Career Chronology
From Banker
to Management Consultant
to Entrepreneur
and CFO
Capital Markets | Investment Banking | Corporate Finance
Salomon Brothers, New York, NY
Background: During the 1990s, Salomon Brothers held the distinction of being the most profitable firm on Wall Street. With its unparalleled success in fixed income trading and its proprietary engineering of bond and mortgage derivatives, the firm built a reputation as both a market leader and a top recruiter of the smartest people in the business.
In launching my career at Salomon Brothers, I first found opportunity among accomplished market-makers — many famously profiled in Michael Lewis’ Liar’s Poker — and the complex realm of mortgage-backed securities (specifically, collateralized mortgage obligations, CMOs) and other derivative products.
From there, I moved to equity sales and trading (at the time, the David to fixed income’s Goliath at Salomon), where I caught the early days of the greatest ten-year bull market in the history of the Dow and the S&P. It was an unbelievably cool place to be. As seen from the observation deck on the 41st floor of 7 World Trade Center, the equity sales and trading floor was nothing, if not impressive.
Later, I transferred to equity underwriting and syndicate book marketing, eventually adding portfolio allocation for ultra-high-net-worth individuals to my growing skillset.
Footnote: I had already left Salomon when, in 1997, the firm was acquired by Travelers Group, parent company of Smith Barney, to become the merged entity of Salomon Smith Barney. Within a year, Travelers was merged with Citicorp to become Citigroup, and the Salomon Brothers name became a fabled part of Wall Street history.
Merrill Lynch, Los Angeles, CA
Armed with my experience from Salomon, I moved to Merrill Lynch, in pursuit of new opportunities. At the time, Merrill Lynch was lauded for its unique combination of banking, underwriting, and retail businesses, which allowed the firm to place new securities directly with non-institutional and individual clients, through its vast network of financial advisors. Merrill Lynch symbolized, for many retail investors, the chance to participate in the markets as the biggest players did, thus setting the standards for accessibility and widespread distribution.
Another of Merrill’s great advantages was its breadth of product offerings, which provided a base of knowledge across every conceivable financial instrument, from equities to insurance. Truthfully, the training and education at Merrill were second-to-none, and my time there was definitely time well-spent.
While at Merrill, I developed a talent for financial modeling and asset allocation, building specialized models to track portfolio profitability and investment alternatives for customers. With my background in corporate finance and my intuitive approach to investment forecasting, those models became the core of my success there.
NatWest/Schroders, New York, NY
In search of creative challenges, I moved to a smaller bank, where I could play a major role in developing a new equity product for institutional clients. I joined the NatWest Markets MicroCap Group (just prior to its acquisition by Schroders), to work with companies of market capitalization between $25M and $200M. This segment of the equity market offered me a very unique and interesting track for professional growth.
At Schroders, I worked on the creation, build-out, and promotion of the new MicroCap Group’s equity products, while advising research analysts, salespeople, and customers in the marketing and portfolio placement of the newly-issued equities.
Background: Although often overlooked by the bigger banks on Wall Street — due to their small floats, lower trading volume, and relative illiquidity — the equities of micro-cap companies regularly outperformed those of larger companies, by an average of 4-5% a year. For clients seeking outsize returns with moderate risk, plus an opportunity to invest early in high-growth public companies, micro-caps proved to be a very attractive investment.
Evolution: Today, however, the marketplace is somewhat different. Rather than go public at comparatively low valuations, many companies of this size and growth profile now seek funding via investments of venture capital and private equity. Doing so allows them to secure Series A and B funding to fuel growth, and to avoid many of the disclosure and regulatory requirements for public equity offerings, until their cash flow and revenue can justify loftier and more attractive valuations.
AT Kearney, San Francisco, CA
After earning my MBA, I joined AT Kearney (rebranded as Kearney in 2020), a global management consulting firm known for its entrepreneurial culture and its work in strategy, operations, procurement, and supply chain design. AT Kearney has often been cited for its highly effective approach to logistics, sourcing, and operational efficiency management. The firm was an early leader in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and IT infrastructure, through its work with former parent company EDS, and it remains strong in consumer products, automotive, energy, and industrial manufacturing, to name a few.
While at AT Kearney, I worked on a number of strategy engagements, advising clients in the financial services, outsourcing, technology, and media industries. For example, during the time that Cisco was the most valuable company in the world, I was fortunate to work on a project there, to assess the effectiveness of the compensation and incentive structure for a division of the company’s sales organization. It was actually very compelling work.
Looking back, a notable take-away from my time with AT Kearny was the development of my skills in project management and leadership, which grew out of the close interactions with external client teams and my management of internal AT Kearney staff.
By the time I left, to focus on parenting my young children, my experience at AT Kearney had given me all the tools I needed to build a successful consulting business of my own: leadership skills, business strategy know-how, and a solid foundation across operations, marketing, sales, personnel, finance, and product management.
Management Consulting | Business & Financial Strategy
Towers Perrin, San Francisco, CA
During the summer between my two years of business school, I interned at Towers Perrin (later acquired and renamed Willis Towers Watson, WTW), a worldwide leader in HR and personnel strategy consulting. At Towers, I worked on engagements for companies in the internet staffing, financial services, and oil and gas industries.
Entrepreneurship
Seed to Sapling, San Francisco Bay Area
My consulting business. Go to the Home page.
Rivus Consulting, San Francisco Bay Area
My consulting partnership, specializing in marketing and finance. See the Companies page.
the gap year project, San Francisco Bay Area
My personal passion project, to promote affordability and expand access to higher education by leveraging a post-high-school gap year. See the Companies page.
Fractional CFO | Strategic Planning, Financial Models, and Fundraising
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