#65 Elizabeth Crain - Current Trends in M&A and Investment Banking

Elizabeth Crain is the Chief Operating Officer and a Founding Partner at Moelis & Company where she leads the Firm’s global strategy, infrastructure, and business management functions. Elizabeth has been in the investment banking and private equity industries for over 25 years as a banker, principal, and operations executive. Moelis is a global independent investment bank that has advised on more than $3.5 trillion on transactions, with deal sizes ranging from $100 million to $160billion. Prior to Moelis & Company, Elizabeth was a Managing Director in the UBS Investment Bank where she was the Manager of the Investment Bank Client Committee and a member of the Investment Bank Board. In addition, she was both the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of the UBS Investment Banking Department Americas franchise. Before joining UBS, Ms. Crain was in the private equity industry from 1997 to 2001. She began her career in investment banking in 1988 at Merrill Lynch. Elizabeth was named one of the “25 Most Powerful Women in Finance by American Banker magazine in 2011 and 2012.   Elizabeth holds a B.S. in Economics from Arizona State University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She serves on the Board of Directors of Exscientia Ltd., the Graduate Executive Board of The Wharton School, and the Board of Trustees of The Windward School.   In this episode we cover a lot of ground, we talk about the M&A; and Investment Banking industry, the changes it went through in recent years, especially because of covid. We talk about the impact of technology, especially AI, on the business. We get into Corporate Social Responsibility, the increase in recent M&A; activities, other industry trends like SPACs and PIPEs and finish with an intro into neurodiversity, career advice, and tips for personal and professional development.