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.
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If you're mentioning any legends of Wall Street who are still active, I'd argue Joe Perella, Ken Moelis, Frank Quattrone, and Matthieu Pigasse would be among that very short list of advisors who have remained at the top for decades and completely dominated the game.
Obvioiusly Perella's name and pedigree across his time at First Boston, Wasserella, and MS speaks for his status among the greats, but he still that active with advisory anymore? I do know that Moelis, Quattrone, and Pigasse are full-time advisors, but I thought Perella was semi-retired by now.
Joe is basically retired
Damn bro you're on a first name basis with "Joey-Boy" frick dude that's so sick, can I be in your social club???
I thought Quattrone was retired too?
Michael Klein
yeah, and he tried to launch a SPAC too
Roger Altman.
who's that guy who founded LionTree
Aryeh Bourkoff
Kim Kardashian
Michael Grimes at MS.
Boutros qatalyst, anthony armstrong ms
gordon dyal and michael klein. alan hartman cvp
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.
As an ex-European banker, definitely agree with Schenck and Geffroy as absolute titans in the Europe scene. Schenck's arguably the best advisor in Germany out there and Geffroy is incredible in the Europe and Asia FIG.
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
Bilicic knocked himself out of this category through whatever happened at Sempra (both his bizarre jump to Sempra & boomerang)
What have these people done recently though? Many of the names haven't announced a deal in 2+ years
Tony Kim at CVP
How come? Want to know more about Tony
Hi Tony!
Now he's the heir-apparent at CVP.
Patrick Bateman
Any book recommendations for background reading on these people?
Gary Parr back when he was at Lazard?
Bob Steel at PWP, Jack Levy at CVP.
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 thought that was Mark Robinson. Could be mistaken though.
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
Me
Greg beurbe from Evercore - rx hard hitter
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
Lars Andersson worked on the monster Bayer deal
who are the rainmakers in P&U / Renewables / Infrastructure?
Sean Diskin (Barclays), Tyler Miller (Citi), Anthony Ianno (RBC), Todd Giardinelli (MS), RA McDonough (JPM)
Lol weird list. McDonough is at PWP. Barclays isn’t very active in renewables - more of a utilities shop
More importantly, what makes them good? WHY are they better than others?
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.
This is completely naive lol
To name a few at EVR: Naveen Nataraj, Francois Maisonrouge, George Ackert, Jason Sobol
Chris Gallea at GS
Chris Gallea is the shit
…
George Boutros and Jeff Chang at Qatalyst
do MDs that read this thread but don't see their names get insecure?
Fares Noujaim (Guggenheim): Bear Stearns old guard and one of Pfizer’s main advisors. He was the reason Guggenheim was on so many of Pfizer’s mega deals
Patrick Bateman
Franck Petitgas (MS), Peter Orszag (Laz)
Dan Blank at GS
There’s an old guy at BofA Cary Thompson. Don’t know if he’s still the shit but heard he was big
Interesting to see a lack of names from GS
Or does the brand name overshadow dealmakers
probably a mix of both but i would imagine a lot of the MDs in the top groups at GS/MS are still on par with the other MDs in the groups (i.e. no bad MDs so no one truly stands out) whereas perhaps the "top" MDs at Guggenheim or PWP are singlehandedly holding the franchise up while the rest of the MDs don't do so well.
Gordon Dyal is a stud but he's been quiet the last year or so
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.
Wow this is really cool!!! Explain more in depth!
Some people not mentioned so far - Carlos Jimenez (Moelis), Dietrich Becker (PWP), Eli Gross (MS), Fred Turpin (JPM), Kurt Simon (GS)
Worked with both Dietrich and Eli - both of them are not only rainmakers but are genuinely great people as well.
Eli's such a nice human being as well. Great to see him promoted.
Carlos announces a lot of deals but most of them are MM no?
Surprised no one has mentioned Gene Sykes from GS
https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/bizfinance/columns/businessclass/6089/
The man’s middle name is actually Tiger. I think that is pretty much all the due diligence you need on him.
People like to shit on the MM, but here's a contribution for that strata:
JP is a really cool dude as well - from a former PS employee
Hard not to add Scott Stevens and James Suprenant to the mix in MM tech services - led Blair's Tech Services practice and now carry Guggenheim PEAG.
No talk about Steve Schwarzman as an M&A dealmaker? Evaluate him as a banker, pre-BX?
Amish Barot at PJT runs the gaming and lodging space.
Don Cornwell - won almost every major gaming deal for PJT for the better half of a decade (also sold the Bills while at MS M&A)
Gayle Turk (CVP) is big in the industrials space.
She's been carrying CVP Industrials over over the LTM.
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