Inside the lives of some of the most powerful people on Wall Street

Welcome back. Dan DeFrancesco checking in from NYC. For those who celebrated Christmas, hope you avoided getting coal.

Seeing as this week should be a quiet one, we decided to take a trip down memory lane. We're highlighting profiles we've done of some of the most powerful people on Wall Street.

They are, as you will see, largely white males — a telling reminder of who still wields the power throughout most of Wall Street.

But before we get into it, I'd also like flag our most recent class of Wall Street's rising stars. While these folks might not be quite at the level of the people profiled below, they might get there soon.

P.S. — Which powerful people would you like to see covered in 2023? Drop me a line at ddefrancesco@insider.com.

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1. From a potential heir to the Goldman throne to blazing his own path. Gregg Lemkau was considered a future CEO candidate at Goldman Sachs before he shocked Wall Street by leaving for Michael Dell's investment firm in 2020. In less than two years, he helped orchestrate a merger with billionaire advisory BDT, which positions him at the top of a hybrid investment bank catering to the world's wealthiest people. Oh, and he's got a great head of hair. More on Lemkau's big bet on himself.

2. Jonathan D. Schiller helped build Boies Schiller Flexner into the powerhouse law fim it is today, but he also played a key role in the exodus of partners the firm has endured. Insiders pointed to Schiller's temperamental management style, an unfair comp system, and preferential treatment towards his own son. Read more here.

3. Don't bet against Julian Salisbury. Soft-spoken types can sometimes get bulldozed on Wall Street, where so-called alphas often reign supreme. But Goldman Sach's Salisbury, a Brit who came out of the unheralded middle office, has proven you don't need to be the loudest in the room to be successful.

4. Meet the team behind what was one of the most profitable trading strategies on the Street. Index-rebalance trading isn't the sexiest topic, but during the pandemic it helped hedge funds reap billions in returns. And no one did it better than Millennium's Glen Scheinberg and his team. Here's an inside look at how they did it.

5. Musk's money man. Jared Birchall is one of Elon Musk's top deputies, having run his family office for the past six years. But while Musk entrusts a lot to Birchall, the two men could not be more different. Inside the life of the straight-laced, low-key banker handling Musk's money.

6. Brad Karp weighs his next step. The chairman of the powerful law firm Paul Weiss won big-name clients like Citibank, the NFL, and Apollo. But the man whose client relationships generate some $500 million in fees a year for the firm isn't sure how much longer he wants to stay in the game. More on Karp's future here.

7. Bringing Big Tech to Wall Street. Plenty of banks talk about transforming their firm into a technology company, but few have pursued that strategy as aggressively as Goldman Sachs. Marco Argenti, a former AWS exec and the bank's chief information officer, is the mastermind behind it all. Inside his strategy for turning Goldman into the Amazon of Wall Street.

8. Tough times for the leader of a top investment team at Morgan Stanley. Dennis Lynch could do no wrong running Counterpoint Global, which posted triple-digit gains in 2020 and was described as the "crown jewel" of Morgan Stanley Investment Management. But the 28-year Morgan Stanley vet has faced much harder sledding this year, and insiders have started questioning the culture on his team. More on the troubles for Morgan Stanley's rock star portfolio manager.

9. The lawyer repping everyone from Jay-Z to Elon Musk. Alex Spiro is no stranger to the spotlight. The Quinn Emanuel partner has defended a plethora of high-profile clients, playing a key role in Musk's fight to break out of his Twitter deal and most recently serving as counsel for Megan Thee Stallion. Here's more on how Spiro rose to power.

10. What it takes to get to the top of one of the most competitive PE firms on the Street. Aaron Sobel, Reed Rayman, and Robert Kalsow-Ramos all were named partners at Apollo Global Management before they turned 40. Here's how they rose to the top of an investing firm known for being an intense workplace.

Curated by Dan DeFrancesco in New York. Feedback or tips? Email ddefrancesco@insider.com, tweet @dandefrancesco, or connect on LinkedIn. Edited by Jeffrey Cane (tweet @jeffrey_cane) in New York and Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.