Title: Managing Director
Firm: Swap Financial Group
Age: 34
Peter Clerc, now a managing director at Swap Financial Group, hit the ground running right out of college.
After graduating from Northeastern University, Peter joined Goldman Sachs in New York just as the markets were beginning to roil. He survived the turmoil and eventually headed its derivatives desk.
“I started in July 2008 right before it really started getting interesting,” he said from Swap's Boston office. “I survived multiple downsizings, layoffs, personnel shifts and business adjustments, working on that desk for eight years. By 2012, I was the only member left and asked to ‘run’ the group."
Peter, now 34, joined Swap in 2016. He has advised state and local issuers on new money and refunding bond transactions, hedging strategies, compliance issues and on long-term strategic planning.
He learned from one of his early mentors at Goldman Sachs, Keith Shultis, how to make difficult financial derivatives sound simple. Shultis is now at RBC. “Keith is one of the best at explaining a very complex concept in a very simple way,” Peter said.
His take-charge ways impressed Swap senior managing director Nat Singer. “He has implemented innovative and creative solutions which has resulted in cost savings and flexibility for his issuer clients,” Singer said.
Peter, a native of New Bedford, Mass., began with UBS in 2007 under Northeastern’s co-op program, under which students alternate course study with full-time employment.
He said Swap “prides itself on being very smart and being very tough, but being very fair. I had a lot of respect for Nat and felt he was a thought leader in our industry."
He especially enjoys working with state housing finance agency clients to provide low-cost funding for first-time and low-income home buyers. “It's been rewarding, and fun, to use the expertise and skills I learned on the dealer side, for the sole benefit of the issuer,” he said.
Peter roots for the Boston Celtics basketball team and enjoys watching home-improvement network HGTV.
