Homepage
PR Newswire
14-09-2014, 08:49 AM
Obama's Wolf from Wall St
John Kehoe
2838 words
13 Sep 2014
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2014. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.
Washington A seriously well-connected Wall Street player, Robert Wolf decided to abandon an illustrious career in banking to help US President Barack Obama achieve his aims, writes John Kehoe.
Businessman Robert Wolf remembers the decisive moment when he decided to throw in his 28-year career on Wall Street. As one of the most recognised figures in New York finance circles, serving as chairman of UBS Americas, Wolf then did the almost unthinkable; he joined the official campaign to re-elect United States Democrat President Barack Obama.
Two years later, Obama is on the nose with sections of corporate America, who regularly complain the president is anti-business, imposing stifling regulation and fuelling class resentment.
Wolf, a gregarious character who is a serious player on Wall Street and connected in Washington, is sticking loyally by his "friend" and regular golfing partner though.
Named one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Finance by Worth magazine, the financier found himself in the middle of a highly charged political debate through 2012.
He had become the business confidant of the president, who was campaigning to be re-elected for a second term. But Obama was championing tough regulations for the financial sector in a serious, but partly populist, pitch to voters in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown that drove the US and world economies into recession.
Bankers had supported Obama's bid in 2008 and donated generously to his campaign. Obama raised $US71 million from people who worked on Wall Street, the largest ever donation to a presidential candidate from the finance sector.
But four years later, financiers turned against the president and were championing former private equity executive Mitt Romney for the most powerful position in the world.
"Let's just say it was an interesting experience," an expansive and sociable Wolf tells AFR Weekend from his New York office on Madison Avenue. "There is no question I was standing in the middle of this exciting experience. The rhetoric was interesting during the campaign from both sides [and] there was a lot of rhetoric around the globe.
"There would be some friendly debates, sometimes not as friendly."First meetings
After first meeting Obama in 2006 at an event organised by billionaire investor George Soros, Wolf followed up with a couple of private dinners with the then senator. Soon he became an outside business adviser and began raising campaign funds for him on Wall Street.
Wolf and his wife Carol, a corporate attorney, held the first New York campaign event for Obama in March 2007, a time when the senator was running about 10th in the presidential primary race.
During his 18 years at the Swiss investment bank UBS, Wolf had served on its group executive board, as president of the UBS global investment bank, global head of fixed income and chairman and chief executive of UBS Americas. But at this stage, Obama would sometimes drop by Wolf's office to practise his lines for debates on financial regulation.
Understanding the financial world is necessary for any successful politician these days, given the economy is front and centre in most election debates. Australian Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, NSW Premier Mike Baird and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key are all former bankers. So, short of being a banker, having one on your team can be an asset to appear financially savvy and help speak the language of the financial world.
Wolf's close friendship with the leftist president did not always rub well with local peers or superiors in Switzerland though. Some thought Wolf was teaming up with their adversary.
On the cusp of the 2012 US election, Wolf, who had just turned 50, realised he had to make a career choice because his dual roles had become less compatible.
"I kind of said to myself, 'I want to get more engaged with the campaign,' " Wolf says. "There are only so many hours in the day. So I decided to move."Staunch Democrat
Many business leaders identify with the pro-business, small government philosophies of the Republican Party. Wolf's Democrat beliefs go back to his roots.
"I think I was born that way," Wolf says.
"My name is Robert. My brother is John. We were both born in Boston, in 1960 and '62 respectively. Do I need to say more?"
Boston is home to the famous US political family, the Kennedys. Wolf was named by his parents after Robert F. Kennedy. Today, Wolf is vice-chairman of the Robert F. Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights. Wolf grew up near Boston in the affluent coastal town of Marblehead, one of America's oldest towns, renowned for its yachting and fishing. However, he preferred playing the more physical sports of baseball, basketball and football.
His surprise exit from UBS in July 2012 was partly driven by the personal affinity he struck up with the energetic president.
"We're about the same age, we had two young kids," Wolf says. "He was against the war [in Iraq] at the time, I was against the war. I believe that we needed healthcare reform. His mother passed away of cancer; my dad was going through cancer, although I'm happy to say he's now cancer-free.
"We're both Ivy League guys, we're athletes who had a lot in common. I felt that this country was ready for a real change. We've become incredibly close ever since and we're friends."
