Finance innovator Chris White is on a mission to provide education and professional development for young people to be employable without huge education debt. This is providing a pipeline to accelerate opportunities for the next generation of leaders in finance and related areas committed to change. Listen in for details about this new venture, Viable Education, and how it fits into Chris’ legacy at work. Chris’ own 21-year career in financial services at top investment banking and wealth management companies focused on market structure, technology, and innovation, which he now also teaches at two business schools. The genesis of his concept for the business was his “absolute alarm” about the wealth gap and the direction the world is going in. The desired outcome is to provide the fintech industry with well-trained and dedicated recruits and individual students a well-paying career with a bright future, as well as values beyond chasing monetary wealth.
Chris is simultaneously building three entities as founder and CEO of Viable Markets, an advisory firm that provides strategic guidance on financial technology and fixed income market structure, and a start-up, BondCliQ and was most eager to talk on the podcast about his legacy journey enabling debt-free education through ViableEdu.
As a Gen Xer, he watched corporate values in the 1980s veer to financial excess. That went against his core values of making things better for others and taking conscious action to do so. His current endeavors are aimed at accomplishing that with training and providing working examples in one’s own life. ViableEdu is also an effort to "change
the system”, that is, how financial institutions work and for students to get advice from diverse people.
Students at ViableEdu range from college sophomores and seniors to other generations wanting to enter fintech, finance and entrepreneurship, a cross-generational opportunity to repurpose older professionals for a career change and/or to train others. And alumni of this virtual program are involved in campus recruiting for mutual benefit and to create a viable pipeline for employers and the industry. At the same time, it can improve firms’ culture and operations.
Quotes
“People who share your values will gravitate to you.”
“Don’t sit on the sidelines.”
“Giving back knowledge is the most impactful give-back.”
Takeaways
Start your work legacy on day-one of work.
Ask yourself, “What do I make possible for those who follow behind me?”
Giving back doesn’t have to be in financial form.
How to reach Chris
linkedin.com/in/chris-white-bb39233
Bio
Chris White’s 21-year career in financial services has been primarily focused on market structure, technology and innovation. This included roles at MarketAxess, Barclays Capital, and most recently, Goldman Sachs.
Currently, he is the founder and CEO of two companies, ViableMkts, an advisory firm that provides strategic guidance on financial technology and fixed income market structure, and BondCliQ, a start-up company that is building an innovative central market system for corporate bonds. In addition to those two ventures, he is the founder and editor of the Friday Newsletter (www.fridaynewsletter.com) and an adjunct professor for Columbia Business School and at the New York Institute of Finance where he teaches a course in market structure mechanics and electronic trading.
In an exciting new development, Chris launched ViableEdu, a virtual professional development program designed to help individuals build knowledge and experience in fintech, finance and entrepreneurship. His aim is to help young people and improve firms’ culture and operations with a well-trained diverse pipeline. In order to do that, he has built a virtual internship program to produce pre-trained talent, involve older professionals, and also make organizational change.
A graduate of Brown University, Chris is also a regular contributor to Bloomberg TV and CNBC, and a prolific author of articles covering financial market structure and technology.