David Weild IV

David Weild IV
Photo by Yolanda Perez
Alma mater	Wesleyan and New York University’s Stern School of Business
Occupation	Investment banker
Known for	Former Vice Chairman of NASDAQ

David Weild IV is a stock market expert best known for his position as Vice Chairman of NASDAQ. He is currently the Founder, Chairman and CEO of IssuWorks, parent company of the investment banking firm Weild & Co. Holdings.^[1] Weild is also known as the "father" of the JOBS Act, and has been involved in drafting legislation for the US Congress.

Early life

Weild graduated from Hotchkiss School preparatory in 1974, then went on to earned a B.A. from Wesleyan and an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business.^[2]

Career

Weild spent the first fourteen years of his career in senior management positions at Prudential Securities.^[2] In the mid-1990s he was head of global equity transactions for the firm.^[3] In 1999 he moved from the head of the company's technology investment banking business to run PrudentialSecurities.com.^[4] Leaving the position of Managing Director of the high technology group for the position of President of PrudentialSecurities.com, Weild transitioned from the firm's investment bank to running the combined customer-facing internet services businesses of Prudential Financial, including securities brokerage, asset management, and insurance.^[5]

Soon afterwards, Weild became the executive vice-president for corporate clients at NASDAQ.^[6] Soon after that he became Vice Chairman of the NASDAQ.^[7] He kept the position until July 2003.^[8] After leaving NASDAQ, Weild became CEO of the National Research Exchange.^[9] Weild later founded Capital Markets Advisory Partners and simultaneously led the Capital Markets Group of Grant Thornton LLP, one of the six global audit, tax and advisory organizations.^[7][10] Capital Markets Advisory Partners was later renamed Weild & Co. Holdings. He is also a frequent contributor to Bloomberg News.^[11]

Writings and legislative efforts

Restructuring US stock markets

Weild first became known nationally for his advocacy of changing the US laws applied to IPOs when he was interviewed for a 1994 cover story on the issue by Businessweek.^[3] Weild wrote articles on the subject for several international business newspapers over the years. In August 2010 he wrote about the contemporary equity market structure's systemic unfairness to small investors in an article for the Financial Times.^[12] In October 2011 he called also for a new stock market to support small companies in an op-ed run in the Wall Street Journal.^[13] He himself had overseen more than 1000 equity offerings during his career.^[14] His studies have also been cited by national magazines. In November 2009 The Economist wrote about stock market structure as a possible cause for the decline in the number of publicly listed companies, citing work published at Grant Thornton LLP by Weild.^[15]

In February 2012 Weild wrote for Crain's New York Magazine about rebuilding the IPO market for smaller firms looking to go public, especially in the shadow of the failed Facebook IPO.^[16] This article was written prior to the passing of legislation to improve IPO financing rules passed a few months later through the US Congress. Weild became known as the head of the New Markets Movement,^[17] pushing for an end to one-size-fits all stock markets. His efforts led the Wall Street Journal to call Weild the "Small-cap IPO evangelist".^[18] Weild also co-authored a section of the 2012 book Broken Markets by Financial Times Press, in which he made a direct link between the lower number of American IPOs and lowered job creation.^[19]

JOBS Act

On June 20, 2012 Weild provided testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Entities Subcommittee's "hearing on market structure: Ensuring orderly, efficient, innovative and competitive markets for issuers and investors". He testified that inadequate tick sizes were damaging the ability of Wall Street to properly execute and support IPOs. As a result, small cap companies were being deprived of access to capital which in turn was undermining growth in the American economy.^[10] He also testified several times before the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies and US Congress in the effort of passing the April 5, 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act through the US government, including hearings on November 2009 and June 2010.^[20] Weild continued to testify before the US government regarding their ineffective rules for dealing with small cap corporations.^[21] The JOBS Act was signed into law by the President in April 2012. The final bill relied heavily on studies done by Weild and coauthor Edward Kim.^[22] His efforts have led him to be known as the "Father" of the JOBS Act, according to Forbes Magazine.^[23][24]

Further criticism of US IPO markets

Part of what Weild called for in 2012 was the potential founding of a new stock market that could handle the financing needs of small cap companies, and promote small businesses in the US. The goal for him is to grow the number of IPOs per year, by creating conditions that could suit the aftermarket support needs of companies smaller than those currently pursuing IPOs as a part of their business strategies.^[25] In changing the size of ticks, Weild has argued that fractions of stock prices is too hard to differentiate for a lot of investors, and that ticks could instead be measured in terms of pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters, instead of simply pennies or fractions.^[26] Weild has stated that larger economic incentives to support small-capitalization stocks could buoy prices and liquidity leading to more IPOs and, thus, an acceleration in job creation. He has warned that the number of IPOs required per year to simply maintain historical numbers of publicly listed companies in the U.S. is at least 360, and that this number has not been met since 2000.^[27]

Philanthropy

On 9-11 Weild was at NASDAQ Marketsite in Times Square to open the stock market with the heads of a public company. He was on the phone with his secretary when one of the planes hit the south tower of the World Trade Center where she was at the time. The two men he was there to open the markets with were partners with Tom Burnett, one of the men who helped to take down United Airlines Flight 93 before it struck Washington, DC. Ten of his co-workers were killed in the attacks. He became a board member, and later chairman, for the 9-11 charity Tuesday's Children. Because of this position, he was invited to write about his lost friends and colleagues on the eleventh anniversary of the attacks for the Huffington Post.^[28]

Personal life

Weild is the brother of stage actress, director, and choreographer Kim Weild. His first child was born in 2001.^[28]

References

External links

• IssuWorks