TITLE: Conversation with Deal Makers feat. Jennifer Nason

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Catherine Guan: Hi, I'm Catherine Guan, a member of J.P. Morgan Investment Bank's Corporate Finance Advisory team. Today, I'm joined by Jennifer Nason in this episode of What's the Deal. Jennifer is a Global Chair of Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan. She led our technology, media, and telecommunications global client practice for over two decades. Now sitting on the executive committee of our investment bank, Jennifer is responsible for many of our firm's key investment banking relationships around the world. This episode is a part of a special series entitled Conversations with Dealmakers, where we'll speak with the makers behind the deals and delve into the stories behind the headlines. Jennifer, it's so great to have you here with us.

Jennifer Nason: Thanks, Cat. And it's a pleasure to be here.

Catherine Guan: Your time in investment banking has spanned across such a broad array of regions, products, and sectors. And I think we can catch a glimmer of that spirit for adventure from the very onset of your career. As you had a fairly unorthodox entry into the industry. The year is 1986. You had spent three years working for Australia's Department of Management and Budget. So how did you make your way into J.P. Morgan's Melbourne office?

Jennifer Nason: So, I'm very much the accidental investment banker. I'm sure there's many of us at J.P. Morgan. I actually responded to an ad in the Australian Financial Review, that said, you know, "Wanted, one corporate finance trainee." And I applied to that ad. I'm sure there were a lot of applicants, and I had the very good fortune to get hired. And it changed the course of my life and the course of my career profoundly from that moment on. And I was very much interested at the time in two things. One was incremental skill building. And I thought I could get that from J.P. Morgan, from the training program and work experience. And like every Australian, I really wanted to travel the world. So that was my incentive to applying in the first place.

Catherine Guan: And the job certainly gave you the opportunity to travel the world, in addition to learning all different skills. Because very soon, you made this transition from our Melbourne office to your New York office. What was your first impression of our New York team?

Jennifer Nason: So, it was like going to the moon. You have to understand, I'd had a passport like three weeks when I landed (laughs) in New York. I'd been out of the country for a couple of days before that. So it was a complete adventure for me. I landed in New York City, which sort of blew my mind. And then came into the office in New York, it actually took a while for me to really wrap my head around. And the nature of the deals we did, the clients we served, the types of projects you could work on, the places you could go... it was the scale of it that probably had the biggest impact on me at first.

Catherine Guan: Absolutely. As a Canadian expat myself, I had very similar experiences when I joined the New York office. People are sometimes taken aback. Because they know that the language and the pop culture references are all the same, but New York is really quite like nothing else.

Jennifer Nason: It really is. I felt like I had won the lottery, to be honest. Working on Wall Street down at our office Downtown, I was full of enthusiasm, and hugely excited. And anxious to get to work and have all of those experiences that I had on my list.

Catherine Guan: And speaking of all of those experiences you had on your list, was there a particular moment earlier in your days, where it really cemented investment banking as a career you loved and could see yourself doing for a long time?

Jennifer Nason: There were lots of things that were happening. Everything was interesting to me. Everything had an impact on me. It still does in many ways, to be honest. But I remember one early transaction for a multinational client of ours, a project finance assignment that I worked on. So multinational client, was in Indonesia. The lawyers we were working with were in the UK, and the financing was being done out of the US. It sort of washed over me that this was the ultimate global experience. The actual project was incredibly global. It had many elements to it that had to be figured out and, and solved, as a corporate finance matter. And the team was incredibly global as well, at J.P. Morgan, and then some of the other people that we worked with. So that to me was just the global experience with a ribbon on it, that I was so keen to have.

Catherine Guan: There is certainly nothing like it. And it truly shows the depth and breadth of our global platform.  I know your career is incredibly unique in the fact that you've had such an incredible span across not only regions, but products and sector as well. You started your career in infrastructure finance... Covered national resources, headed up our retail group. It's now approaching the termed Millennium. What was the impetus for making the jump, yet this time to TMT?

Jennifer Nason: Yeah. It was sort of unexpected. So, I was running the retail investment banking practice, I'd just had my fourth child, and I'd just been promoted to managing director. So, I was sort of feeling pretty good about myself, and very comfortable in the role that I had. Somebody very senior at J.P. Morgan, the head of the investment bank at the time, tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Would you be interested in making the move to the TMT business?" And I really trusted this person. And if he thought it was a good idea, then I thought it was a good idea, to be honest. And I was always interested in new experiences. And I think he knew that about me, which is why he asked me in the first place. So, I made the transition to TMT really not knowing very much about it, and it was sort of this wild west, new frontier of an industry group. And the tech industry at the time was really cresting. We can all recall the tech bubble of the late 1990's. So, I entered right at that moment, which was really exciting. And then of course, watched the tech bubble disappear, and everything that came after that. It was really one of the great learning moments of my career, to go through that process and watch an industry change so dramatically. Watch our response, and be part of all of that, and come out the other end.

Catherine Guan: TMT is such an exciting sector in that in not only does it value rapid response to change, also values long-term relationships. We know the Verizon Wireless transaction was a decade in the making. Tell us more about what it was like to lead the entirety of our J.P. Morgan platform to deliver all-inclusive solutions for the client?

Jennifer Nason: So, about seven years ago now, I guess, Verizon, had a joint venture with a UK telecommunications company, called Vodafone. And they owned Verizon Wireless jointly. Verizon made the decision to buy out their joint venture partner, in a $130 billion deal. So cross-border. Sizeable transaction by any measure. We advised, we financed, and we worked through every element of that execution, hand in glove with our client. There were a lot of people behind the scenes at J.P. Morgan making sure currency trades were done, proceeds were delivered on time and in the right place. There were so many trains that had to run on time that day to get that deal closed. And then of course, the ten years working up to that point where that happened. It was like precision engineering on our part and involved so many people around the firm. And it is one of the transactions I'm personally most proud of not just for the headline, which was nice to have, but for everything that went on behind the scenes. And I really believe that we may have been the only global financial institution that could actually have delivered that level of execution.

