Today's Top Bankers on The Street. Who are they?
I've recently been reading a bunch of books: M&A Titans, Barbarians at the Gate, Den of Thieves, Predators Ball, Big Deal: 2000 and Beyond, Rainmaker....among others.
It has me wondering. Who are today's top bankers? Are there any legends-in-the-making out there currently? Is this question even relevant being that banking as an industry in general has completely changed?
These books all clearly outlined the top guns back in the 1980's era (give or take). Perhaps bankers will never be as influential again. Looking at Drexel's alumni it appears that anyone who worked there went on to become billionaires (exaggeration - kinda)...perhaps they inherited some of Milken's genius (or connections?). Anyways...
Why is this question relevant? Because rather than go after prestige alone (Goldman, JPM, Morgan), I'd like to align myself with a top banker and follow him wherever he goes. I view this as the best strategy to my long term success in banking (assuming my desire is to stay in banking).
Whom do you consider to be the new deal-makers?
Here are a few suggestions to (hopefully) get the conversation going. Feel free to rip them to shreds:
1. Ken Moelis
2. Frank Quattrone
3. Sage Kelly (Kinda died off)
4. Kurt Simon
5. Stephan Feldgoise
Definitely Ken Moelis and I. Moelis was able to get into the Saudi Aramco deal, inspite of the government's usual dealings with JP Morgan. As for myself, well, you know. If you don't know, I'm sure there's a biography of me somewhere out there...
Frank Q. not tooting his own horn: Not happening.
Are you that fellow who's been throwing MS at me every time I do that?
A few I could think of, no particular order, just the big names. I would like people to add to the list as well
Paul j Taubman
Allen Schwartz
Roger Altman
Definitely PJT and Altman. And I believe you work in Guggenheim. A simple game of 'one is not like the others' narrows the field.
I actually don't. I just met him one time and really liked the guy. Might not be in the same bucket as the two but all I could think of at the time
Not sure if someone working at Guggenheim would misspell Alan Schwartz, unless it's a ploy to make you think that they don't work at Guggenheim...
PJT yep. i think that's the man. but i do not feel that there are any other Mike Milken's out there. perhaps if Leon black didn't go into PE but he's doing such a good job at what he does so ... Andrea Orcelli had he not pussied out of pure banking to get into mgmt ? The Zaoui brothers if they stop procrastinating and get back seriously in the game ?
Early movers in FinTech might be notable as well
Who are some well known FinTech bankers?
if only at boutiques then probably --McLaughlin at FT Partners
Why Ken Moelis is so good? Anybody knows? Apparently he is not advertising the secret of his success. Very curious.
Founded Moelis. Raided UBS LA for their best people. Created a top notch bank within 8 years, and netted some of the best advisory deals.
Thanks, I know his accomplishments are those.
But how did achieve those accomplishments I mean? Why he is so good?
See here bud: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2016-09-28/ken-moelis-influencer-…
Me.
Also Frank just want to congratulate you on a fantastic mustache. Well done.
+SB'ed for compliment.
+SB. Frank, your mustache is exemplary. It alone is enough to get you on this list.
Many of these suggestions are kind of dumb quite frankly and I think very much rooted in history. Why don't we suggest JP Morgan while we're at it? I'd be curious as to who people think the best bankers are who still actively cover clients. Perhaps I'm wrong but I highly, highly doubt any of the names suggested (Taubman, Altman, Moelis et al.) still attend pitches / meetings with any frequency. While somewhat similar I would think Michael Kline might be up there given their deal flow although having worked with them on a file I'll say I wasn't particularly impressed.
Yes, you are wrong. Taubman, Altman, and Moelis attend meetings and pitches all the time.
Agree 100% with you on Klein - worked on the other side of a deal with him / his team and was pretty shocked actually at the quality of work coming out of their shop.
Sorry, to clarify, were you agreeing that the quality of work by Klein's shop is not very good? That's surprising given Klein's credentials, I'd imagine his team would be good as well.
I'm surprised Michael Kramer wasn't mentioned...I consider him one of the top bankers if not the face of restructuring.
Do you guys think the there will ever be another self made financier billionaire in our generation (guys born 1985 and later)? I don't think so and believe those days are far behind us, industry is in structural decline, and much more incredibly difficult to achieve alpha.
Without a doubt
whats your reasoning for saying yes?
Pretty much any of the partners at one of the elite boutiques that have been established over the past few years.
Michael Grimes?
Seconded
I sat with Moelis at a meeting. Definitely him 100 times over. The guy still sees tons of clients and pitches. Really great guy to talk with too.
I agree with Ken Moelis. I would also add Aryeh Bourkoff. He is much more niche but he is excellent at what he does
I think your head is in the right place but I don't think that's really feasible. You should focus on getting into your desired industry first...it's one of the most exclusive careers around and I doubt you'll have so many offers you can shop around that much or deside to work alongside a rainmaker out of the gate.
