Joseph Ainslie Bear (May 28, 1878 – July 13, 1955) was an American banker who co-founded the investment bank

Bear Stearns The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The compa ...

Biography

Bear was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family on May 28, 1878 in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. He was educated in France, Germany, and Switzerland. He worked at the bond trading firm J.J. Danzig where he met Harold C. Mayer and Robert B. Stearns. In 1923, they founded

with $500,000 in capital. His first wife was Julia Pam, sister of judge Hugo Pam.

References

1878 births 1955 deaths Businesspeople from Louisville, Kentucky Jewish American bankers American bankers Bear Stearns people {{US-business-bio-1870s-stub