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A day in the life of a Macquarie investment banking associate who runs laps around Central Park at lunch and showers in a luxury hotel
A day in the life of a Macquarie investment banking associate who runs laps around Central Park at lunch and showers in a luxury hotel
Madeline ShiJan 3, 2019, 02:21 IST
Verena Cavalheiro, left, is an investment banking associate at Macquarie Capital.Verena Cavalheiro
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Verena Cavalheiro is a New York investment-banking associate at Macquarie Capital.
Cavalheiro recently documented her daily routine for Business Insider.
Working as a young investment banker can be a stressful grind with long hours.
Verena Cavalheiro, an associate in the infrastructure and energy group at Macquarie Capital, deals with this pressure by squeezing in a half-hour run in Central Park at midday.
Cavalheiro, who's based in New York City, has worked as a banker at Macquarie since 2015. She was born and raised in Brazil and attended the University of Nottingham in the UK. She lives in the Financial District with her husband.
Cavalheiro wakes up at 6:45 every morning and prepares for work. Before heading to the office, she checks her email and scans the news for deal announcements. Often, she'll make early-morning calls with colleagues in Australia, Europe, or Asia. On this day she had a call with a colleague in London.
At 8:30 Cavalheiro arrived at the office in Midtown Manhattan after a half-hour commute. She often listens to podcasts on her way in, and her recent favorites include "Up First," "Planet Money," and "The Daily." As soon as she settled in at her desk, she had breakfast (oatmeal with banana and honey and a glass of water) in the office kitchen.
At 9 she had a videoconference with coworkers from the commodities and global-markets division. They discussed a green-energy principal investment opportunity with a developer in biofuels.
At 10:30 she returned her desk on the 16th floor and joined a team discussion about an ongoing deal. Her desk neighbors are a mix of analysts, associates, and high-ranking executives. No one at Macquarie works in an office, Cavalheiro said, except for the CEO, Shemara Wikramanayake, who has a glass-encased room at the bank's global headquarters in Sydney.
Cavalheiro prefers the open-office plan because it makes her more senior colleagues more approachable; she can easily pitch an idea or keep track of the progress on a deal she is working on. Here she is talking to Rob Kupchak, a senior managing director who heads the infrastructure and energy team in the Americas and sits catty-corner to her.
Despite her hectic morning, Cavalheiro squeezed in a 30-minute run around lunchtime. She ran with her colleague Jon in Central Park, three blocks from the office, and took a shower at Le Parker Meridien hotel across the street (a benefit offered by Macquarie to its employees in New York).
A sit-down meal at midday is a rarity for Cavalheiro. Most of the time she eats in front of her computer or during meetings. But on this day she ate lunch (baked salmon and cauliflower) with her colleague Sravya at the 18th-floor café in her office.
At 1:30 she briefed her colleagues on the "US Biogas 2018" conference she attended in November. As an associate, one of her duties is to participate in conferences, make industry connections, and keep abreast of trends.
After a 4 o'clock coffee run, she sat down with Austin, a recent college graduate who's working at Macquarie as an analyst. She shares her experiences with him and gives him feedback. Macquarie fosters a culture of mentorship, she said, which she has benefited from throughout her career.
At 4:30 she returned to her desk to finish up assignments, reply to email, read analyses, and make calls.
At 7, after a couple of hours of calls and emails and a dinner at the office, she attended a fundraising event held by Macquarie for the International African American Museum, which will open in 2020. Joe Riley, the former mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, and the actress Evelyn McGee-Colbert, were invited to the event.
Cavalheiro was back at her apartment in downtown Manhattan at 9:30. She and her husband enjoy food-related series on Netflix. One of their favorites is the foodie docu-series "Ugly Delicious," hosted by David Chang.
Before bed she packed for her trip to Asia for a two-week session at Insead, a graduate business school where she's earning her executive master's degree in finance. The next day she'll board the world's longest flight through a new route launched by Singapore Airlines. The roughly 18-hour voyage, from the New York City to Singapore, spans some 10,400 miles.
