I love writing about people who make big jumps while in FEMBA, and Nick Pavlis, FEMBA 2011, made quite a leap. Nick came to UCLA with one great career, then created another.

In 2008, Nick entered FEMBA working for Wyeth, a major pharmaceutical company, as a territory manager. He was content with his career, but as school kicked in he soon realized a calling for private banking. Utilizing the resources offered by UCLA Anderson, he managed a swift transition into the financial services industry.

Through his finance courses, Eric Sussman, Hanno Lustig (also mentioned in Ryan Hughes’ story) and Mark Grinblatt are among his favorite professors, leveraging the advice of FEMBA career coaches Susan Cowell and Gordon Hill, and attending on-campus recruiting events focused on investment management, Nick landed a coveted Summer Associate internship with Goldman Sachs.

Associate Dean Gonzalo Freixes supported Nick in his efforts to participate in the SMR Program with EMBA students, and Nick found this experience to be incredibly rewarding working with a small, yet highly profitable maker of iPhone/Android accessories in Burbank. During this six month process, Nick continued interviewing and vetting Wall Street firms–and was fortunate to land a position in the Global MBA Associate Class of 2011 with Credit Suisse Private Bank.

Nick was one of 28 newly minted MBA grads in the world to go through this program and spent an entire month at headquarters in Zurich. After two successful years working with a six person team that managed over $1B of assets of sophisticated West Coast families, Nick joined the Private Bank at J.P. Morgan, based in Century City. In his current role as a private banker with J.P. Morgan, Nick works with owners of closely held businesses and corporate executives across several areas including: banking, credit, investments and wealth planning.

Nicholas lives in the South Bay with his wife Janelle and twin daughters, Melina and Alexis and you may run into him at an upcoming UCLA Anderson recruiting or volunteer event. Last month, he helped us at our Redondo Beach recruiting lunch! Maureen and Christy appreciated his support.