Kenneth D. Moelis (born 1958) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

investment banker, and founder of

Moelis & Company Moelis & Company is a global investment bank that provides financial advisory services to corporations, governments, and financial sponsors. The firm advises on strategic decisions such as mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restruct ...

, an

investment banking Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated wit ...

firm.

Early life and education

Moelis was born in 1958, the son of Gaye (née Gross) and Herbert I. Moelis, president of Equity Leasing Corporation, an office equipment company in New York, of which his grandfather, Paul I. Gross was its retired president. His father is also a breeder of thoroughbred race horses at his CandyLand Stables in

Middletown, Delaware Middletown is a town in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the town is 18,871. Geography and climate Middletown is located at (39.4495560, –75.7163207) with an elevation of . According t ...

. Moelis holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Masters of Business Administration from the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a Private university, private Ivy League rese ...

.$5 Million from Alumni Julie and Ken Moelis to Support Wharton Sports Business Initiative
University of Pennsylvania Almanac, March 4, 2008

Career

Moelis began his career at

Drexel Burnham Lambert Drexel Burnham Lambert was an American multinational investment bank that was forced into bankruptcy in 1990 due to its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by senior executive Michael Milken. At its height, it was a ...

in 1981 where he would ultimately serve as a managing director working for

Michael Milken Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier. He is known for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"), and his conviction and sentence following a guilty plea on felony charges for vio ...

in the firm's Los Angeles office. Following the collapse of Drexel, Moelis left with a portion of his team to join Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette where he served as head of its corporate finance investment banking division. Under Moelis, DLJ emerged as a prominent investment banking firm in Los Angeles in the 1990s. Following the acquisition of DLJ by

Credit Suisse First Boston Credit Suisse First Boston (also known as CSFB and CS First Boston) is the investment banking affiliate of Credit Suisse headquartered in New York. The company was created by the merger of First Boston, First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse, ...

in 2000, Moelis was named head of US investment banking of the combined firm in September 2000. However, his tenure at CSFB would be short, announcing his departure for UBS (then known as

UBS Warburg UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...

) just months later taking the core of his team with him, including a number that would later join Moelis & Company. Moelis recruited more than 70 senior investment bankers to UBS within three months of his arrival. In his six years at UBS, Moelis ultimately assumed the role of president of

UBS Investment Bank UBS Group AG is a multinational investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres as the largest Sw ...

and was credited with the build-out of UBS's investment banking operation in the United States. By the end of 2006, UBS was ranked Top 4 in the global fee pool for the first time. Moelis founded

along with several fellow senior UBS investment bankers that included Navid Mahmoodzadegan, Jeff Raich, John Momtazee, Todd Wadler, Elizabeth Crain and Warren Woo.

Other affiliations

Moelis received both his undergraduate degree and MBA from

The Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1981. Today he is a member of the Wharton board of overseers. Moelis is chairman of the

Tourette Association of America The Tourette Association of America (TAA), based in Bayside, New York, United States, is a non-profit voluntary organization and the only US health-related organization serving people with Tourette syndrome. It was founded in 1972 as the Tourette S ...

and is on the board of governors of

Cedars Sinai Hospital Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over 2 ...

. Moelis is a member of the Hillcrest Country Club. In 2011, 2014, and 2016, he was included in the 50 Most Influential ranking of

Bloomberg Markets ''Bloomberg Markets'' is a magazine published six times a year by Bloomberg L.P. as part of Bloomberg News. Aimed at global financial professionals, ''Bloomberg Markets'' publishes articles on the people and issues related to global financial mar ...

magazine.

Personal life

In 1983, Moelis married Julie Lynn Taffet in a Jewish ceremony at the Sephardic Temple in

Cedarhurst, New York Cedarhurst is a village in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 6,592 at the 2010 census. The Incorporated Village of Cedarhurst is located in the region o ...

. His sister, Cindy S. Moelis, was appointed director of the Presidential Commission on

White House Fellows The White House Fellows program is a federal fellowship program established via Executive Order by President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson in October 1964, based upon a suggestion from John W. Gardner, then the president of Carnegie Cor ...

and is married to Robert S. Rivkin who was appointed by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

as the 21st General Counsel of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT)

References

External links

The dealer's got a hot hand
Los Angeles Business Journal, October 21, 1991
Ken Moelis Waits for Bat Phone to Ring as Wall Street Rebounds
Bloomberg, August 10, 2009
The Networker:
Dealmaker, April/May 2008
Check Your Premises: An Objectivist's View of the Modern World
Adam Smith Institute YouTube Channel, December 2, 2015

Fortune, April 14, 19967 {{DEFAULTSORT:Moelis, Ken 1958 births Living people American investment bankers Jewish American bankers Drexel Burnham Lambert UBS people Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni Objectivists American billionaires Moelis family American company founders