The Titans of Banking

Who would you say are still the titans of dealmaking on Wall Street today? Obviously we all hear about the likes of Quattrone @ Qatalyst and Mark Robinson @ CVP, but would love to hear about some of the lesser-known advisory hotshots.

81 Comments
 

Justin Katz (CVP), Mark Robinson (CVP), Alan Hartman (CVP), Celeste Guth (PJT), Navid Mahmoodzadegan (Moelis), Andrew Bednar (PWP), Marie-Soazic Geffroy (PWP), Jeff Stute (PWP), Marcus Schenck (Lazard), George Bilicic (Lazard) are definitely among the top dealmakers on Wall Street these days who are a bit less prominent than the names listed above.

 

Since you included Navid, then Jeff Raich (the other co-president at Moelis I believe) can be included though I understand he does more of the MM sell-side work from what I heard as compared to the mega media deals Navid may be involved with 

 

Justin Katz (CVP), Mark Robinson (CVP), Alan Hartman (CVP), Celeste Guth (PJT), Navid Mahmoodzadegan (Moelis), Andrew Bednar (PWP), Marie-Soazic Geffroy (PWP), Jeff Stute (PWP), Marcus Schenck (Lazard), George Bilicic (Lazard) are definitely among the top dealmakers on Wall Street these days who are a bit less prominent than the names listed above.

Bilicic knocked himself out of this category through whatever happened at Sempra (both his bizarre jump to Sempra & boomerang)

 

I think Ecrument (Eric) Tokat at CVP basically has done seemingly all of the major large cap biotech/pharma sell-sides I have seen/heard about for the past 5-7 years or so 

Given that and all the other CVP names here, Blair Effron probably should be included in this convo 

 

I’m not sure if I am so familiar with Mark Robinson but the deals I have seen more in the biotech world, it looks like Ecrument was involved with. I also worked with one of his former principals, Eliot Freeston, who moved to Moelis who mentioned that Ecrument seemed to be big in that space. I think they worked together on like the Salix sale to Valeant and/or other deals as well

Mark Robinson could have also been involved / led those deals. Just not as familiar with his name I guess

 

David Kurtz at Lazard RX has been described to me as "a force to be reckoned with" and has been their no.1 guy for a while 

 

My personal experience with some of the names is that 1) they really are several cuts above in an ineffable way, but really they are 5 tool players. Most MDs have 1 or 2 strengths (execution guru, great presence/client skills, tireless work ethic, technical/intelligence) but fall short in other places. But two things I’ve noticed are different between the GOATs and everyone else are 

1) quickly being able to quickly assess what are the few things that are actually important vs waste of time/negotiating leverage, etc 

2) large cap deals require an immense amount of coordination/alignment and consensus across a large number of decision makers (all who have different agendas and perspectives on a deal). Effective senior banker needs to be behind the scenes conductor that can push the various decision makers towards a consensus of not blocking a deal. They know when to be a yes man with a decision maker and when to be forceful. They know who has influence at the client organization and who is nobody. They know who they need to put in a room together and who they need to make sure to keep apart, etc. 

3) they can negotiate a great EL

remember your advice means nothing if you can’t persuade the client to behave in a way that leads to fee event. 
 

 

There is this one Associate 1 in Evercore's ECM group. Kid is an absolute stud. Totally hot, and bangs 10/10 babes all of the time. Additionally, he is the greatest excel jockey known to man. Nobody in high finance uses a mouse in excel these days, but this kid doesn't even use a keyboard. He shoots lasers out of his eyes and formulates perfect excel formulas onto the page. 

 

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