$500 Million in revenues and over 2,000 employees. He worked in various positions within the company including director of research, head of equity trading, head of institutional sales, and chair of two venture capital funds. In 2000, he was named president and chief operating officer at the age of 38. He worked a total of 9 years for the company. As President and COO, Laffey was responsible for a number of tasks including everything from administrative tasks to oversight of the company's private equity and institutional equity business. One company insider described him as being in charge of everything except bond trading and the Wall Street Journal cited him as the "sole decision maker" over picking stocks for the firm's focus list. He also served as the chairman of several investment committees and directly oversaw the firm's group of private equity investments and their analyst research branch. He left the company in 2001 after initiating and overseeing the sale of the firm to Regions Financial Corporation, a deal reported to be worth $789 Million. He was replaced by Doug Edwards; and, in addition to Edwards, Keegan hired three additional executives to assume the duties of Laffey. Political career and campaigns Upon leaving Keegan, Laffey went to Vermont during the summer of 2001. While there, he attended a retreat at Camp of the Woods, a Christian conference center in the Adirondacks. He attended the retreat with some of his Harvard Business School classmates and it was at that time that he stated he felt the "call" to enter politics. Laffey was quoted as saying: When I was asked where I was from, I said I was from Cranston, Rhode Island," Laffey recalls. "Why did I say I was from Cranston? I'd been away for 20 years. But I felt I was supposed to go back to Cranston, Rhode Island, even though I didn't know why. Laffey moved back to Cranston with his wife and children and ran for mayor in 2002. Mayor Laffey challenged well-known Democrat Aram Garabedian in 2002 for mayor of Cranston. He recruited numerous local and well-known Cranston residents, including Democratic gubernatorial candidate executive committee member Norman Orodenker who stepped down from his position to assist Laffey with his campaign. Laffey stood on street corners and knocked on doors handing out Laffy Taffy to help spread his name. Laffey defeated Garabedian 14,688 to 13,359 and took office in