182. Leo Clark, A Career in the Financial Markets & Some Side Adventures

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. 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/