Catherine Guan: Now, that must have been incredibly gratifying as a moment both in terms personally as well as knowing what it is like to do that together with so many members of the team. In addition to those moments of triumph, there are also incredible moments of challenge as well. J.P. Morgan has such a storied TMT franchise that has undergone massive transformations and emerged stronger from each. This includes the integration of H&Q bankers, and later, in the midst of the Financial Crisis, integration of Bear Stearns' bankers. What was your philosophy, Jennifer, for leading the franchise through these periods of change?

Jennifer Nason: It was a complicated decade of rapid change in the industry, a global financial crisis in the middle of it, recovering from that tech bubble that had burst at the sort of turn of the millennium, as you mentioned, and then the coming together of multiple firms in and around the TMT business. And I feel very good today about how we all managed through that. And my guiding philosophy through those very challenging times and bringing together a new J.P. Morgan TMT team was to be very grounded in fielding the highest quality, most talented people that we could. So there was always that overriding sense of fairness, that we were evaluating people the right way, we were building for the future, we knew the skills that we were going to need, and we needed to build a cohesive team that could work together, even if everybody came from different heritage firms. I'm really proud that today, our media and communications team is basically led by three veteran Bear Stearns bankers. And I feel really good about that, 'cause that was a synergy (laughs) in the Bear Stearns, a sort of a personal synergy, almost. That is the way it should work.

Catherine Guan: Absolutely. We always advise clients and help them assess synergies in their M&A transactions. But it is truly very personal when we are everyday living the benefits of that synergies ourselves from our own M&A transactions. And Jennifer, what I've always appreciated mentorship over the years as you always had such a differentiated perspective on what various changes in the industry meant for women who are joining our ranks. In particular, I wanted you to touch on your op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal about the Zoom revolution, and what it means for women to be at the table. Could you tell us about the inspiration for that piece?

Jennifer Nason: Yes. I was fortunate enough to have an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal. And it was somewhat of a call to arms for people to embrace the new technology that's available to us in the workplace. And Zoom is just one piece of that. I am a huge champion, obviously, for women in finance, for investment banking, and across the industry, and certainly at J.P. Morgan. We've made great strides and there are great strides to be made in the future as we continue on this journey. And I happen to believe that technology is likely going to be a big part of that. The great thing about many of the tools that are available to us today to do our job is that they encourage different people to the table. There's not one way to do this job anymore. There's multiple ways to do the job and how you deploy and use technology and those tools is a key part of that. I'm extremely optimistic and, and excited, quite frankly, about the future, and how we're gonna leverage all these resources. Remember, I started in this industry when there was no internet (laughs). There were no cellphones. There were no computers on your desk. We sort of had one computer for the floor. And if you use the technology the right way, it's an opportunity to engage with clients and colleagues in ways that just bring us closer together, not further apart.

Catherine Guan: Absolutely. And we are in a tremendously exciting moment, where digitalization is truly helping to promote democratization, and having many voices be heard.

Jennifer Nason: When you come from a small foreign office, like I did, perched on the edge of the world, a long way away (laughs) from New York, I think you tend to have an appreciation for the mechanisms by which you can connect with people, 'cause it can't always be face to face. As an Australian and as somebody who joined that office, I have an appreciation for leveraging all those techniques to communicate and be with my colleagues and my clients.

Catherine Guan: And on that point, we know you remain very connected to your Australian roots, having chaired and now are serving as a director of the American Australian Association, what is an Australian delicacy that you wish was more readily available here in the US?

Jennifer Nason: (laughs) Well, that is actually a long list of food. I'd have to say the top of that list would be a good meat pie. Now, there are meat pies all over the world, but there is nothing like an Australian meat pie. And whenever I go home, it is the first thing I get often at the airport after I've landed (laughs) so that is what I miss the most.

Catherine Guan: Now, being an expat really does make you miss things that I didn't realize I would. One of the things that's quite unique to Canada is ketchup flavored potato chips, and I just have not yet seen them here in the US. It seems like such an obvious combination of potatoes and ketchup. But America, come on, (laughs).

Jennifer Nason: (laughs) Actually, that'd be a good Australian/Canadian combo, actually. (laughs).

Catherine Guan: And in the last few minutes of our conversation together, I did wanna turn the case ahead. As a member of our investment banks executive committee, what are your top priorities for the year?

Jennifer Nason: Yeah, so top priorities, first, second, and third is clients, clients, (laughs), clients. In tough markets it's more important to be engaging with clients, because they have their concerns, we can help guide them through those concerns. They can also be a useful source of information for us as we think about the world and where things are going. So, I spend all my time thinking about, "How can I engage with my clients more? How can I be helping them?" It's really not a market in which you should be transactional in focus. It really is a great opportunity to provide high quality advice on the back of an institution that has enormous skill and data and perspective and experience on what is happening right now. And you need to package that and deliver it to your clients every day. It's just so important right now, and the deals and the revenue and transactions, they will take care of themselves over time, but right now we need to help guide our clients through unprecedented times.

Catherine Guan: High quality advice for clients, there seems no better note to wrap up our episode. Jennifer, it's been an absolute pleasure having you here with us.

Jennifer Nason: Thank you, Cat.

Catherine Guan: And that's all for this episode of Conversations with Deal Makers. St ay tuned for the next part of the series. We'll look forward to having you join us for the next conversation.

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