The 75 Most Powerful Blacks On Wall Street

(Thursday, September 21, 2006 )

The October issue of BLACK ENTERPRISE features the magazine's "75 Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street."

This year's list includes 30 top-tier professionals, including cover subjects Raymond McGuire, managing director & co-head, global investment banking, Citigroup; and William M. Lewis Jr., managing director & co-chairman, investment banking, Lazard Frères & Co.

Another 33 are entrepreneurs who head the largest black-owned investment banks, asset management companies, and private equity firms. Whether they are heading major departments, managing core businesses, or running their own firms, the executives highlighted have a significant impact on their companies' bottom lines.

BE's editorial team spent six months conducting extensive research to identify the members of this financial elite. This year's list outnumbers the previous three, topping out at 75, including seven professionals who have appeared on all three of the previous lists: Citigroup's James F. Haddon and Raymond J. McGuire, Bear Stearns' William H. Hayden, Lazard Fréres' William M. Lewis Jr., Merrill Lynch's E. Stanley O'Neal, Utendahl Capital Partners' John O. Utendahl, and Morgan Stanley's George L. Van Amson. One reason for the expanded list is the growth of the private equity sector, the area in which 18 of the executives operate.

In 1992 and 1996, only two women made the most powerful on Wall Street list-Michelle L. Collins, principal of William Blair, was one of them. In 2002, six women made our roster. This year's list features 11 women, including Collins, who resurfaced as co-founder of private equity firm Svoboda, Collins L.L.C., and newcomer Amy Ellis-Simon, head of multiproduct sales for Merrill Lynch. Ellis-Simon appeared on our "Up and Coming African Americans on Wall Street" list in 2002.

Although the impact of the "75 Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street" is undeniable, the number of African American financial managers with such a significant influence remains relatively small. "African American movement within the industry has seen slow and steady progress, with incremental increases in minority recruitment," says P. Michelle Holton, manager of inclusion at Edward Jones and chairwoman of the Securities Industry Association's Diversity Committee.

Movement within the pipeline into senior management has remained inert. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, representation of African American officials and managers is highest in the areas of banking/credit at 7% and lowest in the securities industry at 4.4%.

Pictured left to right: BLACK ENTERPRISE Chairman & Publisher Earl G. Graves Sr., Raymond McGuire, Managing Director & Co-Head, Global Investment Banking, Citigroup; William M. Lewis Jr., Managing Director & Co-Chairman, Investment Banking, Lazard Frères & Co.; and BLACK ENTERPRISE President & Chief Executive Officer Earl G. "Butch" Graves Jr.

Wall Street is still viewed as an exclusive club-a bastion of white male privilege. But John W. Rogers Jr., chairman and CEO of Ariel Capital Management L.L.C. says it's not that African Americans are intentionally being kept out of the industry, but that "when deals are being cut, we just aren't even thought about." Still, BE continues to recognize those African Americans who have excelled in the ultra competitive financial industry, showing how they have achieved success in the epicenter of the global economy.

The selection criteria for the "75 Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street," along with comprehensive profiles of the professionals on the list, is available in the October 2006 issue of BLACK ENTERPRISE, available on newsstands September 26, 2006.

Artice from BLACK ENTERPRISE