You can try to get an idea of culture and choose the best fit between offers and you should definitely try to find a mentor or someone you can learn from and get advice from in the workplace. They'll be able you help you grow and give advice on how to navigate new territory as you come to it. You'll be able to find someone after you've settled in and gotten an idea of the landscape.
Michael Zaoui and Yoel Zaoui (http://zaouico.com/the-founders/)
how is their boutique doing? why have they closed so few deals in 2016?
They came with a bang, went off the scene with not so much as a smoke.
If you're hoping to "align yourself with a top banker and follow him wherever he goes" then you should definitely not consider Sage Kelly. Just Google his name to look at some of the stuff he was accused of... sure maybe not all of it is true, but I know of people at his former group who have some pretty wild stories.
There is def at least one guy who followed Sage to Cantor. Guy took JEF -> Some BB -> Cantor after Sage went and also in HC
I would add Joe Perella, Bob Greenhill, and Blair Effron as well
Michael Klein is one. Citi's former head of IB. Runs a one man shop now. Advised the UK's government during the global financial crisis, acquisition of Lehman by Barclays, Dow-Dupont, Glencore-Xstrata, Saudi Aramco IPO (as a financial adviser, without a capital markets team), a couple Barrick deals (a company led by Goldman alum John Thornton who was head of Europe and Asia), among others. Worked with him on a few co-advised deals. He is very smart, charismatic, and has a lot of very important people's ears. But he's also an elbow's up, politicking person (you kind of have to be to get that high).
Amanda Staveley should come up there somewhere, especially considering she doesn't have a college education and hustled all the way through.
She dropped out of Cambridge. It's unusual for people in high finance not to have a college degree, but she wasn't dumb by any means.
Dropout yes, but do you see any body without a college degree advising sheikhs, bright or not?
Probably not equivalent to the guys (and gal) mentioned but the late Matthew Simmons (started Simmons & Co now part of PJC) famous for his Peak Oil theories and Skip McGee...both well known and respected Energy guys.
Dang...had to get to the last comment to see that my idea was taken.
Though he moved to Carlyle and seems to have gone off grid recently, Oliver Sarkozy was killing it before. Terrific FIG banker and he moved through the ranks very quickly.
This is the dude who' married one of the Olsen twins?
Wow! Just wow! She looks like a skank though, now
Strong point
Frank, do you ever go by "The Tank"?
Not really. Rarely get the opportunity to do that, with the age and everything.
Bretton James Louis Zabel Gordon Gekko
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crazy to me that no one has mentioned blair effron. he would be at the top of my list.
Gene Sykes. Jack Levy.
Ken Jacobs
Moelis.. What a legend!
Delete
Rob Santangelo is a rain maker at CS, surprised he hasn't been mentioned yet
Heard some good things about Antonio Weiss before he left Lazard
I heard that guy Aryeh Bourkoff at LionTree is half decent...
regarding moving up the ranks FAST... John Waldron at GS, guy replaced Weinberg in his mid-40s to become co head of IB at GS, made partner in his early 30s, doesnt get much more impressive than that unless you pull a Moelis/Quattrone/PJT... he might even be in line to replace Blankfein
From where I sit, I think Ian Smith (Managing Director at Allen & Co.'s San Francisco office) is one of the top bankers in tech right now (as in still actively running deals) and has been involved in some of the most important tech deals of the last few years. Microsoft Acquisition of Linkedin, The spin-off of PayPal from EBay, AirBNB's giant $450MM Series D raise, Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp, among others.
Check out the full list on his LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iangsmith
Nice!
Best part about his linkedin profile: "Private investor in Airbnb, Dropbox, Minted, Quantcast, CarGurus, Patreon, Xapo, Knotch, etc."
Extremely bad to eat your own cooking
Allen & Co. operates in a "Federated" type of business model, right? Although they share infrastructure (Analysts, back office, etc.) and the name on the door, all the big guys operate like their own mini-businesses (MD's get paid straight-up commission on the revenues they generate if I'm not mistaken) and have their own mini P&L's to maintain. So I guess Ian Smith chooses to operate like a mini Merchant Bank, like a BDT Capital (Byron Trott) but for Tech.
Jim Cramer Dennis Gartman
Byron Trott is probably worth mentioning.
I think that most people are missing the point. What all of these guys have in common is that they've started in outstanding firms and rose through the ranks in some of the most competitive teams in IBD.
I think that you're strongly underestimating the importance of working at one of the major BB's. Making it to the top at JPM/GS/MS is extremely hard, and by top I mean the heads of coverage/product groups in major offices (i.e. London and New York).
What I learned from banking is that the best advisers are the ones who have 1) an incredible amount of information, 2) a tremendous network and 3) can communicate effectively. And the combo of these three is by far bigger at GS/MS/JPM. It's not even close.
I'm telling you this, because before i started working in BB I underestimated the quality of the most senior people. I quickly learned that there is a reason why they run the whole thing.
Agree with MS and GS having the highest quality MDs but there's nothing about the bankers at JPM that make them stronger than MDs at BAML, C, CS etc. It's a balance sheet bank with some good bankers and some weak ones but I feel like the quality of people there gets way overstated on this forum.
