Catching up with Julian Lipinski ‘18: An international student turned world traveler in his finance career

From star basketball player on the Golden Knights men’s basketball team, to hardworking rising finance star in Manhattan, Julian Lipinski ’18 uses the quantitative skills, relationship-building capabilities, and tough work ethic that he developed in the finance program at Saint Rose every day in his career as a sell-side equity research broker for Redburn, a high-powered international firm.

We caught up with him recently.

Tell us about your career path.

I came to Saint Rose in 2014, having moved from my hometown of Melbourne, Australia, to attend college and play basketball. During my time at Saint Rose, I was fortunate enough to undertake two internships in my field of finance: first at The DiBella Financial Group in Albany, and then at Ayco, a Goldman Sachs company, in Latham New York. For the latter, I was the recipient of the Huether Business School Ruggerio Honors Internship Scholarship, which enabled me to stay in the U.S. over summer and work full time at a financial counseling/private wealth management firm – a dream come true.

After graduating in May 2018 summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA and finishing my basketball career as an Academic All-American, I was fortunate enough to be offered a graduate internship at Hugh Johnson Advisors in Albany. I started that position with the intention to bridge the gap as I eagerly tried to get a job on Wall Street.
By November 2018, I had succeeded and joined Redburn, Europe’s largest independent research broker, working in Equity Sales out of their New York City office.

What is your day-to-day life like?
As a sell-side equity research broker working for a UK-based firm, my day starts relatively early, at 6:40 a.m., when I immediately filter through my emails (usually 50+ have already come in overnight from London or from my clients in Australia). This is also the time to get my coffee and prepare for my daily 7:15 a.m. meeting with an analyst in our London headquarters, who presents and receives a Q&A from the sales desk on the stock idea(s) or research of the day.

At about 8 a.m., we break from the meeting and push the respective ideas and work to our clients.

Once the markets are open, we are communicating with clients, on calls or via Bloomberg “IB” (instant messaging), or engaging with traders and colleagues on whatever is relevant that day.

Much of our time is spent writing up sales emails, reading and synthesizing research, pushing upcoming events, and organizing calls, all the while watching market movements and news flow.

In the pre-COVID-19 world, a good portion of our time was also spent on the road attending in-person meetings. This is often to accompany senior management and executives from Europe as they meet investors, or we might be chaperoning our analysts from London.

It is not uncommon to have seven or more meetings in a day from breakfast through dinner, often in multiple cities. Darting back and forth from hotels to the top floor of city skyscrapers to airports all across America feels glamorous initially, but quickly loses its aura … flight delays, countless taxis, rushed meals, constant packing, and working on the move takes a physical and mental toll. However, ultimately the experience is very rewarding.

I have been lucky enough to have the incredibly fortunate role of servicing both U.S.-based clients and Australian clients from my New York location. I have just completed a visit to Australia to see clients. Once things have returned to relative normalcy, I will visit Australia at least every six months for work. That is very much “full circle” for me, having grown up in Australia.

All in all, the job is fast-paced and ever-changing, due to the nature of markets. It requires attention to detail and a strong work ethic to churn out quality content and generate engagement with investors in order to build strong working relationships. It is incredibly enriching to foster bonds with clients as you help them navigate the market “noise” and act as their trusted advisor.

What did you learn at Saint Rose?
My time at Saint Rose absolutely prepared me for this job, which has very much put my feet to the fire from day one.

Educationally, the experiences in the finance program were highly relevant to my current job. The student-managed portfolio investment competition taught me invaluable lessons of investing principles, risk-taking, portfolio construction, and trading decision making, as well as presentation skills and how to pitch stocks. Often it was the mistakes I made in these classes that taught me the most and were invaluable lessons – very much all part of the thrilling but unforgiving stock market, which we monitored closely in the finance program!

Second, I prepared for this career through my experiences in Saint Rose athletics. I have a strong work ethic, am highly driven in a constantly competitive environment, have meticulous time-management skills, and am able to work in varying environments on the road – reminiscent of the five- to seven-hour midweek bus rides in college, from towns all over the Northeast, despite having classes and assignments due the next morning!

Finally, the Saint Rose student life and small class environment significantly improved the relationship-building skills that are so critical in my job, which is all about forming lasting business partnerships and keeping the client happy, as well as dealing with countless colleagues internally.

More often than not, these people are from different countries, from all backgrounds and the most-elite academic institutions. Regardless of their pedigree, I feel that my ability to relate and communicate effectively has come from four years of interactions in the diverse Saint Rose community, which is truly a “melting pot” of cultures, demographics, and socio-economic backgrounds.

At Saint Rose, we were very much united and connected by our pursuit to become better, smarter, and successful global citizens – which is exactly what I feel I have become – and it’s really just the beginning of my career. I plan to continue to wave the Saint Rose flag in New York City and abroad, and hope there will be many more that get to live out my dream in their own right!

By Irene Kim