Among the family photos in Wolf's office is a picture of him dribbling a basketball around Obama in what appears to be a semi-competitive game of one-on-one. "You can see he's on his heels," Wolf jokes.
Wolf's eldest child, aged 20, is at college and he has a 17-year-old kid in high school, a similar age to Obama's eldest 16-year-old daughter.
"He's a great family man," Wolf says of Obama. "We've had some really great conversations about raising kids and family. That's always fun to talk to him about, what it's like to be a father."
The families enjoy the same holiday destination of Martha's Vineyard, a popular island in Massachusetts. It's where Obama recently played eight rounds of golf on his summer vacation, in between dealing with riots in response to the shooting of a black teenager by a police officer in Ferguson and overseeing airstrikes in Iraq. While Obama was criticised for playing golf immediately after holding a press conference to denounce the militants who had beheaded an American journalist in the Middle East (he later admitted the "optics" were not good), it's difficult to begrudge busy leaders taking a break like the rest of us.Finance reform needed
After going against the grain on Wall Street, Wolf says executives in financial services need to be "thought leaders" and "take a stance". There had not been a major overhaul of financial regulation since the Great Depression in the 1930s, he adds.
"Wall Street was too leveraged and it was time to make sure everyone understood the risks. If you were in on the weekend of Lehman [before the firm filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, September 15, 2008] like I was, then you would have realised we didn't have the tools."
Wolf, who gets by on 5½ hours sleep a night, slept little in those scary days as other banks came within days of failure. He adds the job does not define him. "What defines me is my ethics, reputation, being truthful to me, family, friends and our clients."
On Wall Street, Wolf is known for his larger than life character and self-confidence. Says a former senior colleague, "He's a great self-promoter, but nonetheless he is a good guy and has done a lot of good things with charities."
Wolf serves on the Leadership Council for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, the Athletics Board of Overseers at the University of Pennsylvania and is a graduate member of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy.
Two years after his biggest career decision, Wolf says he has gained a unique perspective into the increasingly symbiotic worlds of business and politics. "Whether or not people like the intersection of Wall Street and Washington, connecting government and financial services is a trend we're seeing around the globe.
"I think regulation for good or bad, rightfully or wrongfully is a bigger part of the business society today. Maybe that's because we live in a post-recession, slow growth environment and the government's role is to assist a lot of the private sector."
Wolf has set up a cross-border advisory firm, 32 Advisors, that seeks to capitalise on his knowledge of business and government. The firm was named after the football jersey number he wore playing fullback winning two Ivy League Championships for the University of Pennsylvania in 1982 and 1983. "I was a good high school player," Wolf says. "It was great to be on a great college team."
Since Obama was elected in 2008, Wolf has served as a member of the President's Economic Advisory and Recovery Board led by former Federal Reserve chair Paul Volcker, the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness chaired by General Electric chief Jeff Immelt and the Export Council headed by Boeing president James McNerney.Deal maker
Before joining Team Obama, Wolf's professional focus was deal-making; he had paid less attention to economic policy issues.
"All of those things have been a great education for me, combining what I've learned on Wall Street with what's going on in the global economy," Wolf says.
"We don't focus on that on Wall Street. We're always about the transaction pipeline . . . I was able to see things I would never have been part of."
A key learning for Wolf was that the US drastically underperforms the rest of the world in exports and in attracting foreign investment. Exports account for about 14 per cent of US GDP. In export-driven Germany, exports contribute 51 per cent of GDP.
Foreign direct investment into the US has fallen by about one-third since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Wolf attributes this decline to a range of factors.
These include protectionism, over-regulation (something Obama has been criticised for), lack of immigration reform (a policy Obama is pushing but which is being blocked by Republicans), companies taking advantage of cheaper labour overseas, the rise of China as a competitor and barriers to entry being lowered around the world.
"One day I was at a meeting that the president was having with [then] Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton and they talked about this new quasi agency called SelectUSA," Wolf recalls.
"I'd never heard of it on Wall Street, you never hear about foreign direct investment."
SelectUSA is a government agency that seeks to highlight the advantages that the US offers as a location for business investment.
Experiences like these explain why a key part of Wolf's 32 Advisors business is advising foreign firms on how to invest in the US, on international trade and cross-border investment.
"It felt to me there was an incredible gap around the globe on what we call cross-border advisory," Wolf says.
