- Joined
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Yael Bizouati
August 13, 2007
On a sultry July evening at Tennisport tennis club in Long Island City, Queens, investment bankers matched wits on the courts while, courtside, grills offered barbequed fare and fellow players looked on, sipping glasses of chilled white wine.
Beyond the courts and regular thwack of tennis balls, onlookers could survey the East River and Manhattan's skyline. Were it not for the tall buildings, the scene could have played out in a backyard of a home in Greenwich, Conn., or the North Fork of Long Island. The setting also served as just another example of how Wall Streeters take time out from spreadsheets, bond yields and pitch books for friendly competition out of the office. It is a scene that plays out on soccer fields, softball diamonds, basketball courts, and more routinely, on golf courses.
On this particular summer evening, not everyone was focused on wine, food or the fresh air. On indoor clay courts, the corporate team of Societe Generale played an intense doubles match with the corporate team of Barclays, revealing the same stamina, competitive spirit and determination that they bring to their office lives.
"This is a great way to understand the actual characteristics of different banks," says Reza Watts, an associate in global financial risk management at Barclays and most importantly - at least for that evening - the bank's tennis captain. "The banks you would expect to be cutthroat and predatory in business are the same banks that are cutthroat and predatory on the courts," he says. "You can really see the competitive spirit of some banks."
Watts, being a true sportsman, did not serve up the names of the more aggressive Wall Street banking tennis teams. Asked about Barclays' personality on the court, Watts admitted that "we're definitely one of the most laid back of all the teams."
Watts has played on the Barclays tennis team for three years. The team has two separate groups of players in two divisions, with 40 to 50 rotating players. While the atmosphere is generally friendly in the two divisions, the Barclays captain says some teams (read: longtime rivals) get extremely serious about rules and make sure they are followed closely, with no room for exceptions. Again showing his sportsmanship, Watts declined to name any specific banks, adding that Barclays allows "rules to be bent, and we can win without getting into fights."
Competition doesn't end at the office
Jean-Baptiste Piette, a vice president of export finance at Societe Generale and a member of his bank's tennis squad, sees his team as "very competitive off the court as well as on the court."
Of course, competition between banks is not always taking place between the white lines and, indeed, doesn't always have to be heated. There's golf, for instance, ideal for the walking and talking that can allow uninterrupted discussion to learn more about a client or hash out the beginnings of a deal. But for an adventurous few, there's the more vigorous activity of lacing up hockey skates and racing across the blue line with workmates at venues like New York City's Chelsea Piers.
"I have worn three different numbers: 40, my age at the time, 50, my age at the time, and I am wearing 60 now," says Greg Milmoe, a partner and co-head of corporate restructuring at law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, where he has been involved with such high-profile cases as Refco and Long-Term Capital Management. Milmoe, who was nursing bruises from a recent hockey game, admits that "golf probably is less sexy, but more of a client-oriented sport."
Winning's not everything, but...
The culture of an investment bank - its competitive spirit - becomes evident in almost any sports endeavor. It shows up among players in the front line of a soccer or hockey team. Martin Lanternier, a BNP Paribas project finance associate and captain of the bank's ice hockey team, says that his team, on the ice once a week at Chelsea Piers, approaches games in the same fashion that it deals with business. Within the office, there are e-mails sent back and forth, briefings, debriefings, advice and thorough analysis of past games' moves before and after each match. "It's rather funny. When we started the league, it was just about playing. Now, they just can't stand to lose a game," Lanternier says.
Damien Jouvent, a BNP Paribas equity derivatives trader on the bank's indoor soccer team, says that while his team never came to fisticuffs on the field, the games can be rather "aggressive" as many teams come straight from work, ready to uncork the stress and energy of a work day. "You need to be feisty, it's a quick game, you need to fight until the end, and you need reflexes that you typically find working on markets," Jouvent says. "In that sense, it's pretty similar to our business, and it reinforces our dynamic."
Jouvent and his team - professionals from the equities and derivatives businesses - play once a week at Chelsea Piers, usually between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Thursday evenings. They square off against other banks, many European, including Societe Generale, Deutsche Bank and ABN Amro. "Playing with the team brings confidence - it reinforces relationships and creates a human dimension, beyond the mere professional one," Jouvent says.
