182. Leo Clark, A Career in the Financial Markets & Some Side Adventures
Release Date: 10/12/2026
184. Mimi Rocah, Mom, Prosecutor, & Author
The 92 Report
Mimi Rocah lives in Westchester, New York, with her husband David Anders, a fellow lawyer she met while working as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. After working for a few years between college and law school, she attended NYU Law School with the intention of becoming a prosecutor. She completed two clerkships, one for the Eastern District of New York and one for the Second Circuit, before starting at the Southern District of New York in February 2001. Mimi spent 17 years at the Southern District of New York, eventually moving into teaching and legal commentary for...
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183. Thomas Norman, Professor & Faculty Founder of the CSUDH Innovation Incubator
The 92 Report
Show Notes Thomas Norman grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, before moving to northwestern Wisconsin. He lobbied to add a class period in high school so he could take four years of foreign language, to ensure he was competitive for universities like Harvard. While at Harvard, he focused on social studies and wrote a thesis regarding the economic forces behind NAFTA which led him to his first job. Transitioning to Business Banking After graduating, Thomas worked for Procter and Gamble in Minnesota before transitioning into business banking. He had to take night classes in accounting to learn how to...
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182. Leo Clark, A Career in the Financial Markets & Some Side Adventures
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Leo Clark participated in the Jean Monnet Program at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris following his graduation from Harvard. The fellowship was a work-study-travel program focused on the European Union that included seminars and internships. He completed an internship within the operations research department at Air France. He talks about connecting with fellow alumni in Paris and developing his French language skills through immersion. Exotics Trading to Sales and Swaps Marketing Leo explains what exotic derivatives trading is and his experience working in that field....
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181. Kath Mertens, Next Chapter: Animal Behavior
The 92 Report
Kath Mertens (Kath Ulman) reflects on her life stage, mentioning her 20-year-old son heading to college, her divorce, and her part-time work. She describes feeling on the cusp of a new life phase, similar to when she graduated from Harvard. Becoming a Veterinarian Kath shares her initial career aspirations of becoming a veterinarian and the challenges she faced due to the lack of a pre-vet focus at Harvard. Kath recounts her first post-Harvard job in Jackson, Wyoming, where she worked as a ski bum and later as a wrangler on a dude ranch. She rediscovered her passion for veterinary medicine...
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180. Kristen Fowler Garland, From Cambridge to Japan to Alaska
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Kristen Fowler Garland majored in East Asian Studies and Japanese at Harvard. She explains her decision to spend five years in Japan after graduation, including two years with the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program. She describes her experience with the JET program, teaching conversational English in Toyama, and her efforts to learn Japanese. Kristen shares her job search in Japan, landing a position with a foreign subsidiary in Tokyo, where she learned to use Excel in Japanese. Market Research and Field Hockey Kristen recounts her work in market research, tracking the shift...
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179. Clare Scherrer, Investment Banker, CFO, Public Board Director
The 92 Report
Show Notes Clare Scherrer outlines her career journey in three main chapters: 25 years at Goldman Sachs in Investment Banking, a number of years as a public company Chief Financial Officer, and her current role as a director on two public company boards of directors. Clare also shares her life immediately post-graduation, including getting married and completing McKinsey's Business Analyst program in New York City. Love at First Blind Date Clare recounts her initial post Harvard plan to join the Foreign Service and how a blind date led to her getting engaged and pivoting her career path. She...
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178. Mara (Beverwyk) Christine, Librarian, Teacher, Lawyer
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Mara Christine (formerly Mara Beverwyk) describes her circuitous path, starting with a job at the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) in Berkeley, followed by a role in the Oakland public library system. She pursued a library degree in Michigan and returned to New Mexico, where she worked as a school and research librarian. She transitioned to teaching at a Montessori elementary school, earning her certification, and later went to law school at age 46, becoming a prosecutor. A Career Move to Law Mara explains what drew her to the law, and she cites her midlife crisis and...