Wolf began his finance career in the 1980s at Salomon Brothers, the colourful financial institution where the firm's senior bond traders referred to themselves as "big swinging dicks".
Salomon, once the powerhouse bond firm of Wall Street, was later caught up in a trading scandal in 1991 that almost forced the firm to file for bankruptcy. Legendary investor and major shareholder Warren Buffett was forced to step in as chairman to try and rescue the firm before it was eventually sold.Literary connection
A year after Wolf began at Salomon, the now esteemed finance writer and author of several famous books about the excesses of finance, Michael Lewis, arrived.
"I know Michael," Wolf says, his eyes lighting up. "You've read Liar's Poker and it just fits very well for an athlete to be at Salomon Brothers," he says with a chuckle, referring to his college football days.
Scattered around Wolf's office are Boston Red Sox and Celtics signed sports memorabilia, a world wrestling championship belt and a golf putting game.
Despite his admiration for his former colleague, Wolf disagrees with recent claims made by Lewis in his latest book, Flash Boys.
Claims by Lewis include that high-speed computer trading has made the stock markets "rigged".
"Michael is one of the greatest writers that we have and so much fun to talk to," Wolf says.
"But I do not think the markets are rigged. But I actually do think we do have to really look at the whole idea of what I call 'front running.' "
Front running occurs when high-frequency traders use their superior technology to anticipate trading patterns ahead of other investors and make easy winning bets on the financial markets. However, it existed long before computers, through word of mouth between traders.
Over his career, Wolf's management style has evolved. He is considered a "straight shooter" who constructively challenges colleagues in a very transparent fashion.
"He constantly tells the team that nothing is more important than your reputation and lives by the view that if you don't want to read it in the front page of the paper then you likely shouldn't do the deal," says 32 Advisors chief operating officer Lauren Clancy, who jumped ship from UBS with Wolf.
Wolf attributes his management style and success partly to his college football background. "Being on a team and being a competitive athlete is a great thing. I think it has actually helped my success having that kind of competitive spirit."Gathering of old squares
Last year, the 1983 championship team celebrated its 30th anniversary and got together at University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field. Wolf jokes, "We used to have more of a V shape, but now we're now kind of built like a square."
Wolf feels at home at the university. The west side of the stadium is home to the Robert Wolf & Family stadium scoreboard, which he helped fund as a gift. On leadership, Wolf believes there are many facets to successful management of people, starting with education.
"I think a good leader is well educated – whether that is book smarts or street smarts," Wolf says. "You have to be an incredibly hard worker because people look up to those people who work hard.
"He has to be ambitious, somewhat competitive and willing to be constructively challenged and constructively challenge."
Beyond leadership, one of Wolf's key learnings through his career is the need to be a risk taker.
"Being a risk taker is incredibly important for moving ahead. You've got to take prudent risks but you've got to take risks."
His decision to quit UBS and jump on Team Obama is testament to this belief.
"I know there's more I can do than work for two very large firms," he says.
Still, Wall Street's reputation has taken a battering since the financial crisis. Taxpayer-funded bailouts of banks, mis-selling of toxic mortgage securities, rigging of market interest rates, money laundering and helping American clients dodge taxes by funnelling money into tax havens head a long laundry list of wrongdoings.
Wolf insists that 32 Advisors is "not a bank" and is a "very strategic advisory firm"Early riser
Yet he still has an incredible passion for the markets and rises most mornings around 5am to read the financial press and prepare for the work day as if he is still a trader.
Old habits from his Salomon Brothers' days are hard to break.
Despite the reputational hit to bankers, if Wolf was leaving university as a 21-year-old today, he would still not hesitate to veer to Wall Street. Originally he planned to go to medical school after majoring in healthcare administration at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
"I think working on Wall Street is an incredible profession to come into," Wolf says. "Over the last 30 years I've been in it, you're around great smart people, it's incredibly dynamic. I like to think of it as a free education every day. There is always something new you're learning.
"There is no doubt you have up and down cycles across Wall Street, but overall if I was coming out of Wharton again I would take the same turn as I did last time."
And despite being a competitor, there is one thing Wolf is prepared to concede. Having played golf with the president on the previous weekend at the Fort Belvoir army base in Virginia, I ask who is the better golfer?
"He is," Wolf says. "He happened to play great that day."
Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited
Document AFNR000020140912ea9d00030
John Kehoe
2838 words
13 Sep 2014
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2014. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.
Washington A seriously well-connected Wall Street player, Robert Wolf decided to abandon an illustrious career in banking to help US President Barack Obama achieve his aims, writes John Kehoe.
Businessman Robert Wolf remembers the decisive moment when he decided to throw in his 28-year career on Wall Street. As one of the most recognised figures in New York finance circles, serving as chairman of UBS Americas, Wolf then did the almost unthinkable; he joined the official campaign to re-elect United States Democrat President Barack Obama.
Two years later, Obama is on the nose with sections of corporate America, who regularly complain the president is anti-business, imposing stifling regulation and fuelling class resentment.
Wolf, a gregarious character who is a serious player on Wall Street and connected in Washington, is sticking loyally by his "friend" and regular golfing partner though.
Named one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Finance by Worth magazine, the financier found himself in the middle of a highly charged political debate through 2012.
He had become the business confidant of the president, who was campaigning to be re-elected for a second term. But Obama was championing tough regulations for the financial sector in a serious, but partly populist, pitch to voters in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown that drove the US and world economies into recession.
Bankers had supported Obama's bid in 2008 and donated generously to his campaign. Obama raised $US71 million from people who worked on Wall Street, the largest ever donation to a presidential candidate from the finance sector.
But four years later, financiers turned against the president and were championing former private equity executive Mitt Romney for the most powerful position in the world.
"Let's just say it was an interesting experience," an expansive and sociable Wolf tells AFR Weekend from his New York office on Madison Avenue. "There is no question I was standing in the middle of this exciting experience. The rhetoric was interesting during the campaign from both sides [and] there was a lot of rhetoric around the globe.
"There would be some friendly debates, sometimes not as friendly."First meetings
After first meeting Obama in 2006 at an event organised by billionaire investor George Soros, Wolf followed up with a couple of private dinners with the then senator. Soon he became an outside business adviser and began raising campaign funds for him on Wall Street.
Wolf and his wife Carol, a corporate attorney, held the first New York campaign event for Obama in March 2007, a time when the senator was running about 10th in the presidential primary race.
During his 18 years at the Swiss investment bank UBS, Wolf had served on its group executive board, as president of the UBS global investment bank, global head of fixed income and chairman and chief executive of UBS Americas. But at this stage, Obama would sometimes drop by Wolf's office to practise his lines for debates on financial regulation.
Understanding the financial world is necessary for any successful politician these days, given the economy is front and centre in most election debates. Australian Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, NSW Premier Mike Baird and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key are all former bankers. So, short of being a banker, having one on your team can be an asset to appear financially savvy and help speak the language of the financial world.
Wolf's close friendship with the leftist president did not always rub well with local peers or superiors in Switzerland though. Some thought Wolf was teaming up with their adversary.
On the cusp of the 2012 US election, Wolf, who had just turned 50, realised he had to make a career choice because his dual roles had become less compatible.
"I kind of said to myself, 'I want to get more engaged with the campaign,' " Wolf says. "There are only so many hours in the day. So I decided to move."Staunch Democrat
Many business leaders identify with the pro-business, small government philosophies of the Republican Party. Wolf's Democrat beliefs go back to his roots.
"I think I was born that way," Wolf says.
"My name is Robert. My brother is John. We were both born in Boston, in 1960 and '62 respectively. Do I need to say more?"
Boston is home to the famous US political family, the Kennedys. Wolf was named by his parents after Robert F. Kennedy. Today, Wolf is vice-chairman of the Robert F. Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights. Wolf grew up near Boston in the affluent coastal town of Marblehead, one of America's oldest towns, renowned for its yachting and fishing. However, he preferred playing the more physical sports of baseball, basketball and football.
His surprise exit from UBS in July 2012 was partly driven by the personal affinity he struck up with the energetic president.
"We're about the same age, we had two young kids," Wolf says. "He was against the war [in Iraq] at the time, I was against the war. I believe that we needed healthcare reform. His mother passed away of cancer; my dad was going through cancer, although I'm happy to say he's now cancer-free.
"We're both Ivy League guys, we're athletes who had a lot in common. I felt that this country was ready for a real change. We've become incredibly close ever since and we're friends."
