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Formative years inspire rewarding careers

One builds a solid foundation at ASU that takes her on a path to a successful career; the other uses his MBA to boost his career in space. Both W. P. Carey alums share their business experiences.

2017-09-07

Solid foundation: Alum’s path to successful career began with lessons at ASU

Elizabeth Crain was 10 years into her investment banking career when she found herself at a crossroads: Leave a struggling private equity fund for another position in banking or pursue something entirely different? In the end, she followed her instincts to leverage her experience in banking and moved to the management and operational side of the business.

Crain (BS Economics ’87) is now happily marking 30 years in the industry as a co-founder and chief operating officer of Moelis & Co., a global independent investment bank. She oversees the firm’s global strategy, infrastructure, and business management. Established with a handful of employees, today the company boasts almost 650 employees and 17 offices worldwide with revenues of more than $600 million last year. The firm, which went public in 2014, has advised clients on nearly $2 trillion in transactions.

What’s equally notable, Crain says, is the fact that Moelis continues to work with clients from its very early days.

“What drew me to this part of the business, as opposed to asset management or sales and trading, was the ability to work with companies advising them on strategic alternatives in a relationship-based business, not a transactional or trading business,” she says. “That didn’t appeal to me. It was this corporate work, where I could be part of helping a company execute on their vision and strategy by providing advice or access to capital.”

Family and university life intertwined

Relationship building has been the foundation for Crain’s entire career. And that began at ASU.

Growing up a half-mile from ASU’s Tempe campus, university life and family life were often intertwined, one in the same for Crain. There were weekend football games, Fiesta Bowl traditions, and a family of alumni.

“Arizona State has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember,” she says.

 

When Crain stepped onto campus as a first-year student economics major in the 1980s, she started down a path that ultimately would help shape her long and fruitful career. One of her most vital experiences came through the Department of Economics, where the faculty created a personalized academic environment that fostered relationships and a small college feel.

“It helped set me on my way,” Crain says.

Taking the right pitchfork in the road

An offer to join Merrill Lynch as a young analyst opened the doors to a career that has taken Crain through the investment banking and private equity industries as a banker, principal, and operations specialist. Along the way, she has twice been honored by American Banker magazine as one of the “25 Most Powerful Women in Finance.” She also has chosen to serve as a board member for organizations focused on arts and education and sits on the Dean’s Council of the W. P. Carey School of Business.

Thinking back over her career, Crain recalls a major turning point in 2001, when she met Ken Moelis at UBS Investment Bank. She turned down his initial job offer to join in a banking position and countered with one of her own — a position in the day-to-day management of the business. Six years later, rising to the ranks of a managing director in the firm’s office of the CEO and president, Crain and a handful of partners left to join Moelis in launching Moelis & Co.

“We were looking at the investment banking industry and the scale of the major firms and felt that the art of investment banking and advising clients was being lost on those big platforms,” she explains. “We felt that the industry was no longer that trusted advisor to a CEO.”

At the time, there were fewer independent firms in the market, and the group of founders jumped at the opportunity to fill a void. The Moelis team quickly prioritized the long-term success of its clients over short-term results, and the outcome has been a Wall Street success story.

Still enjoying many ‘firsts’ in finance

Since founding the firm in 2007, the market has changed as global independent investment banks continue to gain market share. Crain doesn’t see that trend reversing. What hasn’t changed is her firm’s mission to bring experience, creativity, a nimble approach, and balanced advice to clients.

Three decades in investment banking — with all of the economy’s highs and lows — might make early retirement look attractive. But Crain, a self-avowed lifelong learner, isn’t going anywhere.

“Every day I am exposed to something new and different,” she says.

Case in point: a recent meeting where the seasoned executive faced yet another unique question for the first time.

“I walked out of the meeting thinking, ‘Well, that was a first.’ I think that’s awesome and that’s what energizes me every day,” she says. “I have many firsts, and at this point in my career, I love that.”

Sky high:MBA boosts engineer’s career in space

As a boy, Chris Long was sure about two things: the importance of a college education and the joy of playing outside building forts, ramps, and whatever else he dreamed up.

Surrounded by a family of engineers — and a child of the first Star Wars generation — Long pictured himself working in space. But as the son of a pharmacist, he also envisioned a career in medicine. Then a chance encounter sealed Long’s future.

In 1982, the Space Shuttle Columbia was diverted from its planned landing in rain-soaked California and instead prepared to land at the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Long’s family lived in New Mexico, and after the shuttle had touched down, his father wrangled a spot to get a closer look at Columbia. The unexpected landing captured the nation’s attention — and Long’s imagination.

“It was fascinating. It solidified the direction I wanted to go toward,” Long says.

Boldly going where few dare

For more than two decades, Long (MBA ’01) has been living out his dream as an engineer and executive working in the space industry. He has spent much of his career with Orbital ATK, a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, and its heritage companies. He is currently Orbital ATK’s vice president of national security systems, overseeing a business area that designs, builds, and operates satellites for the U.S. Department of Defense and the intelligence community.

Long is also a partner in Arizona-based Aletheia Enterprise Design Group. The company, which employs 75 people in Arizona and New Mexico, has a broad range of design and development business interests.

At Orbital ATK, Long’s work is classified, the satellite systems are complex, and the team is often up against a new challenge to solve or a threat to unravel — a combination that might prove too daunting for some but keeps Long engaged in the field.

“Working in space is a hard and unforgiving environment with little room for mistakes,” he says. “The way we build, test, and fly space missions is different than the development of ground or airborne systems. For many new engineers, the challenge is the timeline that it takes to see a program from start to finish.”

Preparing for takeoff

Long began his career at Motorola and remembers well his first project, working on a GPS system that the company was helping to build. In the late 1990s, the technology was relatively new, and the challenge was perfect for the young engineer. Soon after, Long dove into work involving classified space programs at the company — projects he can’t discuss even two decades later.

Projects in those early days were both exciting and challenging and set the stage for a successful career. But for Long, the work also gave him something else.

“I knew that what I was doing was contributing to a better society,” he says.

As Long worked to establish himself in the field, he looked to ASU for an MBA. The program drew like-minded professionals from the state’s high-tech companies, boosted Long’s business profile, and rounded out his engineering career. Long forged friendships in the program that continue today.

Failing forward

Throughout Long’s career, almost all his work has been out of the public eye because of the classified nature of the projects. At Orbital, Long’s business area is focused on satellite systems equipped with information, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. His team has access to some of the country’s most advanced technologies and is tasked with helping meet vital, always-evolving national security needs.

 

“The one thing that is great about the work is that we get access to very sensitive information that keeps the country safe,” he says. “The downside is you don’t get to talk about it a lot.”

Long has valued the counsel of mentors, leaders in his industry, over the past two decades. They have stressed the importance of being “a well-grounded leader, setting expectations of people, giving them the room to perform, and then holding them accountable,” he says.

In turn, Long offers this advice for young engineers.

“As an engineer, especially as a young engineer, there is a fear of failing or a fear of not knowing the answer, which is true in business as well,” he says. “It is important to understand that you cannot be a lone ranger. In this industry, success comes in surrounding yourself with highly capable people, and understanding that failure is probable and is part of innovation and necessary for growth.

“We learn from failure and improve our process,” he adds. “Fail early and fail fast, learn, and move on.”