In Portland, Wedbush leader says no plans for retirement

Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR), Oct 17, 2006 by Kennedy Smith

Edward Wedbush has no mind for retirement.

The 75-year-old president of investment brokerage firm Wedbush Morgan Securities still travels regularly to his company's many locations and visited Portland Oct. 8-11 to check up on the Portland branch and speak with students at Oregon State and Portland State University.

"Retirement is about your health, or physical state, about being tired," he said. "It has nothing to do with mental capacity."

And after more than 50 years in the investment world, Wedbush said, he's anything but tired.

Wedbush founded the company in 1955 after graduating from the University of Cincinnati with an engineering degree. But investment, he said, was his true calling.

"I was embarrassed about thinking about investment," he said, "but I was a careful listener, and investment seemed more interesting to me."

In its first year, the company netted a little more than $600. Today, the company is worth more than $203 million, with offices in California, Oregon, Hawaii, Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Washington, Massachusetts, New York, Nevada and Paris.

Wedbush's visit to Portland was his first in five years.

During his lectures at the universities, he said, his advice for budding entrepreneurs was to be careful and cautious moving forward.

"Don't grow for growth's sake," Wedbush said. "Meet the right people, get an exchange going, and then expand, whether that be in the same state or a different country. That way, whatever geopolitical activities are going on at the time can be weathered through your already existing relationship."

Wedbush said he's continually surprised by the ingenuity of young college graduates.

"I came away from OSU with notes that will stimulate my business," he said.