I'm having one of those crazy days," says Terry Kawaja.

That's understandable. The recent former head of global media mergers and acquisitions for Salomon Smith Barney, America's second largest retail brokerage firm, probably has a lot of crazy days. Not long ago he helped arrange the $183 billion merger between America Online and Time Warner, the largest and most talked about media merger in history. During his 11-year involvement with Salomon Smith Barney, the 37-year-old Kawaja (MBA, LLB '89) had a hand in over 100 mega transactions totalling more than $400 billion. He's just recently taken a new senior exec position with Evoke, an Internet communications company.

Kawaja says he set his goals high while at York. "I decided I wanted to go to Wall Street, not Bay Street. Even on Wall Street there were only four firms I wanted to join. I got hired by one of them."

It has been a long journey between Boulder, Colorado and the more serene atmosphere of his birthplace, a small coastal village in the Gaspé. He admits that when he joined Salomon Smith Barney -- after graduating from York -- he paid his dues. "You start off working over a hundred hours a week crunching numbers.You're never home, you're flying all over the globe and you're always working, working, working," he says.

Yet, despite his committment to the world of business, Kawaja sometimes manages to get some time to himself. An aspiring comedian, he is often invited to crack jokes at company functions. Last year he performed at a conference in front of hundreds of senior business associates from around the world, but warns anyone else thinking of doing the same: "If you're going to do that, you better be funny." Has he ever dreamt of becoming the next Jerry Seinfeld and wanted to hit the nightclub circuit?

"I've thought about doing that and maybe one day when I get some time I'll actually sit down and write some more material and do one of those amateur night things," he says.

In the meantime, Kawaja prefers penning deals over jokes. Besides, doing stand-up for a living might mean a severe pay cut.

    Photo: Nadia Molinari