Joe Femenia - Navy SEAL to head of distressed and special situations at Jefferies
I'm just trying to understand how one goes from navy, albeit elite navy, to a top position at a fund. I could be wrong but Navy SEALs probably don't do much economics or stochastic calculus or market theory or accounting etc. He's done an MBA I believe. I've got a few friends who went to a top MBA school, 2-year course, mostly travelling, drinking, drugs (all sorts). Can't say they learnt much but made many connections.
I'm sitting here having done bachelors, masters, another masters and doing further studying and wondering why I did all this academic studying when I could have gone into something else, then party for 2 years and get into finance. The only explanation I can come up with why Joe had such a ascension is that he got into GS in 2005, the high point of finance when I'm sure they were hiring like crazy and then it was people skills.
Active duty US Army officer and part-time PE analyst here. First of all, just to clarify, he was in the Navy, not the Army. The way you phrase your post, you make it sound like he finished his time in the Navy, got his MBA, and became the Global Head of Distressed and Special Situations at Jefferies the day after graduation.
He attended the Naval Academy for four years where he studied marine engineering.
Then, he spent 7 years as a special operations officer in a time (1998-2005) that had, arguably, the highest op-tempo for special operations operators in their history.
Then, he then went to a top business school at the age of 30, and likely started working as an associate at Goldman Sachs at the age of 32. He worked his way up, for 9 years, to become an MD and the Head of US Leveraged Loan Trading at Goldman Sachs at the age of 41.
He then lateraled to Jefferies and spent 4.5 years as the Head of US Distressed Trading, until the age of 46, when he was then promoted to their Global Head of Distressed and Special Situations.
7 years in the Navy and 14 years in finance. What am I missing? Are you saying he didn't earn it? He chose to serve in the military for 7 years instead of pursuing a master's in mathematics and that makes him unqualified? He didn't solely dedicate his life to one single thing? Sure he doesn't have a Ph.D in mathematics, but I am sure he learned a lot of intangible skills and gained a lot of high-stress leadership experience. I am sure those are helpful in being the head of an investment banking group. He still has spent 14 years working in the credit space for two well-known investment banks. What are you trying to say?
You are correct - fixed navy/army mistake I've made. I'm just trying to understand the path which is unusual. It is unusual to get hired in finance with a BS in marine engineering and with 7 years Navy field experience. Maybe Columbia MBA are different than other MBAs but I'm of the impression that an MBA is for connections and you don't generally learn much.
Real world experience beats your bs masters any day of the week
Relevant work experience beats theoretical experience, naturally. And only you're missing the fact that he had no relevant work experience when he got hired at GS which is what the question is about. Meanwhile, I'm seeing friends getting rejected left, right and centre with plenty of academic excellence and relevant experience.
I don't know what you're confused about. Anyone with special forces experience, and multiple years at that, is more than capable of quickly learning how to do a bankers job. It's not hard, and arguably leagues less difficult than anything he had to do in the military. I am friends with an ex army SF who was hired into IB after he went and got his MBA too, he just studied for the interviews and was ok.
You need to redefine relevant. He got hired to GS with a top undergrad degree, a top mba, AND a ton of leadership experience (and network).
A career in banking definitely requires you to learn finance, but he did this at Columbia and most places have to teach you on the job anyway.
You can hire someone in who is great analytically and knows the ins and outs of finance but they may lack leadership and experience under pressure. He brought the other side of that and was taught the other stuff. It is extremely hard to teach leadership, so a huge premium is placed on this.
I have a couple special forces friends, and let me tell you they are very impressive people.
Navy Seal experience is extremely relevant. Especially at leadership levels - which we can see with his current position
What's the over/under on Femenia not actually being JE1?
Is there some school of thought that thinks he isn't? I may be missing that but from the fact pattern it seemed pretty clear cut from the bloomberg article events.
In the US Trustee's report there are IB chat exhibits from Kamensky telling his trader everything is cool because he talked to "H"
Pretty sure it's quite well known that if you want to get into IB post-undergrad, a top MBA-> associate is the way to go? Yes, you obviously should not have done tons of very academic masters if you wanted to get into IB.
I’m disappointed with this post/ the individual throwing a pity party for him/herself rather than praising a member of our military for making it that far in an obvious extremely successful career.
I don’t think you understand what is learned in not only the naval academy but through being in a military organization. First off, Navy is an extremely challenging college. Yeah it’s not the “HYSW” WSO praises so highly, but I personally had a buddy who was a sharp individual with an pretty insane work ethic (he’s a seal now) struggle for like a 2.7 GPA. Secondly, you learn to have a mindset which is complete opposite of you have. A “do whatever it takes” mentality and not feeling sorry for oneself.
