Riccardo dei Conti Pavoncelli is the younger son of an Italian count. He plays polo, sits at London's finest dinner tables and is married to the daughter of controversial socialite Claus von Bulow. In short, he is an obvious target for gossip columnists.
Perhaps it is not surprising that in his professional life, Riccardo Pavoncelli keeps a low profile. For a long time he was seen as the quiet man in the background at Morgan Stanley's capital-markets division behind the more publicly-orientated Michael Dee. In fact Dee used to report to Pavoncelli (he now heads debt capital markets in Asia) along with 48 others in Morgan Stanley's debt capital markets team which covers everything from acquisition financing to Eurobond issuance.
Pavoncelli joined the bank in 1988 to cover clients in southern Europe and became head of coverage four years ago. Early on he was known as "Radio Torino" for his booming voice on the trading floor (despite the fact that he is from Naples). He is now one of seven on the London operating committee of the investment banking group headed by John Stadinsky which sets the strategy for the bank in Europe.