By Samantha Sharf and Nathan Vardi
The rising stars of finance are making their mark on Wall Street, working at big banks like Goldman Sachs, hedge funds like Coatue Management, and private equity firms like KKR. The 30 men and women on Forbes’ 30 under 30 Finance list show yet again that some financial professionals are accumulating a tremendous amount of responsibility on Wall Street at the age of 29 or younger. Their accomplishments are impressive.
For example, Ryan Israel, 29, is a partner at Pershing Square Capital Management, the $18 billion hedge fund firm run by billionaire William Ackman that had a great year in 2014. Israel represents Pershing Square on the board of Platform Specialty Products, the publicly-traded specialty chemicals producer, overseeing a key position for Pershing Square. Israel has also been working on Pershing Square’s successful investment in
A native of Kansas City, Israel was a sitting at his Goldman Sachs desk on a Friday in 2008 when he received a call out of blue from Scott Ferguson, then an Ackman deputy, about an opening at Pershing Square. Within a few days, Israel met Ackman and the two bonded over their mutual admiration of Warren Buffett. Israel works for one of the most high-profile and combative hedge fund managers on the planet and has gotten used to the media coverage that follows Ackman’s every move. Israel is also prepared for regularly getting into arguments with his boss. “We have arguments even when we agree,” says Israel. “Bill mandates that you give your opinion forcefully and with the facts on anything in the portfolio.”
At the age of 28, Joshua Kobza is the chief financial officer of Restaurant Brands International. A former investment professional at private equity firms Blackstone and SIP Capital, Kobza now runs the financial affairs of the owner of Burger King and Tim Hortons, which is primarily owned by 3G Capital and Pershing Square Capital Management. He was Burger King's chief financial officer before he helped orchestrate Burger King's purchase of Canada's Tim Hortons, which created Restaurant Brands International.
The hedge fund industry still attracts some incredible talent. Take Vikram Modi. He is a vice-president at Two Sigma Investments, managing alpha capture research and conducting futures and currency research at the quantitative trading hedge fund powerhouse that oversees $24 billion. Modi got an undergraduate applied math degree and master’s in statistics in 3.5 years at Harvard. He is 26 and legally blind.
Some of the rising stars in finance are trying to shake things up in financial markets by starting entrepreneurial ventures. Daniel Aisen, 27, is cofounder of IEX Group, a trading platform aiming to solve perceived high frequency trading flaws hyped by Michael Lewis’ book Flash Boys, which included a profile of Aisen. A quantitative developer, Aisen previously worked at RBC Capital, where he helped developed the THOR electronic trading platform—Aisen’s name is on the THOR patent.
The private equity business remains a top destination for the best and brightest in financial services. Blackstone’s Eli Nagler, 29, sits on more corporate boards than any other Forbes 30 under 30 Finance list member. The private equity investor, who specializes in making investments in financial firms, is a director of Bayview Asset Management, Exeter Finance, Lendmark Financial, and Viva Capital. Reed Rayman, 28, is a principal at Apollo Global Management. The former Goldman Sachs investment banker helped Apollo open its Hong Kong office before returning to New York. Rayman is a board member of publicly-traded Verso Paper, playing a role in its $1.4 billion NewPage deal.
Not surprisingly, most of the rising stars in finance can be found in New York, which remains the world’s financial capital. Nineteen members of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Finance list work in New York City. London, Boston and San Francisco are each home to two 30 under 30 Finance list members. Harvard University has the most graduates on the 30 under 30 Finance list this year—one third of the list graduated from Harvard. The next most represented school: Stanford University, with four graduates. The most popular degree for the 30 under 30 in Finance is economics. Fourteen financial professionals on this year’s 30 under 30 Finance list graduated with an economics degree.
