Each week, we dig into the memory bank of the City’s great and good. Today, Jose Minaya, head of investment and wealth at BNY, takes us through his career and favourite Square Mile spots

CV

• Name: Jose Minaya
• Job title: Global head of investment and wealth
• Previous roles: Nuveen CEO, head of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America Global Real Assets, investment roles at AIG, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan
  Age: 54
• Born: Washington Heights, New York City
• Lives: New York City
• Studied: Majored in Finance, Economics
• Talents: Golf, cooking
• Motto: Focus on what we can control. 80 per cent of what’s out there is noise
• Biggest perk of the job? No doubt the people and also learning new things
• Coffee order: Black coffee with milk
• Cocktail order: Bourbon
• Favourite book: Anything by Michael Lewis

What was your first job?

I took a summer job as a stock boy at a knife factory when I was 14 because I was motivated to buy a pair of sneakers I had my eye on. I made enough money to buy them but decided they cost too much for how hard I had worked and saved the money instead.

What was your first role in finance?

Ironically, the movie “Wall Street” was the first I knew of finance. I had planned to go into the United States Marine Corps and attended Officer Candidate School; however, last-minute I found myself at the JP Morgan recruitment booth at a college job fair. This led to my first role in the firm’s investment banking and M&A division. On my first day I showed up in a blue shirt and white collar with braces – looking........

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