Known as "Wall Street insiders," these experts and professionals in finance and investment work at the financial hub located in the buildings along Wall Street in New York City, holding roles ranging from fund managers to financial analysts and many others.
Among these financial elites gathered here, a select group stands out and may well shape the direction of global finance in the coming decades.
A recent Business Insider article compiled stories of 25 rising stars on Wall Street in 2025 in a piece titled "2025’s Rising Stars of Wall Street." Thairath Money highlights exciting career journeys of 12 of these individuals from diverse roles—including future dealmakers, innovators in off-market stock trading, influential builders of financial infrastructure, hot hedge fund managers, macroeconomists, and financial innovators.
Jack Levendoski is familiar with major deals such as Twitter’s sale to Elon Musk for around $40 billion, a deal closely watched worldwide in 2022.
As Managing Director of JPMorgan’s M&A group, he has worked on the largest tech deals of 2025, including Palo Alto Networks’ acquisition of CyberArk and Xero’s purchase of Melio.
Levendoski began his career as a project manager in plant engineering before joining JPMorgan in 2016, working on capital projects including oil and gas ventures in the Gulf of Mexico.
He commented on collaborating with AI, noting that artificial intelligence is commonly used in company valuations, bankers’ operations, and more. Early adoption enables finding answers to difficult questions that might otherwise require extensive research.
Lamar Cardinez once dreamed of becoming a professional American football player. When that path didn’t materialize, he pursued other roles in the sports business, starting with internships at Madison Square Garden stadium and event center.
He joined the National Football League’s program, rotating through departments such as media and public relations, business development, and marketing.
His varied experiences sparked interest in finance, leading to a senior investment role at Dyal Capital Partners (now Blue Owl).
Blue Owl established the HomeCourt Partners fund in partnership with the NBA to invest in minority stakes in sports teams, successfully growing NBA franchise values continuously from 2022 to 2023.
Cardinez's strength lies in evaluating and structuring sports team deals, transforming teams from pride assets into profitable businesses.
Patrick Kearney works in Private Equity at Apollo, focusing notably on airline and packaging company acquisitions.
In 2018, he led the acquisition of Sun Country Airlines, making aviation a key part of Apollo's business since then.
He said working with airlines is never boring due to constant challenges, from Trump-era tariff policies to aircraft investments and modernization efforts.
His acquisitions of Novolex in 2022 and the 2025 merger with Pactiv—both food packaging businesses—demonstrate his capability to expand companies and drive growth.
Alex Park plays a key role in Thoma Bravo’s credit team, a Private Equity firm specializing in software investments. He joined in 2019 shortly after the firm’s founding.
His first project involved restructuring debt for the school bus company he used as a child, sparking his interest in credit work.
Currently, he plays an important role in fundraising, securing $3.6 billion for Credit Fund III in early 2025.
His work ethic comes from the phrase "Chip on my shoulder," meaning a determined effort to prove oneself, emphasizing relationship-building and committed advising.
The data center industry has become a multi-trillion-dollar business attracting intense Wall Street interest.
Since 2022, Aman Mittal has served as Managing Director at global investment bank Moelis & Company, helping strengthen the firm’s leadership in M&A, investments, and debt deals shaping the data center sector.
Mittal studied electronics and communications engineering in his native India before earning an MBA at NYU Stern School of Business. He began his career as an analyst at Bain & Company in technology, media, and telecommunications.
He emphasized the importance of knowing what matters to a company and ensuring the firm can communicate its strategic direction to employees.
After earning a finance degree from Brigham Young University, Benson Kane joined Angelo Gordon and later became part of TPG, an alternative asset manager. As of 2023, he serves as Vice President on the firm’s Credit Solutions team.
"I love complex problems and figuring out how to solve them," Kane said.
A highlight of his work includes leading a $1 billion loan deal for Trinseo, a materials company, backed by TPG, Oaktree Capital, and Apollo.
He explained that they provide liquidity to companies needing support and help preserve businesses affected by post-COVID-19 demand declines in materials and chemicals sectors.
Kane focuses on collaborative work and positioning himself as a solutions provider, viewing this mindset as key when dealing with companies in crisis.
Christian Woo is Managing Director at Bank of America and leads the Credit Systematic Trading Strategies team, specializing in quantitative research and algorithm development in the credit markets.
He likens his work to building a Formula 1 car engine.
The technology team supplies the "raw materials."
Traders act as the "drivers."
His role is designing the "machine."
Since 2019, he has helped increase electronic algorithmic trading volumes in investment-grade credit fivefold, a notable achievement.
His key work philosophy is solving problems driven by curiosity and persistence.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jake Woodson was a distressed credit trader on a small team at Goldman Sachs that remained active.
Despite the unusual circumstances, he saw managing this historic volatility—a once-in-a-career event—as "luck in the form of a crisis."
A few years later, he was promoted to lead U.S. distressed credit trading, navigating the 2024 banking crisis’s market turmoil and generating tens of millions in profits for firms.
His career began through Columbia University's Portfolio Management Foundation program, which trains students in corporate finance and securities trading, providing real-world exposure. This opened the door for him to start at Goldman Sachs in 2014 in investment-grade credit.
Currently, Woodson leads a U.S. distressed credit trading team of about ten, including traders and researchers, working to identify market instability sources caused by forced selling or business biases.
Goldman Sachs' U.S. distressed credit trading team has ranked third in industry standings over the past two years under his leadership.
Nikunj Jain is Head of Asia Research at Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund with about $98 billion in assets. He oversees all Asian investment activities, covering key securities in the region.
The daily challenges and excitement drew him to finance initially. After university, he studied machine learning, interned at Apple, and worked for the U.S. Department of Defense. These experiences led him to Bridgewater.
Previously focused on equities and fixed income investments, he now analyzes business activities across Asia to generate trading signals for company strategies.
He views macro investing as one of the toughest challenges.
She serves as Chief of Staff to Larry Fink, co-founder and CEO of BlackRock, placing her at the heart of the world’s largest asset manager and acting as a frontline liaison to the CEO, working with business leaders and policymakers globally.
Previously, she led BlackRock’s geopolitics and research team, analyzing issues from AI competition to trade protectionism, sharing insights in seminars, boardrooms, and executive meetings.
She transformed the company’s $12.5 trillion geopolitics team into a permanent internal group at BlackRock.
She noted that demand for her team’s insights surged after the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war, as clients recognized the growing importance of national security concerns.
After about six years selling investment-grade bonds at major banks, Sarah Naylor joined Citadel Securities, a securities trading and investment banking firm.
In 2024, she played a key role launching the company’s corporate bond trading business, calling it a "once-in-a-lifetime career opportunity."
One challenge she faced was helping the firm manage the Grey Market, where bonds trade before official announcements, a critical period for clients but one that banks had struggled to handle effectively.
Banks could not immediately sell issued bonds, pricing was fragmented, and transactions were conducted by phone.
In response, Naylor proposed creating a tool to deliver real-time data and pricing, leading to the development of the "Gray Trading Panel" on Bloomberg’s platform. This experience was a valuable learning opportunity.
She currently manages three ETFs with combined assets of $24.3 billion (about 800 billion Thai baht).
Jessica Shill has said that managing these ETFs represents a key milestone in her career.
She also helped launch and develop tokenized fund strategies for Janus Henderson Investors, a global investment firm, raising nearly $800 million since the June 2025 launch.
She believes blockchain technology will improve asset management efficiency.
These are the stories of Wall Street’s rising stars who are making waves in the highly competitive global financial industry.
Source:Business Insider
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