Meet the Rockefeller family's new rainmaker
- Wall Street rainmaker Greg Fleming is the CEO of the Rockefeller family's new investment firm, Rockefeller Capital Management.
- Fleming is counting on the cachet of the Rockefeller name to help in growing the firm from $18.5 billion in assets under management to $100 billion.
- He also believes the Rockefeller philanthropic legacy will help in courting millennial customers, who increasingly demand social impact from corporations.
"My 84-year-old father, my 18-year-old son, and me in the middle, they all have the same reaction to the Rockefeller name, it's almost unique in that regard."
So says Greg Fleming, the new rainmaker for the Rockefeller family, of the distinct advantage he's been dealt as he takes the helm of the legendary oil family's new investment shop.
Fleming, a Wall Street veteran who previously held top roles at both Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, is now the CEO of Rockefeller Capital Management, an investment and advisory firm owned in part by the Rockefeller family and in part by the private-equity arm of Viking Global.
The new company was announced last fall and just officially launched last week.
It's trading hard on the Rockefeller brand, and Fleming isn't shy about touting the benefits of global name recognition as he grows a combination of businesses catered toward advising and managing money for the ultra wealthy.
The Rockefeller name, which oil titan John D. Rockefeller burnished in the late 19th century by amassing one of the largest business empires and personal fortunes on earth, has "tremendous, tremendous brand resonance," Fleming told Business Insider.
"Obviously the family started with spectacular success on the business side, so the name is still wrapped up in that sense with capitalism," Fleming said.
Since announcing the firm's creation in October, the name has already attracted interest from people looking to sell their companies to the relatively modest Rockefeller Capital, which has roughly 200 employees and $18.5 billion in assets under management.
Fleming, who has a thick Rolodex of Wall Street contacts, says many believe "Rockefeller is bigger than it is today, because the name is such a unique and blue chip name."
He indicated that acquisitions may play a role in his goal of pushing Rockefeller Capital's assets under management to $100 billion in the next five years.
Banker to Jeter and the Mooch, and deep ties to BlackRock
Rockefeller Capital is a carve-out of the asset and wealth management operations from the Rockefeller family's financial services firm, serving institutional investors like pensions and endowments. It will also provide dealmaking advice to corporates and rich clients as part of a strategic advisory business.
It's an interesting hybrid of businesses, neatly suited for a banker with an interesting set of experiences across Wall Street.
Since leaving Morgan Stanley in 2016 Fleming has garnered headlines for banking high-profile clients like Derek Jeter, who is part of a group that bought the MLB's Florida Marlins for $1.2 billion, and Anthony Scaramucci, who began working to divest his investment firm Skybridge Capital prior to his brief dalliance with President Donald Trump's administration.
Fleming will continue banking well-capitalized businessmen and families looking to buy, sell, or take companies public, in addition to managing the overall firm.
But he's quick to point out that in addition to M&A, he's also uniquely experience in the asset and wealth management businesses.
He ran the wealth management division at Morgan Stanley for a handful of years, and the business reported to him while he was at Merrill Lynch.
He's also done ample work for the largest asset manager in the world, $6.3 trillion behemoth BlackRock. He helped take the company public in 1999, and he sold Merrill Lynch's asset management business to BlackRock in 2006 and subsequently landed a spot on the company's board.
Larry's letter, and courting a millennial opportunity
Given the BlackRock ties, it's no surprise that Larry Fink's name and ethos is top of mind for Fleming. Fink made waves earlier this year when he sent a letter to public company CEOs admonishing them to start prioritizing their social impact.
Companies have shown an increasing willingness to cater to the progressive values held by the younger, more economically valuable generation - see the rash of corporate reactions in the wake of the Parkland shooting massacre.
Fleming sees this trend as an advantage for his firm in courting younger, millennial clients - his son's generation, rather than his own or his father's.
In addition to its worldwide renown for capitalist success, the Rockefeller name also carries a more than 100-year legacy of philanthropy and billions given toward causes like education, health, food, and energy.
Unlike previous generations that focused more exclusively on shareholder return, millennials have demonstrated a demand for companies that care about the greater good in addition to the bottom line.
"You have Larry Fink come out and say companies need to be clear about their sustainable footprint and their impact on the environment and they need to be offering clear, clear plans on that," Fleming said. "That's not something you were seeing 20 or 30 years ago. We think that's here to stay and will continue and that millennials will be major drivers of that."
It's especially relevant to Rockefeller Capital's wealth management business.
As Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein recently commented while discussing his firm's bustling wealth-management business, "The world seems to be growing rich people faster than we can grow advisers to cover them."
These new millionaires will increasingly come from the millennial generation - the largest on earth - whose investable wealth represents a giant growth opportunity for Rockefeller Capital.
Investing in the environmental, social, and corporate governance space and "bringing those capabilities to clients, that's a big focus for us and we think it's a major growth area," Fleming said.