MIB: J.P. Morgan’s Chris Ventresca & Elizabeth Myers

This week on Masters in Business I sit down very busy bankers in the world of M&A and IPOs: Chris Ventresca is Global Co-Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at J.P. Morgan, and Elizabeth Myers is Head of the Global Equity Capital Markets.

This was the first time I interviewed two people at once — and it is a lot harder than you might think. I don’t know how Charlie Rose & Tom Keene make it look so effortless.

Ventresca spent his entire career at J.P. Morgan, where he has advised on over $1 trillion of transactions, including strategic acquisitions, mergers and sales, as well as numerous hostile defense and shareholder activism situations.

Elizabeth Myers is also a long time JPM veteran, and she is also the Head of the Global Equity Capital Markets; she too has advised on $100s of billions of dollars in executed IPOs, follow-ons and convertible (previously JPM M&A).

We discuss how the change in regulation is impacting the process of M&A and IPO/Syndicate since the financial crisis. Most intriguingly, these two bank insiders describe what it is like to manage a big corporate deal – from how they “staff up” to the layers, accountants, analysts traders and corporate executives who get involved. It is a very “inside baseball” look at the nuts and bolts of banking transactions.

As you might surmise, technology has had a huge impact on how bankers do their jobs these days. They each also describe the role of education in finance careers – Meyers (B.A. in Economics from Princeton University; M.B.A. from Harvard Business School) and Ventresca (MBA in Finance from the NYU Stern School of Business; BSE degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University) describe two different routes into Banking from differing perspectives and academic backgrounds.

You can hear the full interview, including our podcast extras, at iTunes, Soundcloud and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts can be found at iTunes, Soundcloud and Bloomberg.

All of the recommended books discussed can be found after the jump.

Next week, I speak with Martin Barnes, Chief Economist of BCA Research, and author of the Bank Credit Analyst.

The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults

The Art of Thinking Clearly

Dr. Knox: A novel

Outliers: The Story of Success

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Black Flowers, White Lies