Among the family photos in Wolf's office is a picture of him dribbling a basketball around Obama in what appears to be a semi-competitive game of one-on-one. "You can see he's on his heels," Wolf jokes.
Wolf's eldest child, aged 20, is at college and he has a 17-year-old kid in high school, a similar age to Obama's eldest 16-year-old daughter.
"He's a great family man," Wolf says of Obama. "We've had some really great conversations about raising kids and family. That's always fun to talk to him about, what it's like to be a father."
The families enjoy the same holiday destination of Martha's Vineyard, a popular island in Massachusetts. It's where Obama recently played eight rounds of golf on his summer vacation, in between dealing with riots in response to the shooting of a black teenager by a police officer in Ferguson and overseeing airstrikes in Iraq. While Obama was criticised for playing golf immediately after holding a press conference to denounce the militants who had beheaded an American journalist in the Middle East (he later admitted the "optics" were not good), it's difficult to begrudge busy leaders taking a break like the rest of us.Finance reform needed
After going against the grain on Wall Street, Wolf says executives in financial services need to be "thought leaders" and "take a stance". There had not been a major overhaul of financial regulation since the Great Depression in the 1930s, he adds.
"Wall Street was too leveraged and it was time to make sure everyone understood the risks. If you were in on the weekend of Lehman [before the firm filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, September 15, 2008] like I was, then you would have realised we didn't have the tools."
Wolf, who gets by on 5½ hours sleep a night, slept little in those scary days as other banks came within days of failure. He adds the job does not define him. "What defines me is my ethics, reputation, being truthful to me, family, friends and our clients."
On Wall Street, Wolf is known for his larger than life character and self-confidence. Says a former senior colleague, "He's a great self-promoter, but nonetheless he is a good guy and has done a lot of good things with charities."
Wolf serves on the Leadership Council for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, the Athletics Board of Overseers at the University of Pennsylvania and is a graduate member of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy.
Two years after his biggest career decision, Wolf says he has gained a unique perspective into the increasingly symbiotic worlds of business and politics. "Whether or not people like the intersection of Wall Street and Washington, connecting government and financial services is a trend we're seeing around the globe.
"I think regulation for good or bad, rightfully or wrongfully is a bigger part of the business society today. Maybe that's because we live in a post-recession, slow growth environment and the government's role is to assist a lot of the private sector."
Wolf has set up a cross-border advisory firm, 32 Advisors, that seeks to capitalise on his knowledge of business and government. The firm was named after the football jersey number he wore playing fullback winning two Ivy League Championships for the University of Pennsylvania in 1982 and 1983. "I was a good high school player," Wolf says. "It was great to be on a great college team."
Since Obama was elected in 2008, Wolf has served as a member of the President's Economic Advisory and Recovery Board led by former Federal Reserve chair Paul Volcker, the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness chaired by General Electric chief Jeff Immelt and the Export Council headed by Boeing president James McNerney.Deal maker
Before joining Team Obama, Wolf's professional focus was deal-making; he had paid less attention to economic policy issues.
"All of those things have been a great education for me, combining what I've learned on Wall Street with what's going on in the global economy," Wolf says.
"We don't focus on that on Wall Street. We're always about the transaction pipeline . . . I was able to see things I would never have been part of."
A key learning for Wolf was that the US drastically underperforms the rest of the world in exports and in attracting foreign investment. Exports account for about 14 per cent of US GDP. In export-driven Germany, exports contribute 51 per cent of GDP.
Foreign direct investment into the US has fallen by about one-third since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Wolf attributes this decline to a range of factors.
These include protectionism, over-regulation (something Obama has been criticised for), lack of immigration reform (a policy Obama is pushing but which is being blocked by Republicans), companies taking advantage of cheaper labour overseas, the rise of China as a competitor and barriers to entry being lowered around the world.
"One day I was at a meeting that the president was having with [then] Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton and they talked about this new quasi agency called SelectUSA," Wolf recalls.
"I'd never heard of it on Wall Street, you never hear about foreign direct investment."
SelectUSA is a government agency that seeks to highlight the advantages that the US offers as a location for business investment.
Experiences like these explain why a key part of Wolf's 32 Advisors business is advising foreign firms on how to invest in the US, on international trade and cross-border investment.
"It felt to me there was an incredible gap around the globe on what we call cross-border advisory," Wolf says.
