Back to blog Investment Banks – Deal Makers per Firm
At Private Equity Info, we track the senior level executives at the various investment banks. I thought it might be interesting to look at the number of investment bankers per firm to gauge what an industry-wide “normal” middle market investment banking firm might look like.
Firm Size Histogram
The chart below shows the break-down of middle market investment banks by number of deal makers at each firm:
For this study, I limited the data to middle market firms in the United States. By middle market, we mean the typical deal size they work on, not the size of the firm itself. Further, to count dealmakers per firm, I limited the data to those executives with titles of Vice President and higher, (excluding Analysts, Associates, office staff, HR, marketing, etc.).
Larger Firms
At the larger end of the spectrum, there are 18 firms with more than 50 deal makers (including a few with more than 150 deal makers). Representatives of the largest middle market firms include:
- Lincoln International (Chicago, IL)
- Evercore (New York, NY)
- GCA Corporation (San Francisco, CA)
- Molis & Company (New York, NY)
Small Firms
At the other end of the size spectrum, there are a lot of single-person shops actively working on middle market deals. These are often managing directors who have left larger investment banks to start their own hyper-efficient firms using their established industry networks. A random sampling of single-dealmaker middle market firms:
- DGP Capital (Houston, TX)
- Growth Partners (Calabasas, CA)
- Lockhart Group (Dayton, OH)
- Next Meridian (Chapel Hill, NC)
- WhiteRock Capital Partners (New York, NY)
Median-Sized Firms
The median investment bank (as measured by the number of dealmakers) has only 4 deal makers plus one or two junior bankers and typically one or two support staff – around 8 people total. There are 148 firms in our M&A research database that fit this exact profile (421 if you count firms with 3, 4 or 5 deal makers). The following dozen firms provide a (random) representative sample of what a “typical”, median middle market investment bank looks like across the country (shown in alphabetical order):
- Acquest Advisors (Houston, TX)
- Allison-Williams (Minneapolis, MN)
- Bulkley Capital (Dallas, TX)
- Jacobs Capital (Chapel Hill, NC)
- Lexbridge International Mergers & Acquisitions Group (Burlington, MA)
- Macadam Capital Partners (Portland, OR)
- MelCap Partners (Medina, OH)
- Sperry, Mitchell & Company (New York, NY)
- Stoneworth Financial (Houston, TX)
- The Lenox Group (Atlanta, GA)
- VRA Partners (Atlanta, GA)
- White Oak Group (Northfield, IL)
Demographics of a Middle Market Investment Banker
Using just the 12 median-sized firms above as a representative sample (admittedly a small sample size), I compiled some demographics.
Education
- 65% of these executives had a Master’s degree, most often an MBA with a concentration in Finance.
- Undergraduate studies were from a variety of universities, but MBAs centered around the major business schools (Columbia, Harvard, Chicago, Wharton).
Below is a list of universities attended by the senior-level staff at each firm for both undergraduate and master’s degrees. Each row is a unique executive.
Universities Attended
| Undergraduate | Masters |
| Union College | Boston University |
| Robert Morris University | Cleveland State University |
| Trinity College | Columbia |
| Yale | Columbia |
| Pennsylvania State University | Drexel University |
| University of North Carolina | Emory University |
| University of Southern California | Emory University |
| University of Vermont | Georgetown University |
| University of Kansas | Harvard |
| University of Kansas | Harvard |
| University of North Carolina | Harvard |
| University of Virginia | Harvard |
| University of Wisconsin | Kellogg |
| Colgate University | New York University |
| University of Oregon | Portland State University |
| Georgetown University | Texas A&M |
| Malone University | University of Akron |
| Columbia University | University of Chicago |
| Princeton University | University of Chicago |
| University of Pennsylvania | University of Chicago |
| University of Georgia | University of Georgia |
| Bethel University | University of Minnesota |
| Davidson College | University of North Carolina |
| Duke University | University of North Carolina |
| Duke University | University of North Carolina |
| University of North Carolina | University of North Carolina |
| Middle Tennessee State University | University of Tennessee |
| Dartmouth | Wharton |
| St. Olaf College | Wharton |
| Stanford University | Wharton |
| Cleveland State University | — |
| Cornell | — |
| Dickinson College | — |
| Gettysburg College | — |
| Harvard | — |
| London School of Economics | — |
| Ohio State University | — |
| St. John’s University | — |
| University of Colorado | — |
| University of Houston | — |
| University of Oregon | — |
| University of Texas | — |
| Vanderbilt | — |
| Walton School of Commerce | — |
| Wesleyan University | — |
| Wharton | — |
Age
Although the age of the founding partners for these representative firms ranges from ~45 to ~70 years old, most are tightly distributed around mid-50’s. Considering most of these firms have been around for a while, a good assumption is that the founders likely started their firms while in their 40’s.
Gender
The senior executives in this representative sample of firms were 96% male, 4% female. I find this fairly consistent with the mix of people attending M&A conferences. Unfortunate.
Summary
Perhaps the demographic profile provided (mid-50’s, predominantly male, Finance MBA from a top school) might be useful to business development executives wanting to more specifically target these fragmented I-bankers working on middle market deals – particularly for private equity firms reaching out to generate new deal flow.