Milmoe, whose firm is active in mergers and acquisitions, agrees that playing sports with office colleagues and clients can cement relationships. "I don't think transactions get done as much. [But] relationships get enhanced. You are able to get to know people as people as opposed to their stock roles," says the Skadden partner.
The firm's hockey team includes bankers from Wall Street firms that it advises, in addition to its own employees. "You don't have to work at Skadden. [But] you have to wear the team colors proudly," Milmoe quips.
Many of the bankers who play in corporate leagues are no newcomers. Most have played on college teams, and some have even played professionally. "A good deal of people in this industry are former professionals and semipro and college athletes," says Nick Sheumack, a managing director in the investment banking division of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. "And so are many of our clients, which is particularly inspiring and motivating." Sheumack played semiprofessionally after having played Division I in college and taught tennis for two years before going to business school. "Wall Street is a very comfortable environment for athletes," he says. "You are constantly searching for the best performance for yourself and for your clients, and the skills are rather transferable to this business. You tend to draw on a lot of analytical skills you learned as an athlete."
Sheumack plays mostly with industry counterparts at his local club. He does not play as often as he would like, he says, noting that the opportunity to play tennis at times seems to be inversely proportional to deal activity. "Basically, I'd prefer being busy on deals and serving my clients," he says. "If you have ever played sport at a high level, you appreciate what it means to be consistently working on your game. In this business, I tend to find myself consistently working for my clients. So if I am playing too much sport, I'm not working hard enough to create opportunities for my clients."
Although athletics provide people in the industry with an interesting network of additional relationships, for Sheumack, it represents an escape from work. In his experience, players don't talk shop much. While there may be, from time to time, business or deal opportunities, people don't typically go overtly seeking them out. But the power of having pockets of time with a client or co-worker has allure for many Wall Street professionals.
"In the banking industry, in New York especially, people are moving quickly, so it's good to have contacts and keep them," says Lanternier. "In a different way, it's more beneficial for the business, even if you don't directly do business with them."
Many bankers agree that the parallels between the banking and athletic worlds are bountiful, whether they are analytical, technical, social or cultural. Sheumack points out that although it's very competitive, there is also a great deal of camaraderie among even the most intense players. "You come to work, you work long hours, you compete hard, often against the same competitors, but it's a healthy competition. I believe Wall Street is a very fitting environment for athletes. The skills learned and refined as an athlete are quite transferable to this business - technical competency, creativity, analytical skills, adaptability and persistence."
Andrea de Cholnoky, co-head of Wall Street practice at executive search firm Spencer Stuart, says potential employers like to see candidates who have been part of team sports. "It gives them confidence, and shows they worked in an environment where they tried to achieve something as a group, where they think of themselves as a critical member of an entity that accomplishes a goal. It's not a requirement, but in my experience, people like to see it."
Another important factor in joining a corporate league, and one that many players mentioned, is that teammates can develop friendships at a time in their lives when other opportunities to do so are few. BNP Paribas' Lanternier recalls the plight of a newly arrived investment banker in his New York office who "never saw the daylight," rarely left the office and didn't have time to have a social life. After joining the hockey team, the banker confessed to Lanternier that without the outlet of a sports team, he would have "jumped out of the window." The BNP Paribas executive also recalled that when some players leave a bank, "they become sentimental about the team."
Meanwhile, Wall Street dealmakers are well known for looking at rankings - who is tops in mergers and acquisitions, underwriting corporate debt, and selling IPOs. So it should be no surprise that one's team ranking carries great importance.
"The competition increases people's performance overall," says Tom Deutsch, associate director at the American Securitization Forum (ASF). He plays both in ASF's softball league and on Uncle Caddy, the soccer team of law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, which includes many securitization lawyers. "You have to step up your game and focus more on what you're doing," Deutsch says. "You're not doing it in a complete vacuum."
For many professionals, whether they are picking up a racket, a golf club or hockey stick, the only downside to their extracurricular activities is the limited opportunities to practice and play because of long hours in the office. In fact, on that hot evening in Long Island City, the match was set for 8 p.m. to allow bankers enough time to make the transition from work to play.
"If it started at 6:30, it would be impossible and no one would ever come," says Watts. "Usually we play until 10, and then some of us go back to work."
