fbpx

Shank To Be CEO Of Largest Minority-Owned Investment Bank Following Merger

Shank To Be CEO Of Largest Minority-Owned Investment Bank Following Merger

minority-owned investment bank
A merger involving two trailblazing African-American financial entrepreneurs is set to create the largest minority-owned investment bank in the U.S. Suzanne Shank attends the Black Girls Rock! Awards at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017, in Newark, N.J. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP). Christopher Williams image via willcap.com

A merger involving two trailblazing African-American financial entrepreneurs has been in the works for 15 years and is finally set to be completed in 2020.

Suzanne Shank and Christopher Williams — two high-powered Wall Street CEOs who ran successful New York-based financial firms – decided to merge their entities into a single company that will be one of the largest minority-owned investment banks in the U.S.

Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co. will merge with The Williams Capital Group and the new company will be known as Siebert Williams Shank & Co.

Shank will serve as the president and CEO while Christopher Williams will assume the role of chairman of the board, according to Black Enterprise.

Shank serves on the board of numerous companies and institutions including CMS Energy, Skillman Foundation, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Regional Chamber and Invest Detroit.

She also serves on the Global Citizen and Bipartisan Policy Center Executive Council on Infrastructure boards, as well as the Wharton Graduate Board of Trustees and Spelman College Board of Trustees.

“By bringing together two first-class firms, we will accelerate our collective success and greatly enhance our ability to serve our clients using a strong capital base that is now significantly larger,” Shank said in a statement.

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 67: Jamarlin Martin

Jamarlin goes solo to discuss the NFL’s entertainment and “social justice” deal with Jay-Z. We look back at the Barclays gentrification issue in the documentary “A Genius Leaves The Hood: The Unauthorized Story of Jay-Z.”

A minority-owned investment bank with a national footprint

The merger and the new company’s rebranding are expected to be completed by 2020 with offices of the new entity in New York and Oakland.

The firm is expected to have around 15 offices across the U.S. serving more than 750 institutional investors.

Both Black investment banks have been expanding their offerings and pursuing new markets including moving into corporate finance, ramping up their debt and equity transactions and focusing on infrastructure financing.