Richard Vague almost needs no introduction, except to not introduce him would be to miss out on a chance to talk about the many ways in which he is a local renaissance man: He co-founded and sold two banks and an energy company; serves as managing partner of early stage venture capital company Gabriel Investments, and served as Gov. Tom Wolf’s Secretary of Banking and Securities for three years. Vague sits on the board of Penn’s Board of Trustees and Penn Medicine Board, and the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia. He is chair of the University of Pennsylvania Press and of the innovation advisory board of the Abramson Cancer Center, and is past board chair of Fringe Arts.
He is, as Eagles Connor Barwin once noted, a modern day Ben Franklin — but way more gentlemanly and way more interested in debt, public and personal. Vague’s most recent book, The Paradox of Debt: A New Path to Prosperity Without Crisis was a Wall Street Journal bestseller.
Vague, a supporter of The Citizen, sat down with Citizen Co-executive director Roxanne Patel Shepelavy at The Fitler Club to talk about his path from art student to banking magnate to public intellectual and Philadelphia booster.
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