August 13, 2007
On a sultry July evening at Tennisport tennis club in Long Island City, Queens, investment bankers matched wits on the courts while, courtside, grills offered barbequed fare and fellow players looked on, sipping glasses of chilled white wine.
Beyond the courts and regular thwack of tennis balls, onlookers could survey the East River and Manhattan's skyline. Were it not for the tall buildings, the scene could have played out in a backyard of a home in Greenwich, Conn., or the North Fork of Long Island. The setting also served as just another example of how Wall Streeters take time out from spreadsheets, bond yields and pitch books for friendly competition out of the office. It is a scene that plays out on soccer fields, softball diamonds, basketball courts, and more routinely, on golf courses.
On this particular summer evening, not everyone was focused on wine, food or the fresh air. On indoor clay courts, the corporate team of Societe Generale played an intense doubles match with the corporate team of Barclays, revealing the same stamina, competitive spirit and determination that they bring to their office lives.
"This is a great way to understand the actual characteristics of different banks," says Reza Watts, an associate in global financial risk management at Barclays and most importantly - at least for that evening - the bank's tennis captain. "The banks you would expect to be cutthroat and predatory in business are the same banks that are cutthroat and predatory on the courts," he says. "You can really see the competitive spirit of some banks."
Watts, being a true sportsman, did not serve up the names of the more aggressive Wall Street banking tennis teams. Asked about Barclays' personality on the court, Watts admitted that "we're definitely one of the most laid back of all the teams."
Watts has played on the Barclays tennis team for three years. The team has two separate groups of players in two divisions, with 40 to 50 rotating players. While the atmosphere is generally friendly in the two divisions, the Barclays captain says some teams (read: longtime rivals) get extremely serious about rules and make sure they are followed closely, with no room for exceptions. Again showing his sportsmanship, Watts declined to name any specific banks, adding that Barclays allows "rules to be bent, and we can win without getting into fights."
Competition doesn't end at the office
Jean-Baptiste Piette, a vice president of export finance at Societe Generale and a member of his bank's tennis squad, sees his team as "very competitive off the court as well as on the court."
Of course, competition between banks is not always taking place between the white lines and, indeed, doesn't always have to be heated. There's golf, for instance, ideal for the walking and talking that can allow uninterrupted discussion to learn more about a client or hash out the beginnings of a deal. But for an adventurous few, there's the more vigorous activity of lacing up hockey skates and racing across the blue line with workmates at venues like New York City's Chelsea Piers.
"I have worn three different numbers: 40, my age at the time, 50, my age at the time, and I am wearing 60 now," says Greg Milmoe, a partner and co-head of corporate restructuring at law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, where he has been involved with such high-profile cases as Refco and Long-Term Capital Management. Milmoe, who was nursing bruises from a recent hockey game, admits that "golf probably is less sexy, but more of a client-oriented sport."
Winning's not everything, but...
The culture of an investment bank - its competitive spirit - becomes evident in almost any sports endeavor. It shows up among players in the front line of a soccer or hockey team. Martin Lanternier, a BNP Paribas project finance associate and captain of the bank's ice hockey team, says that his team, on the ice once a week at Chelsea Piers, approaches games in the same fashion that it deals with business. Within the office, there are e-mails sent back and forth, briefings, debriefings, advice and thorough analysis of past games' moves before and after each match. "It's rather funny. When we started the league, it was just about playing. Now, they just can't stand to lose a game," Lanternier says.
Damien Jouvent, a BNP Paribas equity derivatives trader on the bank's indoor soccer team, says that while his team never came to fisticuffs on the field, the games can be rather "aggressive" as many teams come straight from work, ready to uncork the stress and energy of a work day. "You need to be feisty, it's a quick game, you need to fight until the end, and you need reflexes that you typically find working on markets," Jouvent says. "In that sense, it's pretty similar to our business, and it reinforces our dynamic."
Jouvent and his team - professionals from the equities and derivatives businesses - play once a week at Chelsea Piers, usually between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Thursday evenings. They square off against other banks, many European, including Societe Generale, Deutsche Bank and ABN Amro. "Playing with the team brings confidence - it reinforces relationships and creates a human dimension, beyond the mere professional one," Jouvent says.
