Wall Street Runs a Tennis Tournament to Find Young Hires

Last summer in Newport, Rhode Island, Melissa Rohde watched her husband turn into someone she had never quite met. For two days she watched A.J. Rohde, a senior partner at the software investment firm Thoma Bravo, play and socialize with 70 other men who shared his intensity for tennis. They had been together for 23 years, since right after college when he stopped playing competitive tennis, so she had never really known him as that tennis guy.

At the closing black tie dinner at Marble House, she told him, "Okay, I finally get you now, man."

What she finally got was the Finance Cup, a three day tennis gathering that doubles as one of Wall Street's most unusual hiring networks. Started in 2015 by Pershing Square investor Bill Ackman and New York tennis connector Jeff Appel, it was built to introduce talented young players to leaders in private equity, hedge funds, and investment banking.

The format borrows from the Davis Cup, the international team competition. There is an American team, originally drawn mostly from New York City, and a European team organized by London hedge fund manager Christopher Gardell. Each year the two sides meet for all doubles, alternating continents at upscale locations, with dinners and social events built around the matches.

What began as outings that paired established financiers with players just out of college has kept growing and adding new players on both sides. It has grown large enough to split into age groups, including cohorts for players 40 to 55 and 55 and older. The youngest players come as team managers and hitting partners, setting up the event and hitting with the older men, and that work puts them inside the network.

Placing players in jobs is a main goal of the event. Appel, whom A.J. Rohde calls the godfather of New York tennis, makes a habit of steering standout players toward finance jobs. Young athletes can spend years obsessing over a sports career and give little thought to what comes next, and Appel acts as a mentor and fatherly figure to help them land strong first roles after tennis.

A.J. Rohde, who has played in the event for several years, said it has been "one of the joys of my personal and professional life." Spouses now come, the logistics are complicated, and the roster keeps expanding. Beyond the fun of playing with people who love the same game, he said, many participants talk about contributing on the margin and paying it forward to younger players.