There's definitely a difference between those three and JPM. 1) JPM does have a much stronger banking franchise overall - it actually leads league tables in some sectors in M&A.. 2) If it's just a balance sheet bank, why does it have better IBD performance than BAML, C, CS, UBS, HSBC?
Clint Garten
Gary Parr
Josh Rosenbaum, carries the Industrials group at RBC and lands mandates for half the other groups too lol
Zaoui: the Ronaldo of M&A
Which two books were your favorite?
the late Jimmy Lee
So who are the next giants of the space? The young superstar MDs that will be running the show in a few years?
I'm surprised there hasn't been a rainmaker league table. For a business that's based heavily on relationships, I would have imagine there would have been a service / site that tracked the deals that have been executed and which individual banker was tied to that deal. All the league tables we see right now are at the 'Bank' level but we never really see the breakdown on the actual advisors. I search a couple threads and found this: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/the-rainmakers-behind-the-top-10…
This guy is not a rainmaker but I thought he should be pointed out as I think this is pretty impressive...
"General Electric Co’s (GE.N) healthcare unit said on Monday it would sell its information technology business to private equity firm Veritas Capital for $1.05 billion in cash as it sharpens its focus on smart diagnostics and connected devices........Morgan Stanley and Keval Health are GE’s financial advisers, while Goldman Sachs & Co. and William Blair & Co advised Veritas Capital."
Who the fuck is Keval Health you ask? Good Question! A quick LinkedIn search reveals that Keval Health is one guy by the name of Vishal Gandhi....
A quick scan of this guy's LinkedIn profile reveals he is ~36 having graduated in 2004. Moreover, his entire senior banking career has been spent at boutique MTS Health Partners. For a 36 year old MD, with no senior experience at a BB or EB, running a one-man shop, I'd say this is a very impressive advisory assignment to land. It will be interesting to see if he can keep the momentum going.
for energy definitely stephen trauber of citi
50 most influential people in finance (Originally Posted: 09/10/2011)
50 most influential people agree or disagree? I for one don't understand why the governor of the mexican central bank is ranked 2nd.
They're not ranked. It's in alphabetical order by sector (policy maker, banker, thinker, etc)
i'll rank them in the spirit of WSO by success in their own field (not influence)
Haha what an apple fanboy you must be... Jobs doesn't even belong on the a finance list
Nassim Taleb's on there. That's really interesting.
Lloyd Blankfein :) Even though GS is now in the doldrums, they'll ultimately pick themselves up, have always succeeded after numerous crises, e.g. Penn Central. Even though this crisis is different in terms of magnitude and consequences with Dodd-Frank Act, I'm sure they'll get past it with the best brains in town.
Umm..Lloyd Blankfein is a FOOL he completely failed in keeping GS's piranha practices on the down-low. Under his leadership, GS has become one of the most hated companies in America. He talked about "gods work" and then lied in front of the senate in ways that be easily proved. The people of GS are obviously tops, but the CEO is hardly exceptional- but given his position is highly influential- easily "top 50 influential in finance" The best Wall street CEO has obviously been Dimon- He learned well under the tutelage of the great deal-maker Sandy Weill and put it to work.
Well, I agree that Blankfein failed to anticipate the part about GS becoming the poster boy for Wall Street hatred by Main Street, which was the cost of making shit loads of money during the subprime crisis when everyone else was getting battered so badly.
Haha I must admit that Dimon is great, though he didn't learn everything from Weill. Weill certainly left out the part about screwing your protege after he helped to build the Citigroup empire, which was a classic 'burn the bridge' move. Dimon was fucked upside down and left in the sand after Weill fired him. I'm really glad that he managed to stage a comeback through Bank One, that was really the best life story I know of in our time.
seems to be missing lots of hf and pe big shots, what the fk are they doing leaving out bx o0
Bloombergs 50 Most Influential People in Global Finance (Originally Posted: 09/23/2012)
What do you think of the list? Who would you include?
Link: Bloomberg Markets' 50 Most Influential
What's up with the last four guys? May as well include Aubrey McClendon.
I got to tell you, this Russian porcupine Yuri Milner (No. 6) hit it big with Facebook when he put $200 MM in it back in 2009 -at a FB valuation of $10 Bn. His lockup will expire one year after the IPO (in May 2013) when he'll unload and make (at least) x 5 the money.
According to their intro slide Bloomberg selected their 50 by:
Yet, they missed Einhorn.I don't see how Chase Coleman is influential. Great stock picker, yes (although his record is still too short to arrive at a definitive conclusion), but he almost never speaks in public about his views, and he doesn't wield the same type of power that Buffett or Dalio do. The guy is pretty secretive.
I think Einhorn is not in it because they base it on current influence and I don't think Einhorn yield much influence last year. That's probably the reason why Coleman is in it too as he was numero 1 last year. I think it is fairly safe to say that the number 1 hedge fund manager by returns this year will be on the list next year.
I would include myself.
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