What inspired you to join Bernstein?
Before I joined Bernstein in 2013, I had the privilege of engaging with some of its people. The language they used, their articulation, the confidence with which they advised were like nothing I’d experienced to that point. I wanted to be a part of it.
The people at Bernstein have the highest integrity, and there’s not much self-congratulation or even self-interest driving this group. That’s rare in this business. They’re also some of the smartest people I’ve worked with, and they compete fiercely.
The capital markets have a way of humbling everyone eventually. What sets this group apart is how maniacal they are about getting it right and getting better every single day. Iron sharpens iron, and that’s the environment I wanted to build my practice in.
It comes down to wanting to play at the highest level, on what I believe to be the best team, in the most competitive industry. If you want to be great at what you do, you surround yourself with people who share that same obsession.
How have your values and personal background distinctly positioned you to work with your clients?
Most of my career was spent on the institutional side, working for endowments, foundations and professional investors. That background is exactly what I bring to Bernstein: institutional-caliber thinking applied to individuals and families.
What stuck with me in those previous roles were the moments when an institution would bring me in to meet the founder behind the capital or the family behind the foundation. That’s when I learned why the money mattered: what someone had sacrificed to build it, and what they wanted it to do for the next generation.
As a husband, a father of two daughters and a brother to a sister who was taken too young, legacy is something I ponder often. It will be my life’s work to ensure that the wishes people make while living will endure for generations. That’s not a professional talking point for me—it’s personal.
Who has been the most influential person in your life?
My grandfather. His father died when he was young, and his mother, an Italian immigrant, was left to raise seven kids on her own. My grandfather got a job and a mentor at the same time. He worked, he learned, he never stopped—and eventually he bought the company from the man who’d taken a chance on him. He grew it into a regional business that employed people across the community and changed the trajectory of my family.
Often, family success stories can be traced to a single person who consciously decides to break the cycle. Not through luck, but through refusing to accept “average” and through outworking every setback and every doubt until the whole family tree bends toward something better.
That was my grandfather. And it’s the same standard I hold myself to, for my clients and for my own family. Founders and business owners who’ve built something real usually have a version of this story somewhere in their past. I understand that instinct because I was raised by it.