Being in the military, you learn tactical strategy, operational expertise, discipline, and effective communication. Did I forget? Yes, it is applied in a life-threatening situations with stress levels most of us on this forum have no idea of. Yeah it’s not “applicable” experience in high finance but it’s extremely relatable and easily taught in a finance environment.
Lastly, he did so well at places like GS and JEF because he probably kept his head down, was a team player and didn’t whine and complain like you are doing.
Food for thought.
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.
Bruh chill out. OP was just wondering how Joe did it with no finance experience. He's not throwing a complete pity party. I see where he's coming from but I've had coworkers who have served so I know they got one helluva network. Fr who doesn't want to hire guys who have served.
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Ugh, you sound like my girlfriend. That's what she says all the time.
HAH...glad you have a sense of humor at least :)
Joe at the beginning of every meeting: “you think THIS is a distressed situation?! Back when I served...”
You're so qualified and great and yet you refer to Jefferies as a "fund".
Maybe less questioning Femenia's path and a little more introspection about how much you have left to learn?
This guy must be a troll. Military to Finance through a top MBA is one of the most well worn paths. Anyone who actually works in finance would know this because they likely had a banking associate/VP/etc who did this.
What is difficult to understand? USNA/USMA/USAFA are consistently rated as the top public universities. At USNA, you are taking advanced physics and differential equations courses even if you’re an English major. After that he went on to serve in one of the most selective services in the world during one of the most trying time periods for that service.
What did you do? Attend a sub par university, complain about not being able to make it in Blue Chip finance out of undergrad so you had to pursue some worthless masters degree (and still can’t make it to the big leagues)? I’m stunned at your inability to comprehend simple concepts.
Over the last 5 years I’ve worked at the places that kids on this site jerk off to and I’d rather hire ten of these guys, even if they were all triple amputees, than someone like you.
"Differential equations course" - you mean calculus? Is it ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations or stochastic differential equations that English majors study?
You certainly sound qualified to comment on quality of engineering degrees. Just because you mentioned it - I went to a university ranked #1 or #2 in the world for physics/engineering/mathematics depending on the year. But this is not about me. And just to make sure you get the question - I'm asking about the skills this guy clearly has that have led him to succeed and that have served him well. Most likely skills I don't have. Jees
Please be MIT please be MIT please be MIT.
OP - I'm assuming from your post you're not from the US (and if you are, you're just not attuned to corporate recruiting). For starters, the US Navel Academy is as difficult, if not more difficult, to get into as a Top 25 target/semi target school. So he is coming from an elite university and then is in arguably the most elite special forces. After that he goes to a M7 program. In regards to MBA recruiting, prior work experience is irrelevant for the vast majority of companies/jobs - whether that be investment banking, consulting, marketing, or industry. All post MBA associates are going to have a 1-2 month training program. Nothing about his profile is unique or out of the ordinary other than he must have absolutely crushed it on the job, year after year, promotion after promotion.
Joe was in the National Honor Society in HS, a swimmer and good student. As an undergraduate at the Naval Academy he ‘earned’ a degree in Engineering and took two years of calculas and differential equations to earn that degree. In addition he studied physics and calculas again a requirement of the rigors of an engineering degree. He started his own business at age nine and bought his own boat at 15. He was and continues to be a ‘mover and shaker’. Believe me nothing was ever handed to him. How do I know this? I’m his proud mother!
This comment doesn't really help. My first question was why would this guy move into finance and deal with pieces of shit from all over the world (because this is what finance is). He's academics are not his selling point. From this thread it seems that his character and personality is. Why would he do an MBA? I was considering an MBA until I found what most of the people I'll be "bonding" with are like. Like they say - you are an average of the people you associate with so... I don't understand his path and am curious to his decisions - to do an MBA, to get into finance etc.
Correction: Meant to say physics and ‘chemistry’.
Lol - what an amazing timing for this thread - bloomberg news today about this guy being the man behind Marble Ridge fall from grace as he exposed a potential insider trading scandal. THIS is why this guys rose to the top - this guy has character and balls.
I think the bloomberg article is exactly why this thread exists in the first place. No one outside of distressed circles would really know Femenia if not for Marble Ridge.
There may have been a time lag - this story was front page of BB today, this thread is 3 days old and the OP didn't mention the scandal. Not sure if it's a coincidence or if BB was just slow to put it on the front page.
OP biggest schmuck on this site
Can't tell if you are trolling or just a moron..
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