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177. Kiki Snyder, Assigned Karen at Birth
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Kiki (formerly Karen) Snyder shares her 35-year journey since her breakdown at Harvard, which landed her in restraints at McLean Hospital during exams in 1991. She discusses being misdiagnosed as severely bipolar, the 32 years she lost to toxic psychiatric medications, and the self she rediscovered. "Karen was full of fear and anger. Karen wanted to speak to the manager. But Kiki's in charge now. I am the manager." Learn more about her transformation on Instagram at and at . From Karen to Kiki Kiki elaborates on her transformation from Karen to Kiki. A massage therapist...
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176. Maya Browne, The Road Not Taken
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Maya Browne recounts her senior year at Harvard, including writing her thesis "Idealizing Vision" which was about how magazine editors, photographers, and designers had shaped the ideal female form in the 20th century, and additionally another was an article for Essence magazine about eating disorders. It was the first article of its kind that drew data from women of color, and it won an award called the Excellence in Media Merit Award (EMMA). Writing, Modeling, and Playing Violin Maya describes her first job at Details magazine under James Truman, where she handled...
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175. Chana Gable Selmon, Medicine Without Borders
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Chana Gable Selmon explains she joined Harvard as a transfer student in 1990, overlapping two years with the class of 1992. She graduated in 1993 after completing science requirements due to her history concentration. Chana decided to go to medical school at Cornell, followed by an internship in Emergency Medicine at Bellevue NYU and residency at Harvard. Commuting between Jerusalem and New Jersey Chana had her first child in 2000 and continued working as an ER doctor. She describes her experience as a fourth-year resident at Brooklyn Hospital Center during 9/11. She later ...
info_outlineShow Notes:
Leo Clark participated in the Jean Monnet Program at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris following his graduation from Harvard. The fellowship was a work-study-travel program focused on the European Union that included seminars and internships. He completed an internship within the operations research department at Air France. He talks about connecting with fellow alumni in Paris and developing his French language skills through immersion.
Exotics Trading to Sales and Swaps Marketing
Leo explains what exotic derivatives trading is and his experience working in that field. After his time in Paris, Leo joined J.P. Morgan in New York to work in mortgage-backed securities research. He transitioned from research into exotics trading and later moved into a sales and structuring role known as swaps marketing, a structured sales role. His professional tenure included working in both New York and London offices for nearly ten years. He moved toward quantitative finance by applying his background in applied mathematics to trading desks.
The Wildcatting Years
In 2001, Leo took a sabbatical involving a 90-day round-the-world trip that included cities like London, Cairo, and Beijing. He stopped half way through and took an immersion language course in Mandarin Chinese in Beijing. During his hiatus, he pursued various entrepreneurial interests including a mechanical device patent and assisting with a banking license application in Afghanistan via OPIC. He served as the CFO and COO for a tech company specializing in Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology. These experiences allowed him to explore real-world business building before returning to the financial markets.
Transitioning to Barclays
Leo rejoined the derivatives market in 2007 by joining Barclays. Since then, he has held various roles on the macro trading floor involving interest rates, FX, EM, credit, funding, and transaction structuring. For several years, he has overseen the central P&L for Barclays' global macro trading business to optimize funding and capital efficiency. He describes his current work as managing complex risks using stochastic calculus and probability models to value transactions.
Choral Music and Community
Leo met his wife, Andrea Hsu, through mutual friends in a singing group around 2004 in New York. They were married in 2006, and they have two daughters, Lily and Zoe, who were born in 2009 and are currently high school juniors. Leo is an active member of the Grace Church Choral Society where he performs seasonal concerts at Grace Church and Carnegie Hall. His involvement in choral music provides a strong sense of community outside of his professional life in finance.
Harvard Reflections
Leo recalls many good interactions with faculty members and recounts a freshman seminar with Professor John Cairns, who worked with James Watson, and a seminar on the worldview of C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud. He talks about the History of Japan course run by his section leader, Henry Rosovsky, and classes in physics and electromagnetics. He also mentions professors Armand Nicholi, Eric Mazur, and Peter Marsden.
Timestamps:
00:05: Post-Graduation in Paris
09:26: Early Career at J.P. Morgan
25:09: Sabbatical and Entrepreneurial Years
34:10: Return to Derivatives Trading
34:27: Personal Life and Community Involvement
40:55: Harvard Reflections
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leo.t.clark/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leo-clark-cfa-31176/