JOHN STUDZINSKI Investment Banking/Europe, Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discover & Co. Dennis Stevenson faced a huge task three years ago when he took the helm of GPA Group PLC, a troubled Irish aircraft leaser. Keeping it from going under would require getting some 150 banks to write down $4 billion in debt, one of the biggest debt restructurings in corporate history. It took two years of intense negotiations to do it. ''I needed an investment bank that was big, powerful, and muscular,'' says Stevenson. ''I called Studzinski.'' That's a call a lot of European CEOs have made in the past few years. John J. Studzinski, head of Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discover & Co.'s investment-banking operations in Europe, was instrumental in propelling the firm to the top of the heap. It has advised on 71 deals worth $83 billion so far this year. Studzinski is Boston-born, with a University of Chicago MBA. But since arriving at Morgan's London office 13 years ago, he has forged bonds of trust with a number of key execs. Stevenson and Kees J. Storm, chairman of Dutch giant Aegon Insurance Group, among other CEOs, consider him a close friend. Those ties help. When British drugmaker Amersham International PLC merged its Japanese unit with Japan's Nihon Medi-Physics Co. last year, Morgan Stanley got the business, partly because of Amersham Chief Executive William Castell's ties to Studzinski. Says Castell: ''John's in the hard core of people helping to develop our strategy.'' Morgan Stanley plans on keeping Studzinski ready for the next call. By Thane Peterson in London Return to main story

Updated Oct. 16, 1997 by bwwebmaster
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