Milmoe, whose firm is active in mergers and acquisitions, agrees that playing sports with office colleagues and clients can cement relationships. "I don't think transactions get done as much. [But] relationships get enhanced. You are able to get to know people as people as opposed to their stock roles," says the Skadden partner.
The firm's hockey team includes bankers from Wall Street firms that it advises, in addition to its own employees. "You don't have to work at Skadden. [But] you have to wear the team colors proudly," Milmoe quips.
Many of the bankers who play in corporate leagues are no newcomers. Most have played on college teams, and some have even played professionally. "A good deal of people in this industry are former professionals and semipro and college athletes," says Nick Sheumack, a managing director in the investment banking division of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. "And so are many of our clients, which is particularly inspiring and motivating." Sheumack played semiprofessionally after having played Division I in college and taught tennis for two years before going to business school. "Wall Street is a very comfortable environment for athletes," he says. "You are constantly searching for the best performance for yourself and for your clients, and the skills are rather transferable to this business. You tend to draw on a lot of analytical skills you learned as an athlete."
Sheumack plays mostly with industry counterparts at his local club. He does not play as often as he would like, he says, noting that the opportunity to play tennis at times seems to be inversely proportional to deal activity. "Basically, I'd prefer being busy on deals and serving my clients," he says. "If you have ever played sport at a high level, you appreciate what it means to be consistently working on your game. In this business, I tend to find myself consistently working for my clients. So if I am playing too much sport, I'm not working hard enough to create opportunities for my clients."
Although athletics provide people in the industry with an interesting network of additional relationships, for Sheumack, it represents an escape from work. In his experience, players don't talk shop much. While there may be, from time to time, business or deal opportunities, people don't typically go overtly seeking them out. But the power of having pockets of time with a client or co-worker has allure for many Wall Street professionals.
"In the banking industry, in New York especially, people are moving quickly, so it's good to have contacts and keep them," says Lanternier. "In a different way, it's more beneficial for the business, even if you don't directly do business with them."
Many bankers agree that the parallels between the banking and athletic worlds are bountiful, whether they are analytical, technical, social or cultural. Sheumack points out that although it's very competitive, there is also a great deal of camaraderie among even the most intense players. "You come to work, you work long hours, you compete hard, often against the same competitors, but it's a healthy competition. I believe Wall Street is a very fitting environment for athletes. The skills learned and refined as an athlete are quite transferable to this business - technical competency, creativity, analytical skills, adaptability and persistence."
Andrea de Cholnoky, co-head of Wall Street practice at executive search firm Spencer Stuart, says potential employers like to see candidates who have been part of team sports. "It gives them confidence, and shows they worked in an environment where they tried to achieve something as a group, where they think of themselves as a critical member of an entity that accomplishes a goal. It's not a requirement, but in my experience, people like to see it."
Another important factor in joining a corporate league, and one that many players mentioned, is that teammates can develop friendships at a time in their lives when other opportunities to do so are few. BNP Paribas' Lanternier recalls the plight of a newly arrived investment banker in his New York office who "never saw the daylight," rarely left the office and didn't have time to have a social life. After joining the hockey team, the banker confessed to Lanternier that without the outlet of a sports team, he would have "jumped out of the window." The BNP Paribas executive also recalled that when some players leave a bank, "they become sentimental about the team."
Meanwhile, Wall Street dealmakers are well known for looking at rankings - who is tops in mergers and acquisitions, underwriting corporate debt, and selling IPOs. So it should be no surprise that one's team ranking carries great importance.
"The competition increases people's performance overall," says Tom Deutsch, associate director at the American Securitization Forum (ASF). He plays both in ASF's softball league and on Uncle Caddy, the soccer team of law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, which includes many securitization lawyers. "You have to step up your game and focus more on what you're doing," Deutsch says. "You're not doing it in a complete vacuum."
For many professionals, whether they are picking up a racket, a golf club or hockey stick, the only downside to their extracurricular activities is the limited opportunities to practice and play because of long hours in the office. In fact, on that hot evening in Long Island City, the match was set for 8 p.m. to allow bankers enough time to make the transition from work to play.
"If it started at 6:30, it would be impossible and no one would ever come," says Watts. "Usually we play until 10, and then some of us go back to work."