The Financial News Rising Stars in European capital markets

The Financial News rising stars list was conceived as a companion piece to the FN100 ranking of the most influential individuals in European capital markets, published in June. The rising stars identifies individuals aged under 40 from across the securities industry with the potential to make the FN100 in future.

However, gauging that potential was difficult. Age could not be the sole criterion, as the pace of career progression is different in various sectors. Few investment bankers, for example, stand out before the age of 30, as they tend to be caught up in the hierarchy of their firms before getting the chance to shine. By contrast, promising fund managers are usually in charge of their own fund before entering their fourth decade.

Entrepreneurial sectors, such as private equity and hedge funds, supply many of the more youthful people on the list. Both industries are luring young talent away from investment banks and traditional fund management firms. The alternative investments industry might provide talented individuals with an early break, but they cannot boast the financial muscle of a bulge bracket bank or institutional fund manager. Hence, the firm an individual works for was also taken into consideration.

In an attempt to give some structure to the process, we marked individuals on four main criteria: what they have achieved (breakthrough); who helped to guide their careers (mentor); what resources they had at their disposal (firepower); how likely it was they would make it in to the FN100 (potential). The total was divided by their age to produce their velocity ranking (see below).

The results produced a number of themes. For example, women feature more heavily than in the FN100, although still account for only one in 10 of the rising stars. A new generation of female financiers may be breaking through the glass ceiling in the securities industry, but that ceiling still exists.

This year’s revival of the M&A market means there are more investment bankers on the list than there would have been 12 months ago. Many have recently been promoted to managing director and will hope to cement their reputations in 2006. Debt capital markets bankers are more prominent than their equity counterparts. Derivatives experts are also well represented.

We look forward to charting the progress of those we have singled out from among many contenders. No doubt, this will be the highlight of some careers. For others, it will be just a stepping stone on the way to the top.

James Rutter and Ben Wright, editors