Six wounded servicemen will soon master a new trade at Philadelphia broker Drexel Hamilton LLC under a training program offering to give injured veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars an entry to Wall Street.
The Wall Street Warfighters Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps disabled veterans build careers in the financial industry, kicked off a training program code named Operation Wall Street on Feb. 2 to get veterans battle-ready to take on financial markets. Retired Marine Gen. Peter Pace, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, heads the foundation’s advisory board.
Drexel Hamilton currently trades equities and options, but its executives plan to expand the scope of execution services geared toward institutional investors.
“We can access all equities and options exchanges at the present. We’re very competitive with the rest of the Street regarding fees, and we plan to add fixed income in the near future, probably corporate bonds and munis at first,” said Drexel Hamilton President Joseph Valenza in an interview.
He has high expectations for the trainees. “They’ll be superstars in our industry later on. They have the military discipline to learn and operate.”
The firm, listed as a “service-disabled veteran-owned small business,” also gets support, via internships, from the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq OMX Group, the Chicago Board Options Exchange and Goldman Sachs & Co. — Isabelle Clary
