25 hottest blacks on Wall Street - includes profiles of each finance professional - Cover Story

Black Enterprise, Oct, 1992 by Caroline V. Clarke, Frank McCoy

They raise the billions of dollars needed to build schools, repair bridges and improve the infrastructure of cities from San Francisco to Atlanta. Their deal-making drives the mergers, acquisitions, expansions and divestitures that define the evolution of international business.

They are the "25 Hottest Blacks on Wall Street," a compilation of the best and brightest investment bankers, traders and analysts in America. Responsible for deals and transactions for hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars here and abroad, these men and women are at the top of their profession.

Although BLACK ENTERPRISE has covered African-Americans on Wall Street for more than 20 years, this is the first time the publication has developed a list of this nature. Of course, not all the individuals listed actually work on Wall Street. These money mavens can be found in cities across the country: Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

The good news: Finding these bankers and traders wasn't as difficult as one might think. African-Americans can be found at the highest levels of responsibility at several of the nation's most prestigious Wall Street firms. And black finance professionals have also built impressive track records with their own investment firms.

The bad news: African-Americans at the nation's leading investment banks remain few in number, especially black women. There also is little indication that there are enough black finance professionals coming through the pipeline to improve the statistics. AfricanAmericans are a small percentage of the financial services industry. In 1991, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported there were 1.6 million people working in the industry. Five percent, or 77,000, were black. Surprisingly, 8.6% of the 766,000 financial managers, underwriters and other financial officers in the industry were black.

All the bankers interviewed were extremely concerned about the lack of AfricanAmericans in the industry. That's why most of the individuals, like William Lewis at Morgan Stanley, are aggressively pushing their companies to seriously implement programs designed specifically to recruit and hire talented and highly qualified black MBAs and lawyers. "This is not an industry that is traditionally known in the African-American community," says William Hayden, senior managing director at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. and former chairman of the National Association of Securities Professionals (NASP). "We didn't have brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers who worked for these firms like many of our peers. And because investment bankers tend not to get a lot of publicity, African-Americans in this industry need to reach out to the community."

Change also will be required of Wall Street itself. For far too long it has been a club stooped in exclusivity. Needless to say, seeking out qualified African-Americans for membership has never been a priority of chief executives of the major investment banks. However, there have been encouraging signs. For example, Morgan Stanley has contracted with James H, Lowery & Associates, a Chicago-based consulting firm, to set up and implement a program to recruit, retain and develop more minorities for the investment bank. Consultant Lowery credits Morgan Stanley with including key decision makers, such as Vice Chairman Barton Biggs, Lewis and Managing Director Eugene Flood, on the firm's Minority Development Task Force. "In past efforts of this nature," Lowery explains, "the task forces have been composed of lower-level executives and nondecision makers. Because key decision makers were not a part of the process, they didn't buy in, so the task force's recommendations just gathered dust."

Organizations such as NASP have also worked to foment change. Founded in 1985, NASP represents minority investment bankers, bond lawyers, commercial underwriters, investors and brokers, among others, Its goal as a nonprofit organization is to promote professional excellence and equal opportunity for access in careers and business transactions in public and corporate finance. Its current chairman, Malcolmn Pryor of Pryor, McClendon, Counts & Co. is on BLACK ENTERPRISE'S Wall Street all-star list. To contact the National Association of Securities Professionals, call or write: c/o Pryor, McClendon, Counts & Co., 1360 Peachtree St. NE, Suite 880, Atlanta, GA 30309; 404-875-1545.

After three months of investigation, BLACK ENTERPRISE editors and reporters were able to gather a list of about 60 names of senior-level individuals who roughly met our requirements. Interviewing dozens of investment professionals, we realized just how small the universe really was as we kept hearing the same names over and over. Once the eligibility requirements were established, it was clear which 25 would make the cut.

To be eligible for the list, a candidate must work for a domestic investment firm as an investment banker, trader or analyst. Portfolio managers, asset managers and retail brokers were not included in our search. Individuals had to have annual compensation packages (including salary, bonus, stock options and pension plans) starting at $300,000. This figure is higher than the requirements for two other similar lists that BLACK ENTERPRISE has compiled over the last five years. The minimum compensation package for "The 25 Hottest Black Managers in Corporate America" was $250,000 (See February 1988) and for the "21 Women of Power and Influence in Corporate America", it was $100,000 (see August 1991 .)