Green was cut from the Cowboys a short
time later when the strike was settled, but
he had another dream in mind anyway.
“Being a lawyer was something that
had always intrigued me as a career,” he
says. “Maybe it was from watching L.A.
Law or whatever was on TV at the time,
but it was just something I wanted to
do. When I thought of myself in a life in
business, I envisioned working as a lawyer
for a company.”
This dream has had more staying power.
Today Green, 48, isn’t merely working
as a lawyer for a firm—he’s the general
counsel for the largest online job website
in the United States: Chicago-based
CareerBuilder.com.
As for that interception from yesteryear?
It makes for a great story to tell his three
kids. “We’ve been in the library,” he says
with a laugh, “and I will actually go find an
NFL encyclopedia and show them and say,
‘I’m right there. I had that one interception.’”
GROWING UP IN THE CHICAGO SUBURB
of Glen Ellyn, Green simply knew he
wanted to be a success.
“Glen Ellyn is a great place to raise kids,”
he says. “It’s one of those places where
expectations run high. We just all kind of said,
‘Of course we’ll find a way to go to college.’”
By Green’s senior year at Glenbard West
High School, it was obvious that his way
would be through sports. A star running
back and defensive back for Glenbard
West, he received football scholarship
offers from Vanderbilt, Northwestern,
Michigan and Indiana. But even then,
Green was focused on a future beyond
the playing fields. He made his choice—
Indiana—based on academics, not football.
“I knew that football wasn’t going to
be forever,” he says. “I was thinking along
the lines of Indiana because it had a great
business school. That’s one of the things
that led me there. I wanted a business
degree from Indiana.”
Green received his degree in spring 1987,
intercepted Norrie that fall, and graduated
Northwestern University School of Law in
1992. Soon after, he accepted a position
with Ross & Hardies in Chicago. The
experience, while edifying, confirmed that
the firm thing wasn’t for him.
“When you’re at a firm, you’re thinking
in terms of billing hours,” says Green. “You
think in increments. In-house, you think in
terms of issues, and you have more flexibility
to take deep dives into things that really
matter. If I need to focus on something, I
have the freedom to do it without being
concerned whether it will take one, two or
three hours. When you’re at a firm, you’re
kind of visiting these places; when you’re at
a company, you’re ingrained.”
Green’s rise was swift. When he became
general counsel of CareerBuilder in 2004,
following tenures in the legal departments
of McDonald’s Corporation (1993–2003)
and Household International (2003–2004),
he wasn’t even 40. Yet his level of maturity
as both a lawyer and a leader immediately
struck CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson.
“Especially when you’re relying on
someone to give you advice across a lot
of areas of the law and business, good
judgment and thoughtful reasoning on
difficult issues are the main things you look
for,” Ferguson says. “Alex is both thoughtful
and reasoned in his approach. He’s also a
team player and the leader of a very strong
[legal] group. He tries to give everyone a
chance to display their talents, and he leads
by consensus in moving the group forward.”
Green came of age as a corporate lawyer
during his years at McDonald’s, where he
was able to work in many areas of the fast-
food company’s operation.
“When you’re at a firm, you’re thinking in terms of billing
hours. You think in increments. In-house, you think in terms
of issues, and you have more flexibility to take deep dives into
things that really matter. If I need to focus on something, I
have the freedom to do it without being concerned whether
it will take one, two or three hours,” says Green.
“Ultimately,” says Green’s former boss
at McDonald’s, corporate vice president
and associate general counsel Robert
L. Switzer, “he was given the important
responsibility of supporting McDonald’s
treasury department. In this role, Alex
worked closely with McDonald’s treasurer
and other members of the treasury
department on a variety of large, complex
and time-sensitive financial transactions.”
Green further honed his skills at Household
International, focusing on commercial
lending and other corporate legal work for the
financial services company. But it has been at
CareerBuilder where he found his true calling.
The company has proved to be a perfect fit for
Green, right down to the word “builder.”
CareerBuilder is still developing its
identity. This was especially so when Green
first arrived. The company had existed only
since 1995 (beginning as NetStart before
being renamed CareerBuilder in 1998), so it
was a ground-floor opportunity.
“We were a semi-distant second to
Monster.com,” Green says. “We spent a lot
of time in those early years talking about
how we could compete and beat Monster.
We had this attitude that we needed to
stay competitive at all times, needed to be
thinking outside the box. It was a different
feel than McDonald’s because we were
trying to build something. We’ve obviously
had some good success here, but we still
have the mentality that we need to be
thinking every day about ways to expand
and be more relevant.”
Ferguson calls the somewhat informal
culture at CareerBuilder “entrepreneurial,”
with a focus on “education and learning.”
This sits well with Green, who was happy to
swap a suit for jeans on Fridays.
“It’s a casual, candid atmosphere,” Green
says. “It has a lot of younger, very energetic
people who work hard and really care
