Kenneth D. Moelis (born 1958) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

investment banker. He is also the founder, chairman and CEO of

Moelis & Company Moelis & Company is a global investment bank that provides financial advisory services to corporations, governments, and financial sponsors. The firm advises on strategic decisions such as mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restruc ...

, a global independent

investment banking Investment banking is an advisory-based financial service for institutional investors, corporations, governments, and similar clients. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by und ...

firm.

Early life and education

Moelis was born in 1958, the son of Gaye (née Gross) and Herbert I. Moelis, president of Equity Leasing Corporation, an office equipment company in New York, of which his grandfather, Paul I. Gross was its retired president. His father is also a breeder of thoroughbred race horses at his CandyLand Stables in

Middletown, Delaware Middletown is a town in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the town is 24,164. Geography and climate Middletown is located at (39.4495560, –75.7163207) with an elevation of . According ...

. Moelis holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Masters of Business Administration from the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

.$5 Million from Alumni Julie and Ken Moelis to Support Wharton Sports Business Initiative
University of Pennsylvania Almanac, March 4, 2008

Career

Moelis began his career at

Drexel Burnham Lambert Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. was an American multinational investment bank that was forced into bankruptcy in 1990 due to its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by senior executive Michael Milken. At its height, i ...

in 1981 where he would ultimately serve as a managing director working for

Michael Milken Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier. He is known for his role in the development of the market for High-yield debt, high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"), and his conviction and sentence following a guilty plea on felony ...

in the firm's Los Angeles office. Following the collapse of Drexel, Moelis left with a portion of his team to join

Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) was a U.S. investment bank founded by William H. Donaldson, Richard Jenrette, and Dan Lufkin in 1959. Its businesses included securities underwriting; sales and trading; investment and merchant banking; financi ...

where he served as head of its corporate finance investment banking division. Under Moelis, DLJ emerged as a prominent investment banking firm in Los Angeles in the 1990s. Following the acquisition of DLJ by

Credit Suisse First Boston Credit Suisse First Boston (also known as CSFB and CS First Boston) was the investment banking affiliate of Credit Suisse headquartered in New York. The company was created by the merger of First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse Group in 1 ...

in 2000, Moelis was named head of US investment banking of the combined firm in September 2000. However, his tenure at CSFB would be short, announcing his departure for UBS (then known as

UBS Warburg UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major fina ...

) just months later taking the core of his team with him, including a number that would later join Moelis & Company. Moelis recruited more than 70 senior investment bankers to UBS within three months of his arrival. In his six years at UBS, Moelis ultimately assumed the role of president of

UBS Investment Bank UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major fina ...

and was credited with the build-out of UBS's investment banking operation in the United States. By the end of 2006, UBS was ranked Top 4 in the global fee pool for the first time. Moelis founded

along with several fellow senior UBS investment bankers that included Navid Mahmoodzadegan, Jeff Raich, John Momtazee, Elizabeth Crain and Warren Woo.

Other affiliations

Moelis received both his undergraduate degree and MBA from

The Wharton School The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1981. Today he is a member of the Wharton board of overseers. Moelis is chairman of the

Tourette Association of America Tourette syndrome (TS), or simply Tourette's, is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in childhood or adolescence. It is characterized by multiple movement (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. Common tics are blinkin ...

and is on the board of governors of

Cedars Sinai Hospital Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a non-profit, tertiary, 915-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital has a staff of over 2,00 ...

. Moelis is a member of the Hillcrest Country Club. In 2011, 2014, and 2016, he was included in the 50 Most Influential ranking of

Bloomberg Markets ''Bloomberg Markets'' is a magazine published six times a year by Bloomberg L.P. as part of Bloomberg News. Aimed at global financial professionals, ''Bloomberg Markets'' publishes articles on the people and issues related to global financial m ...

magazine.

Personal life

In 1983, Moelis married Julie Lynn Taffet in a Jewish ceremony at the Sephardic Temple in

Cedarhurst, New York Cedarhurst is a village in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 7,374 as of the 2020 census. The Incorporated Village of Cedarhurst is located in the region ...

. His sister,

Cindy S. Moelis Cindy S. Moelis (born 1961) currently serves as the president of the Pritzker Traubert Foundation and is the former director of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. Biography Moelis was born to a Jewish family, the daughter ...

, was appointed director of the Presidential Commission on

White House Fellows The White House Fellows program is a non-partisan fellowship established via Executive Order 11183 by President Lyndon B. Johnson in October 1964. The fellowship is one of the United States' most prestigious programs for leadership and public se ...

and is married to

Robert S. Rivkin Robert S. Rivkin (born December 6, 1960) is the Chief Legal Officer of United Airlines. Until February 2019, he was Deputy Mayor of the City of Chicago, focusing his efforts on economic development, job creation and retention, and infrastructure. ...

who was appointed by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

as the 21st General Counsel of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) Moelis funded

Yotta Savings Yotta Technologies is an American financial technology (fintech) company that offers sweepstakes games, and that formerly offered a prize-linked savings account. On May 11, 2024, due to the failure of Synapse, a fintech company on which Yotta d ...

, a prize-linked savings account

fintech Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, ...

company that was cofounded by his son, Adam.

References

External links

The dealer's got a hot hand
Los Angeles Business Journal, October 21, 1991
Ken Moelis Waits for Bat Phone to Ring as Wall Street Rebounds
Bloomberg, August 10, 2009
The Networker:
Dealmaker, April/May 2008
Check Your Premises: An Objectivist's View of the Modern World
Adam Smith Institute YouTube Channel, December 2, 2015

Fortune, April 14, 19967 {{DEFAULTSORT:Moelis, Ken 1958 births Living people American investment bankers Jewish American bankers Drexel Burnham Lambert UBS people Wharton School alumni Objectivists American billionaires Moelis family American company founders