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Alfred P. West, JR., WG'66
By Nancy Moffitt
The bird sits on Al West's
desk as if weathering an
arctic blast, its black and
gray body hunched, its dark
eyes narrowed. "It's a vulture," says West, WG'66
and chairman and CEO of
SEI Investments, of the life-sized wooden sculpture. "It
used to perch over us in the
conference room at our old
headquarters to remind us
not to have long meetings.
I don't like long meetings."
Aside from the buzzard, West's minimalist black desk is exactly like every other in
the wide-open, cubicle-free room, one of
many at SEI's headquarters in Oaks, PA, its base since 1996.
There are no of fices, secretaries or private parking spaces,
even for the chairman. In SEI, West has stripped away the
traditional layers of bureaucracy that often interfere with
completing the task. The result is a workplace that is both
casual and crackling with energy, far from the mahogany-and-Oriental rug formality of much of the financial services
world.
Employees work from desks on wheels, their computers and
phones connected to red and black coils of cable
spiraling from the ceiling, a set up that allows for constant
movement as priorities change. The floors, made of recycled
tires, are quiet and soft underfoot and the massive windows
that line every workspace open during the summer so fresh
air can circulate. The walls everywhere are hung with more
than 2, 000 pieces of edgy modern art, from giant ceramic
mushrooms climbing up a concrete wall to a 15-foot, papier-mache polar bear, his stomach branded with an enormous
eye. The collection, chosen by West's daughter, Paige, and
paid for by West, features young or lesser-known artists and
includes the "Hot Hall," where controversial art is hung and
employees are invited to comment on its merits, or lack-
there-of.
The egalitarian and creative setting is West's doing, a
"visual statement of who we are. Workstations are open and
flexible so people don't get set in their ways. This is what
our culture is about - constant change. There are no boxes
here. You are empowered - you can move anywhere you
want. The setting is a small thing, but it sends a signal.
You have to continually not be enraptured with what you
are doing."
West, 60, a down-to-earth native of Brooksville, FL, a
town founded by his great-grandfather, was the oldest
of three siblings and studied aeronautical engineering at
Georgia Tech. Bad eyesight dashed his dream of becoming a
fighter pilot, and West co-founded SEI at Wharton in 1968 as
a technology-outsourcing partner to bank trust departments.
Today, SEI is an asset management and investment technology provider that administers $254 billion in mutual fund
and pooled assets, manages almost $90 billion in assets,
and processes almost $50 trillion in investments transactions each year from 22 of fices in 10 countries.
At Wharton, West donated $10 million to bring his passion for the unconventional to the classroom via the Alfred
West Jr. Learning Lab, created in 2001 to "rethink the learning paradigm." West is also a member of the School's
Board of Overseers and chairman of the SEI Center for
Advanced Studies in Management, where the idea for the
Learning Lab began. "I didn't like class - it seemed a slow
way to learn," West says, laughing. "People learn things by
doing them."
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