Business Insider’s 2025 Rising Stars of Wall Street break down their jobs in plain English.

• Business Insider’s Rising Stars of Wall Street hold important yet complex jobs.
• We asked them to break down what they do in a way anyone could understand.
• See top responses from Rising Stars at firms like Blackstone, Moelis, and Goldman Sachs.

Credit solutions, secondaries, private capital advisory.

Business Insider’s Rising Stars of Wall Street have impressive but complicated jobs. This year’s list features investors, traders, and dealmakers working in the hottest finance fields, from private lending to data center mergers.

So what do they actually do all day?

We asked this year’s picks to break it down by explaining how they describe their jobs to non-Wall Streeters at dinner parties. Here are 9 of the top responses, edited for length and clarity.

Lamar Cardinez, Blue Owl

Title: Principal with Blue Owl’s HomeCourt Partners Fund

“I find interesting investment opportunities in the world of sports, media, and entertainment.”

“And then after the investment has been made, keep them informed about the performance of the investments that we collectively own. And then after a certain amount of time, we do our best to return that original investment, that principal to the investors along with an additional amount that hopefully exceeds their expectations and leave them desire to partner with us continually.”

Jackie Shepherd, Morgan Stanley

Title: Vice President, Separations and Structured Solutions

“My partner is a physician, and I feel like I have to do this all the time because if I say anything that’s not a simple sentence, eyes glaze over.” “I would say we’re helping our clients tackle their biggest strategic questions of — ‘What do I want to be when I grow up?’ So, what businesses do I want to be in? And if there’s a business that isn’t the right long-term strategic fit, what’s the most efficient way to separate that?”

Benson Kane, TPG Angelo Gordon

Title: Vice President, Credit Solutions Group

“We’re like a bank without the depositors. We’re working with kind of hairier situations, more complex financings — but we’re kind of like a bank, as people think about it. We make loans to companies and try to help them invest in businesses or whatever else they’re trying to do.”

Patrick Kearney, Apollo

Title: Principal, Private Equity

“The shortest answer is just buying good companies and trying to go from good to great, or buying great companies and trying to go from great to greater. And at its core, it’s about thinking critically, not only about the company itself, but macro trends, industry trends, and specific initiatives you can implement. The core of the job is thinking critically to tackle challenges and find the right solutions in a really, really dynamic environment.

Aman Mittal, Moelis & Co.

Title: Managing Director, Advisory

“I try not to. I work in finance and I do investment banking, and that’s good enough. These days it’s easier, I work in data centers, that’s the topic of the moment. But in general, what I say is we help companies find their path through the financial possibilities. And that includes sometimes selling the business, sometimes buying businesses, sometimes finding new capital partners.”

Josef Menasche, Goldman Sachs

Title: Managing director, Global cohead of Secondaries Advisory

“Sometimes, as a private equity investor, you have a company that you really, really believe in, and you think it’s fantastic, and you don’t want to sell it necessarily because you think there’s more upside — but you have to deliver cash back to your investors.

So what my team does is help private equity funds in that position find new investors to buy out the old investors, so that they can continue managing the business going forward.

Maybe they love the management team. Maybe they think the industry is at an inflection point where it’s going to grow really fast for the next five years. Whatever the reason, they want to hold on to the business longer.

We’re very transparent about that with the original investors. We give them the choice to reinvest going forward, because there’s a reason the actual investment team doesn’t want to sell.”

Mohini Chakravorty, Blackstone

Title: Principal, Blackstone Infrastructure

“I have dinner with non-Wall Street people all the time. It’s not very complicated. We raise money from large institutions, and then we use that money to buy companies in the infrastructure space. Think industries like digital infrastructure, data centers, transportation businesses — airports or toll roads. The last big category is energy or energy transition businesses. We buy these businesses. We try to improve them. We put in additional capital, or we spend more money to help grow them, and the ultimate goal is to help generate a return for the investors.”

“People outside the industry would be surprised by how much of our jobs revolve around interacting with people. To get deals done, it’s not always just about paying the highest price. It’s about convincing people and making relationships with management teams to get people comfortable that you are the right long-term partner.”

Florian Plath, JPMorgan Chase

Title: Executive Director, Mergers & Acquisitions

“I help companies find the right partners. When a company’s owners are thinking about buying, selling, merging with another company, my team and I really help the leaders try to figure out whether it makes sense and guide them through the entire process. We look at everything — not only numbers, but also the strategy, the culture — to make sure these combinations are a good fit.

“It’s a little bit of detective work, right? At the end of the day, we obviously want to make sure that both sides feel confident and excited.”

Joe Slevin, Jefferies

Title: Managing Director, Private Capital Advisory

“This one’s difficult in secondaries. I try to keep it simple: I say that we find patient new shareholders for exceptional private companies.”

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