1. Allegiance Capital's David Mahmood:
Stories from a busy life
Jeff Bounds
Senior Staff Writer
Dallas Business Journal
David Mahmood has so many stories, it’s tough to
know where to start. There’s the one where he
was running boilers and other steam-power
engineering systems in his teens, after he lied
about his age to get the job. There’s the Omar
Sharif thing. And did we mention buying and David Mahmood – Founder/CEO
selling a cruise ship? Mahmood, who turns 75 on Allegiance Capital Corporation
May 23, had most of those experiences before
starting Allegiance Capital Corp., the Dallas A little over a year ago, she got married. (The
investment bank he chairs, 15 years ago. couple) decided that Dallas would be a better
Allegiance has around 50 employees across five place to start a family. I not only got a corporate
offices in Texas, New York, Illinois and counsel (Jason Rivera), I got a son-in-law.
Minnesota. Allegiance finds buyers and investors
for private companies with revenue between $20 And your family growing up? My father’s name
million and $500 million. Staff writer Jeff Bounds was Ferris Mahmood. He was Syrian and Irish.
recently asked Mahmood to share some of his Ferris means “the rock.” It was an appropriate
tales. What follows is just a glimpse of that description of my father. He was a very solid
conversation. person who could handle almost anything without
getting flustered or upset. My mother’s name
Tell us about your family: My wife, Connie was Cecilia Hahn. She was Dutch and Bohemian.
Chavez Mahmood, is secretary and treasurer (at Bohemia became part of Czechoslovakia. All four
Allegiance). She handles the administrative side. grandparents came from different countries,
She has her office on one side of the building; I bringing with them religious and political beliefs.
have mine on the other. My daughter was born on At family get-togethers it was important to know
Christmas Day. We call her Angel. She went to what you were talking about because there were
New York and became a confirmed New Yorker. a lot of smart people who could articulate their
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2. position well. At age 16, Angel came home from Aren’t boilers dangerous? It’s like flying an
school at Greenhill and asked me what she was. airplane. It’s all calm and serene, with a few
Since I am one-fourth Syrian, Irish, Dutch and moments of terror where you think you’re going to
Bohemian and her mother’s parents came from blow something up.
Mexico, I told Angel that with the type of heritage
she has, there was almost no religion or holiday How did you get into the business of making
she couldn’t celebrate. She was a true melting pot playing cards? I worked for Brown & Bigelow,
American. which was a specialty advertising company with
118 printing presses. I started in the industrial
What was your childhood like? When I got out engineering department. By the time I was 30, I
of sixth grade, (my father) put me to work. My was managing 1,200 people in the sales and
father owned restaurants and nightclubs. I had all marketing department. (At one point), they had a
sorts of jobs, from making salads and seeing that division that was bleeding at the ears. It made
the jukeboxes and pinball machines were Hoyle playing cards. They told me, “We’re going
maintained to making sure the money was taken to make you the general manager of that division.”
out. I had my first car when I was 13. I went to That sounded important, (but) it meant get rid of
school, and I worked all the way through high the inventory, lay off everybody and shut the
school. business down. I came up with the fact that the
name Hoyle wasn’t trademarked. I hired Omar
Where did you go to college? I studied pre-law Sharif, who was a bridge nut, and the Italian Blue
at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. I Team (of professional bridge players). It
never got a law degree. I was making a lot more generated millions of dollars of free advertising.
money than the professors and lawyers in town.
How? I found I had a mechanical ability. I lied If you were selling playing cards to las vegas
about my age at 17 and made myself 23, went to casinos and hanging out with Omar Sharif, do
night school that summer and studied steam- you have any stories to tell? I could write a
power engineering. I worked in large power plants small book.
that produced high-pressure steam for
manufacturing processes, generating electricity How many businesses have you run?
for heating buildings and water. I worked for a I’ve started eight companies from scratch.
variety of companies in the Twin Cities area, so
that when I went to college I would work nights
and weekends. The truth of the matter was, I was
making a lot of money very fast.
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3. Such as? When I was 33, I started Hobby Time. is strange enough. And I like to travel. I like
It was a hobby and craft business, selling weaving seeing different places. I don’t like going to the
looms and wine and root beer-making kits. Kids same place, because it’s like reading yesterday’s
could make root beer with 5 percent or 6 percent newspaper.
alcohol. It’s amazing what you can do with a little
yeast and sugar. I ran it for three years and sold So why not read and travel instead of
it. work? Maybe I don’t know any better. As long as
you’re still learning and having fun, there’s no
Didn’t you own a cruise ship once? In the year reason to stop. I’m still learning and having fun.
2000, I bought a cruise ship in Australia for $10.5 I’m finally getting to the point where people say,
million and sold it to Hong Kong Chinese for $15.5 “No kidding, you’re that old?”
million. I only saw a picture of the ship. I had
back-to-back closings, and if the transaction had Since you get bored easily, might you
failed, I would have lost $50,000. In that closing, I eventually find investment banking dull?
made $5 million and negotiated the entire deal I’m still excited. I’m a deal junkie. I’m dealing with
from Dallas. a lot of different companies and a lot of different
transactions. I have an opportunity to get into a
Do you have any hobbies? I’m a voracious wide variety of different businesses. I’ve worked in
reader. I don’t read fiction. I used to, but I find life Mexico and Canada. I find it challenging,
interesting and fun.
Any parting advice for young people? Water is
the next oil. That’s where the future is. Water will
become a valuable resource.
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