Please describe your role at the firm.

I’m a Managing Director in the TMT Investment Banking group at Guggenheim Securities, focusing on the telecom and digital infrastructure sectors. Our group provides strategic advice to clients on M&A, capital raising, and other corporate finance matters. Over the last decade, the explosive growth of AI and related technologies has amplified the critical nature of digital infrastructure that underpins the technological landscape. This has resulted in significant amounts of M&A activity and capital deployment in this sector and an opportunity for us at Guggenheim to provide thoughtful, highly strategic, and impactful advice to our clients. I find these developments fascinating, and they make my coverage universe very exciting and relevant.

Tell us about your career path and journey at Guggenheim.

I started my professional career as an engineer at a company that was a pioneer in cloud and infrastructure software, but soon realized my true interests were in something more finance-related. I pivoted to quantitative finance working for a hedge fund and then a research lab for a couple of years. Following that, I decided to pursue my MBA and joined Guggenheim as an Associate in 2016. It has been a fascinating journey at Guggenheim, being a part of the incredible growth with offices in multiple cities across the country and internationally. Despite this incredible growth, Guggenheim’s core tenets of entrepreneurial thinking, intellectual curiosity, and team-oriented culture remain strong and continue to thrive.

What are the most valuable lessons that you learned from your mentors?

I have had many mentors during my career and attribute significant lessons from those relationships, so it would be difficult to point to one individual. The common lessons I have learned from each one of them have been to surround myself with the smartest people and to remain in a state of constant learning. I have found this advice to be invaluable, and it’s also what drew me to Guggenheim: being surrounded by the smartest people in our industry.

What is the best career advice you have received?

The best advice I have received has been to know your own limitations but never shy away from the unknown because you learn the most when you embrace the unknown. Throughout my career, I have always tried to embrace this philosophy and challenge the natural tendency to stay in my comfort zone.

What is one interesting life experience you’ve had?

True to my philosophy of embracing the unknown, in 2013, I stumbled upon an opportunity to work for an investment fund in West Africa and lived and worked in Accra, Ghana, and Lagos, Nigeria for nearly a year. It was very challenging adapting to a whole new environment, and I don’t think I was fully prepared to make the move from New York. It all happened pretty quickly. Despite the challenges, it turned out to be one of my best personal and professional experiences and something I’ll always cherish.