For Shawn D. Baldwin, the concept of diversification means going global.
In 2006, the
Chairman of the investment banking and investment management firm, Capital Management
Group went East—the Middle East to be exact in search of expanding markets and lucrative
structuring and advisory work.
ALL THE
Baldwin views diversity as a global perspective
and decided that he needed to expand beyond
moves
the IPO investment banking business he built
RIGHT in the U.S. capital markets and go abroad
— much like his business idol, the late Reginald
F. Lewis. We first featured 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
INVESTMENT BANKER
transactions for companies such as General
SHAWN BALDWIN HEADS EAST— Electric, Citigroup, Google and the New York
WORDS: ANNA OWENS THE MIDDLE EAST 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 off
dramatically 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.” Baldwin’s 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 Baldwin’s 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
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he warns other to be wary of. Baldwin decided
he wanted to be in an arena that wouldn’t 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 Emir’s 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
and was only going to become more liquid in
the future. I made the decision that CMG was
going to be there.”
Baldwin also made two other assumptions:
he figured that the 15 hour plane ride and
cultural differences were going to be more
than his fellow investment bankers would be
willing to bear and that the combination of the
two hurdles would give him a significant early
mover advantage.
Baldwin then set out to do what he did with
his U.S. investment bank — meet all of the
respective players, forge new relationships
and arm the team with those relationships. He
then indoctrinated his team with a new focus:
Islamic Finance. The CMG transaction team
began reading and researching every Islamic
finance transaction and compiling reports
from both capital markets and legal perspec-
tives. Baldwin then decided to augment his
knowledge base. So he began and completed
a master’s in financial strategy with his thesis
focus on Islamic finance — in one year — at
800-year-old Oxford University’s Said School
of Business.
Baldwin is now completing a new fund, which
has the three top finance professors from
Harvard, Wharton and Oxford. The initial
investor is one of the 50 wealthiest families
in the world and will seed more than $300
million. Baldwin is tight-lipped about the alter-
native investment strategy and further details
stating only that it will utilize his considerable
rolodexes and investment banking acumen.
When we pressed him for details we were
greeted with a smile and “Stay tuned.” With
Baldwin we can be sure that whatever strat-
egy CMG follows its’ trajectory will require
lots of fuel. nv
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