Investment Banker biography playbook
Mandates, sectors, and the deals that survive scrutiny.
What the reader is hiring this bio to do
The audience for an IB bio is split between current and prospective clients, recruiters at competing banks, and journalists. Each reads the same bio for different signals: sector depth, deal frequency, and seniority.
Credibility signals to include
- Sector coverage (consumer, healthcare, TMT, financial sponsors, energy).
- Deal-type focus (M&A, capital markets, restructuring, leveraged finance).
- Public deal experience by name and approximate size when allowed.
- Title and team — managing director, director, VP, associate.
- Educational pedigree where it adds signal, omitted where it does not.
Avoid in this industry
- Confidential client lists, sealed-deal teasers, or numbers your bank has not disclosed.
- Self-graded superlatives ('top dealmaker').
- Listing every analyst program you completed.
- Bios that read as identical to every other MD bio at the bank.
Structure
Preferred structure for the bio
A reliable order that performs in this field. Adjust to the venue.
- 1Current title, bank, group, and sector.
- 2Deal experience by category, with a representative public transaction or two.
- 3Tenure at the bank and prior firms.
- 4Education, where it is part of the bank's house style.
- 5Community boards, charitable involvement, or industry association service.
Tone
How this industry's bios should sound
Restrained, factual, conservative. Avoid the first person. Avoid sentence ornament. The bio should sound like it could appear in the firm's annual report without alteration.
Lengths
Recommended lengths by venue
Openings
Opening formulas that work in this field
Open with title, group, and sector — house-style for most banks.
Daniel Marek is a Managing Director in Goldman Sachs's Industrials group, where he focuses on aerospace and defense M&A in North America.
Worked examples
One hundred words. Fifty words.
Daniel Marek is a Managing Director in Goldman Sachs's Industrials group, where he focuses on aerospace and defense M&A across North America. Over the past fifteen years he has advised on more than forty announced transactions in the sector, including the 2022 sale of Triumph Aerospace Structures and the 2024 carve-out of Howmet Forging Solutions. Daniel joined Goldman in 2010 and was previously an associate at Lazard. He holds an MBA from Wharton and a BA from Williams. He serves on the board of the New York chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
Daniel Marek is an MD in Goldman Sachs's Industrials group, focused on aerospace and defense M&A in North America. Forty-plus announced transactions over fifteen years, including Triumph Aerospace Structures (2022) and Howmet Forging Solutions (2024). Wharton MBA, Williams BA. Board, Habitat for Humanity NY.
Vocabulary
Words to reach for — and words to handle with care
Cross-references
Frameworks and voices this playbook pairs with
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