Wolf began his finance career in the 1980s at Salomon Brothers, the colourful financial institution where the firm's senior bond traders referred to themselves as "big swinging dicks".
Salomon, once the powerhouse bond firm of Wall Street, was later caught up in a trading scandal in 1991 that almost forced the firm to file for bankruptcy. Legendary investor and major shareholder Warren Buffett was forced to step in as chairman to try and rescue the firm before it was eventually sold.Literary connection
A year after Wolf began at Salomon, the now esteemed finance writer and author of several famous books about the excesses of finance, Michael Lewis, arrived.
"I know Michael," Wolf says, his eyes lighting up. "You've read Liar's Poker and it just fits very well for an athlete to be at Salomon Brothers," he says with a chuckle, referring to his college football days.
Scattered around Wolf's office are Boston Red Sox and Celtics signed sports memorabilia, a world wrestling championship belt and a golf putting game.
Despite his admiration for his former colleague, Wolf disagrees with recent claims made by Lewis in his latest book, Flash Boys.
Claims by Lewis include that high-speed computer trading has made the stock markets "rigged".
"Michael is one of the greatest writers that we have and so much fun to talk to," Wolf says.
"But I do not think the markets are rigged. But I actually do think we do have to really look at the whole idea of what I call 'front running.' "
Front running occurs when high-frequency traders use their superior technology to anticipate trading patterns ahead of other investors and make easy winning bets on the financial markets. However, it existed long before computers, through word of mouth between traders.
Over his career, Wolf's management style has evolved. He is considered a "straight shooter" who constructively challenges colleagues in a very transparent fashion.
"He constantly tells the team that nothing is more important than your reputation and lives by the view that if you don't want to read it in the front page of the paper then you likely shouldn't do the deal," says 32 Advisors chief operating officer Lauren Clancy, who jumped ship from UBS with Wolf.
Wolf attributes his management style and success partly to his college football background. "Being on a team and being a competitive athlete is a great thing. I think it has actually helped my success having that kind of competitive spirit."Gathering of old squares
Last year, the 1983 championship team celebrated its 30th anniversary and got together at University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field. Wolf jokes, "We used to have more of a V shape, but now we're now kind of built like a square."
Wolf feels at home at the university. The west side of the stadium is home to the Robert Wolf & Family stadium scoreboard, which he helped fund as a gift. On leadership, Wolf believes there are many facets to successful management of people, starting with education.
"I think a good leader is well educated – whether that is book smarts or street smarts," Wolf says. "You have to be an incredibly hard worker because people look up to those people who work hard.
"He has to be ambitious, somewhat competitive and willing to be constructively challenged and constructively challenge."
Beyond leadership, one of Wolf's key learnings through his career is the need to be a risk taker.
"Being a risk taker is incredibly important for moving ahead. You've got to take prudent risks but you've got to take risks."
His decision to quit UBS and jump on Team Obama is testament to this belief.
"I know there's more I can do than work for two very large firms," he says.
Still, Wall Street's reputation has taken a battering since the financial crisis. Taxpayer-funded bailouts of banks, mis-selling of toxic mortgage securities, rigging of market interest rates, money laundering and helping American clients dodge taxes by funnelling money into tax havens head a long laundry list of wrongdoings.
Wolf insists that 32 Advisors is "not a bank" and is a "very strategic advisory firm"Early riser
Yet he still has an incredible passion for the markets and rises most mornings around 5am to read the financial press and prepare for the work day as if he is still a trader.
Old habits from his Salomon Brothers' days are hard to break.
Despite the reputational hit to bankers, if Wolf was leaving university as a 21-year-old today, he would still not hesitate to veer to Wall Street. Originally he planned to go to medical school after majoring in healthcare administration at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
"I think working on Wall Street is an incredible profession to come into," Wolf says. "Over the last 30 years I've been in it, you're around great smart people, it's incredibly dynamic. I like to think of it as a free education every day. There is always something new you're learning.
"There is no doubt you have up and down cycles across Wall Street, but overall if I was coming out of Wharton again I would take the same turn as I did last time."
And despite being a competitor, there is one thing Wolf is prepared to concede. Having played golf with the president on the previous weekend at the Fort Belvoir army base in Virginia, I ask who is the better golfer?
"He is," Wolf says. "He happened to play great that day."
Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited
Document AFNR000020140912ea9d00030