Amy Ellis-Simon Biography

Amy Ellis-Simon was at a fork in the road 11 years ago, deciding whether to follow her passion for teaching (she majored in the history of Caribbean women's reproductive issues) or to try her hand at business. Her father, a Jamaican-born educator, pushed her to pursue a career in business. That's a great concept. Ms. Ellis-Simon is the head of corporate access at one of the most prestigious businesses on Wall Street. She helped raise more than $9 billion for US firms in 2011 as a senior sales professional in Merrill's convertible bonds department, which included well-known brands like American Express and Carnival Corp. She claims she never considered a job in finance as a child growing up in Evanston, Illinois. However, she realized that the field piqued her competitive instincts in the same way as sprinting for her high school track team had. She got an internship at Merrill Lynch in 1993 via a program called Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, which trains minority students for jobs in investment banking, law, and other professions. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in history, she returned to the business as an analyst trainee the following year. Following a difficult interview at SEO, where she is now vice chairman, she had an inkling that things might work out for her on Wall Street. The interviewer peppered her with vexing questions, asking to know why she was deserving of his time and why she had received a B- in a statistics class. She recalls it feeling like she was on a trading floor. You were being questioned mercilessly, you had to think quickly, and the environment wasn't always pleasant. But it piqued my interest, so I decided to give it a go.

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