Introduction
Anish Shah is the chair of the Capital Commitment Committee and Global Head of Acquisition Finance. He began his career with the firm in 2007 as a Vice President. Over the course of his career at Morgan Stanley, he has worked on some of the most significant strategic events, including Verizon’s acquisitions of Alltel and Verizon Wireless, Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal, Dow Chemical’s acquisition of Rohm & Haas, AbbVie’s acquisition of Allergan, Bristol-Myers-Squibb’s acquisition of Celgene and Cigna’s acquisition of Express Scripts. Prior to his current role, Anish was the Head of Corporate Coverage for Fixed Income Capital Markets. In addition, he has dedicated time to numerous mentoring and talent development initiatives, including his role as captain of the New York University recruiting team for Global Capital Markets. Anish holds a BS in Finance and Accounting from New York University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Describe your current role at the firm and your responsibilities.
I have two primary roles. As Chair of the Capital Commitment Committee, I oversee Morgan Stanley’s corporate lending businesses across both relationship lending and event lending. I lead a committee tasked with allocating and risk managing loans made to support Morgan Stanley’s most important clients, ranging from core liquidity financings to leveraged buyouts. This role requires me to focus on the needs of our clients, communicate across divisions, and utilize sound judgment and risk management. Additionally, as Global Head of Acquisition Finance, I am tasked with helping bring the firm’s exemplary financing and underwriting capabilities to help clients pursuing important strategic initiatives. Both roles keep me connected with clients and markets while leveraging the vast resources and capabilities across Morgan Stanley.
What is a typical morning like for you?
Our team is on the road, meeting clients throughout the week; so on the days when we are in the office, we start with an all-hands morning meeting. We gather at 7:45 a.m. to recap our transactions from the previous day, discuss major news events that may have an impact on the markets, and solutions for our clients, based on their needs and the current state of the market. It’s a quick, comprehensive meeting that gets everyone together to exchange ideas and sets the direction for the day before we begin preparing for and meeting with clients, executing transactions in the market, and talking to investors who have a stake in those transactions. Later in the morning, I transition to Capital Commitment Committee meetings, where we engage each other in robust debate and discussion on critical risk decisions.
How do you approach managing your team to deliver first-class service to clients?
Our team works together, across hierarchy or title, to deliver first-class service to our clients. We have a very flat structure here, which allows regular interaction among all levels—from the most junior analysts to the heads of business groups. We articulate goals clearly at every level, and encourage even the most junior members of the team to participate and speak up. It’s impressive how much creativity and unique thought can be unleashed when people feel empowered to voice their opinions and ideas.
How would you describe the firm’s culture?
If there is one word that would best describe the culture here, it would be “collaborative.” The firm acknowledges and rewards the people and teams that work together, those who use the full capabilities of the entire firm to find the right solutions for clients. We believe in winning with teamwork, excellence and integrity—those are Morgan Stanley trademarks. And collaboration is a quality that is introduced to everyone from day one.
