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Jeff Feig is allegedly a man with a lot to be thankful for. After graduating from the University of Western Ontario’s Honors Business Administration program, Feig joined the Toronto branch of Citibank. In 1994 he started to manage teams of spot and currency traders, and in 2001 he went to London to lead the central bank’s European Foreign Exchange trading division. By 2004 Jeff Feig became Citigroup’s Global Head of Foreign Exchange, and went back to New York City.
Ten years later Feig moved to Fortress Investment Group. There he became the Co-CIO of the firm’s Macro Fund and a co-president of their Liquid Markets division.
What Feig, the former financial executive, is truly thankful for, however, is how his life was saved by lay people after he suffered a massive heart attack.
In August, 2016, while vacationing in a bungalow colony in upstate New York, Feig experience a massive cardiac arrest. Onlookers who were also staying at the bungalow colony quickly leapt into action when they saw their friend collapse. Luckily for Feig, they had been trained at the colony in CPR and how to use an external defibrillator, or A.E.D.
In Feig’s case, 4 quick-thinking lay people all played a crucial role in saving his life. One person called an ambulance; a second delivered chest compression; mouth-to-mouth ventilation was begun by a third; and the fourth person ran to the social hall and grabbed the AED. The defibrillator was then used to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm, saving Feig’s life.
Even more impressive, Feig suffered no permanent heart damage or brain damage. It took the ambulance ten minutes before it arrived at the scene. The brain cannot tolerate lack of oxygen for more than four minutes, after which death soon follows. Jeff’s statement below shows that he is now a firm believer in CPR and the efficacy of AEDs.
“I feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life and I’m not going to waste it,” Feig said. “My goal is to spread the word to increase the level of CPR training in the population and get every institution to have a defibrillator on hand and people trained to use it.”
Just two weeks before Feig’s heart attack, investigations show that the colony had taken a training and refresher course in CPR and the use of the AED. You can be sure that Jeff Feig, as well as his family, friends, and even clients, are thankful that they took such an interest in this important topic!
UPDATE (June 25, 2017): To learn more about this remarkable individual, go to Jeff Feig’s Crunchbase profile.
Stories like this really warm the heart – not only that Jeff Feig survived to continue being there for his wife Michelle and their 3 kids, but that he took the opportunity to pay it forward. Though the beneficiaries of his efforts may not know it yet, we all owe Jeff for potentially saving our lives and/or the lives of our loved ones. If any of them ever experience something like Feig did, they will be thankful for his life-saving efforts.
Thanks for the comment, Loren! We agree that Feig’s efforts are laudable. That’s why we wrote this article! Glad you enjoyed. Keep coming back to read more 🙂
Agreed with what Loren wrote. Major financial executives like Jeff Feig can take a lot of heat, but it’s nice to see the occasional one like Feig who has a great heart, even after surviving cardiac arrest! I hope he and his family live long, happy, healthy lives. Kudos Jeff!
It’s a veritable comment storm today in Left Justified land! 🙂
In any case, thanks for chiming in Paulo. I agree that if more financial honchos were as caring as Jeff Feig, we’d all be a lot better off.
Excellent article. I love when the average Joe takes a stand for his fellow man. Kudos to Mr. Feig!