 Awards for Excellence 2010 |
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| Best Global independent investment bank: Moelis & Co | |
| Also nominated: Lazard and Jefferies |
Speaking with Ken Moelis makes you want to be an investment banker. That’s a rarity these days. A glance at the number of college graduates who want to get into the industry says it all: only 10% of Wharton graduates want to go into investment banking. Says Moelis: "Investment banking used to be a great job. Investment bankers used to form lifetime relationships with clients and companies. They were considered as friends and were trusted by clients."
Moelis says that the traditional, rewarding part of an investment banker’s role faded away as financial institutions grew in size. "It became about the machine and about the balance sheet. What started off as investment banking ended up as commercial banking. Clients don’t want to have a 300-page pitch book dumped on their desk, nor a balance sheet used to sway them. They want experienced bankers who will present interesting ideas because they know the firm intimately."
Disillusioned with the evolution of investment banking since the start of his career in 1981 at Drexel, Moelis left his job as president of UBS’s investment bank and set up his own firm in 2007.