magazine - Somerville College - University of Oxford

Somerville Magzine | 21
Earning from history
SARAH WYLES
(Ryle, 1987,
Modern History)
Noah Bulkin never imagined that studying
history at Somerville would lead to success
in the fast-paced world of investment banking,
so what changed his thinking?
It is rare these days to read ‘investment
banking’ and ‘rising star’ in the same
sentence. Finance’s high-fl yers are more
inclined than ever to seek a low profi le. Noah
Bulkin (1995, Modern History), recently
promoted to Managing Director of Investment
Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch,
and selected both as one of Financial News’
top 100 Rising Stars and Investment Dealers’
Digest “Forty Under Forty” list of the 40 most
promising fi nance professionals under 40
years old in the industry, knows that many
blame all bankers for the economic crisis.
“It has been a very turbulent environment for
our industry. Having been in this business now
for about 12 years I have been through a lot of
changes and a couple of difficult cycles. I have
learned to keep focused on what I’m doing
and maintain a long-term perspective. I am
not in the part of the business where people
risked large amounts of capital. I am primarily
an adviser to companies on mergers &
acquisitions. We are, however, part of the same
organisation as those who did take big risks.”
I thought it would be all sitting
at a desk number - crunching
and not for me
But he has remained loyal to Bank of America
Merrill Lynch – the company he joined as a
young graduate of Somerville – and explains
what it is about investment banking that
inspires him.
“When I joined the business I felt the pace of
learning I was exposed to was not available
anywhere else. That level of responsibility –
decisions that affect hundreds of thousands
of people – as well as being surrounded by
the calibre of people that I was, as clients and
colleagues, is incredibly rewarding.”
He has worked on corporate deals involving
large, household-name companies such as
Asda, Burberry, Hard Rock, lastminute.com and
WPP, and more recently has also been working
on renewable energy deals, such as EDF’s
acquisition of British Energy, fundraising for a
major offshore wind farm, and the acquisition of a
wind energy business called Novera by the UK’s
largest purely renewable energy provider Infinis.
It was not always his plan to go into fi nance.
“I was going to be a lawyer. I hadn’t even
heard of investment banking. Someone
suggested that I look at it. I thought it would
be all sitting at a desk number-crunching
and not for me. But I met with some people
at Merrill Lynch and they were extremely
impressive and seemed to have really
interesting day to day experiences.”
And it was not the fi rst time that life took
a different direction from the course Noah
envisaged. Somerville had only recently begun
to admit men when Noah applied to Oxford
and the College was not where he initially
expected to end up. First choice or not, Noah
enjoyed his time there.
“Beyond the rich experience of tutorials with
some brilliant academics, I also got a lot out of
Oxford in terms of friendships and sport, but
I could certainly have attended more lectures
and done more reading.”
Given that Noah had not even thought of
going into investment banking, he has found
his Modern History degree remarkably wellsuited
to his chosen profession. He was taught
at Somerville by Benjamin Thompson and
Joanna Innes and opted for European and
North American papers, recalling tutorials with
Clive Holmes at LMH.
“It was a way of thinking. Reading history
at Oxford, you are set a question or a
problem to consider and the fi rst task is to
fi gure out why it’s an interesting question
and what is the essence of what is being
asked. You then review a series of sources
and gather evidence to prepare your
arguments. You consider the problem from
every possible perspective because you
must be prepared to talk to a world expert
on the subject who may take the exact
opposite position from that which you are
proposing. Then you present your views
and in a cohesive and hopefully interesting
way, and try to persuade someone that you
have a compelling argument. That is exactly
what I do now in my work.”
Though Noah has found his career very
rewarding, he acknowledges that graduates
who choose similar paths have to expect
to make sacrifi ces. “With mergers and
acquisitions, there is effectively an infi nite
amount of work – there are always new
deals to think about. There is not much
defi nition between work and a social life.
You are on call 24 hours a day. I have made
real sacrifi ces and, particularly in the early
years of my career, worked an extraordinary
number of 120-hour weeks. I have not
started my own family yet and I’d like to.
A lot of people in this business face a
challenge keeping healthy and fi t because
of the lack of time. But if you are suffi ciently
motivated by the experiences and
opportunities you can have in this industry,
the sacrifi ces are all worth it.” ■
Sarah Wyles manages consumer PR for
Tesco and was formerly a business journalist
at The Observer and Guardian newspapers.