I started my investment banking career working for Goldman Sachs and then joined the fledgling investment bank, Jefferies, when it had fewer than 200 employees and an equity market capitalization of under $200 million. Jefferies was a scrappy, entrepreneurial California-based bank that was started by an ex-cattle rancher in a phone booth and dared to challenge the incumbent giants of Wall Street. Today, Jefferies is a multi-billion dollar diversified public company (NYSE:JEF).
Over almost 25 years at Jefferies, I progressed from the proverbial janitorial suite to Managing Director co-running all Digital Media and Internet investment banking activities. I’ve worked with hundreds of companies, including IBM, Google, Microsoft, Sony, Yahoo!, and Yelp. I’ve managed all aspects of capital markets, venture capital and advisory for high growth Internet and technology companies and completed over 100 transactions for a broad range of companies in the USA, Asia and Europe. I’ve worked on almost every conceivable type of corporate finance transaction including IPOs, follow-on offerings, convertibles, securitizations, and private company sales. I’ve seen it all.