich currently works as the head of corporate development for Auramet Trading, one of the world's largest physical precious metals merchants in the world, and lives with his wife in Westport, CT.  He researched and wrote The Partnership over a nine year period on the train between Westport and Manhattan.