Dealmaking, the Next Generation
IDD's fourth annual look at an industry's young and promising professionals
March 19, 2010
The people you are about to meet have come of age in one of the toughest eras on Wall Street since the 1930s.
If you take a moment to read their histories, you will find a diverse group of individuals who all have in common a passion for dealmaking. (Click here to jump to the list.)
Not all the professionals on our 40 Under 40 list sought out a career in financial services immediately. Some found their way into the business by chance, with the encouragement of friends or relatives who were already hooked.
One came to investment banking by way of the National Football League. Others thought about training horses, or practicing law or civil engineering, before coming to Wall Street.
More than one simply accepted the invitation of a friend or classmate "to check out what they are doing." They now find themselves a decade or more into careers whose intensity they never anticipated.
And for some, the interest in investment banking was inspired by circumstances closer to home, including parents who would routinely talk about a day at the office over dinner.
But dealmaking is not the only passion of the 40 Under 40 — nor is it the only thing they have to be proud of.
Indeed, for us, one of the great pleasures of managing this particular portfolio of talent each year is learning about their off-Street lives.
In putting together this year's roster, we heard tell of the harrowing escape of Morgan Stanley's Marcie Vu and her family from Vietnam in the 1970s. We learned that Aryeh Bourkoff, a UBS banker, produced a documentary about his family's roots in the Jewish community that once lived in Libya.
This particular group of apparently work-obsessed financiers was also eager to tell us of its philanthropic preoccupations.
K. Don Cornwell, a Morgan Stanley M&A banker, works with a charter school in the Brooklyn neighborhood where he grew up. Evan Winkler, another UBS banker, supports UNICEF and Autism Speaks. Aerospace and defense banking pro Anita Antenucci of Houlihan Lokey helped broker a different kind of start-up altogether — an internship program for high school dropouts who have completed the National Guard Youth Program but did not join the National Guard.
You get the picture.
Anyone looking for an antidote to the steady stream of bad news and negative publicity surrounding investment banking might do well to get acquainted with the professionals in this special issue.
As always we welcome your feedback. Let us know what you think of our selections. And be sure to pass along your own and your colleagues' stories. The next edition of Investment Dealers' Digest's 40 Under 40 is only about a year away.
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Dan Ammann, Morgan Stanley |
Fabrice Hugon, BNP Paribas |
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