RIP Michael H. Jordan

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Michael H. Jordan died yesterday. Or maybe it was the night before -- I don't know. I do know that I woke up yesterday morning and my BlackBerry had a little note from the fellow who had been handling his public relations stuff for the last 10 years or so. It told me Mike had passed away. And I felt sad.

I worked for Mike for a few years in the 1990s. He had just come to Westinghouse from Pepsi(PEP), or from some limbo that people go to when they leave a monster corporation and are waiting for their next gig.

I believe he had an investment firm. He brought with him to poor old Westinghouse a cadre of capos that he had assembled when he was at his former corporate post. Where he was soft-spoken, shy and difficult to read, they were not. They were some of the scariest bunch of dudes I had ever seen, all sharp edges and swagger. A couple of years went by and I got to know these gunslingers a little bit better, worked with them a little bit more. This made them about 6% less scary.

Mike himself was horrifically imposing at first. He was very tall, one of those men whose height seems so extreme that they have to stoop when they enter a conference room, and hunch over slightly to maintain eye contact with less elevated individuals. I won't say he seemed cordial and nice, because that would be an overstatement. Cool, more like it. Willing to listen more than to talk, maybe. But always evaluating. Looking you over from a very great distance. Reserving his thoughts. Willing to do what was necessary to fix things, in a clinical way, nothing personal. He did get his start at McKinsey.

There's a quality of executive hauteur that some people have and some don't, no matter what their title might be. Mike had it. He was chairmanly. He presided. Behind the sangfroid, you always had the feeling that there was a tough guy in there that you really didn't want to piss off.