There are two things you need to know about Jefferies chief executive Rich Handler. The first is that he is rich. The second is that he has no handler.
That is a rare combination: someone rich and powerful enough to have Wall Street hang on his every word, yet not wrapped up in handlers. If anything, it is the opposite.
Is it real? “I don’t have an entourage that preps me,” he says, in his first-ever interview in Australia. Jefferies has come from well back in the Wall Street pecking order to now have bankers in 20 countries, up from only three two decades ago. Globally, Jefferies is known for doing things differently; that is an important part of its culture. It is expanding when others are contracting, it pays its bankers’ hefty bonuses in cash not stock, and it offers to underwrite deals that can be too hairy for rivals.Advertisement
In real life, he seems no different to his Instagram posts or his nine-page letter to investors in the investment bank’s most recent annual report.He says he still has a seat on the trading desk, wears a suit and tie to meetings, has two colourful wristbands – one for the Wolf Conservation Centre and the other for the University of Rochester, his alma mater where is also chairman – and is relaxed.