8/14/2019 Shawn Baldwin: All the Right Moves

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he warns other to be wary of. Baldwin decided

he wanted to be in an arena that wouldnt be

crowded with animosity or bias.

So in search of opportunity Baldwin who

went to Doha, Qatar for an invite-only special

forum created by Steve Forbes on his birthday,

February the 26th. It was in Doha that Forbes

introduced Baldwin to the Emir (King) of Qatar

along with his wife, Sheikha Mozah and one of

their daughters. Baldwin struck an emotional

chord with the Emir when he stated that Qatar

should have its own conferences and that the

focus should be Qatari nationalism and repa-

triation of capital.

The Emir then challenged him on the spot to do

something, and not be one of the many bank-

ers coming to sell deals to the Qatari nationals

and then after a few weeks stay in the luxurious

Four Seasons depart back to points abroad with

Qatari cash following by wire. A fast mover by

nature, Baldwin saw an opportunity and decid-ed to grab it. Baldwin under the Emirs advice

decided that he would host an international

conference. In less than 70 days on May 18th,

this conference was held under the patron-

age of the Minister of Finance and attracted

American investment managers who oversee

over $500 billion to Qatar. The conference also

featured preeminent British investment banker,

Lord Jacob Rothschild, as a speaker along with

prominent U.S. plans sponsors and all of the

Qatari Sovereign funds, banks and insurance

companies. The conference was covered by

CNBC and seen as a great success.

In my mind, I essentially had received a com-

mand by the Emir to perform, says Baldwin. I

decided that sole focus on U.S. capital markets

was a potential liability -- in my view it was evi-

dent that the Middle East was flush with cash

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Baldwin views diversity as a global perspective

and decided that he needed to expand beyond

the IPO investment banking business he built

in the U.S. capital markets and go abroad

much like his business idol, the late Reginald

F. Lewis. We first featur ed Capital Management

Group (CMG) in 2002 and honored Baldwin at

the NV Awards for his entrepreneurship.

In less than four years, CMG underwrote

an astounding $63 billion dollars in 72 IPO

transactions for companies such as General

Electric, Citigroup, Google and the New York

Stock Exchange right alongside with seasoned

investment banks Goldman Sachs, Morgan

Stanley and Lazard. In the Google offering

CMG was twice as large as Lazard and nearly

three times larger than Deutsche Bank. The

velocity of new issue equity was astounding

for the period, the markets were moving at an

unsustainable pace, says Baldwin. We were

doing every deal we could because I knew

that the eventually the business would fall offdramatically in the industry. I spent so much

time on planes and I was on the go so much I

acquired a new nickname R.F. or Rif which

was short for Rocket Fuel. Baldwins busi-

ness was so robust that he was named a Top

40 Investment Banker Under 40 by Investment

Dealers Digest in 2006.

Although they were financially good times

as Baldwins deal velocity and presence

drew national attention in other media maga-

zines along with a 2006 ad campaign for the

BlackBerry wireless handheld device in which

he became the national financial spokesperson

complete with full page ads in Fortune, Forbes,

Businessweek and an online video commercial

to boot. Baldwin also stated that he drew a fair

share of critics who were unhappy with what

they saw as his excessive coverage -- a point

INVESTMENT BANKER

SHAWN BALDWIN HEADS EAST

WORDS: ANNA OWENS THE MIDDLE EAST

movesALL THERIGHT

For Shawn D. Baldwin, the concept of diversification means g

Chairman of the investment banking and investment management

Group went Eastthe Middle East to be exact in search of expand

structuring and advisory work.