Rating Risk, Building Connections

A 2012 graduate of Lander College for Men, Mandelbaum is now a director in the financial institutions group at KBRA, a credit rating agency, where he analyzes the credit quality of asset managers and other financial institutions.

In practice, that means assessing a company’s ability to repay its debt, the risks facing its business, and the appropriate credit rating for its obligations. For companies, ratings can affect their access to funding and borrowing costs. For investors, ratings provide an independent opinion about an issuer’s relative credit risk and ability to meet its financial obligations.

A Career Built on Credit

Mandelbaum’s path began shortly after graduation, when he joined the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He worked at the Fed’s discount window, where banks can borrow money by posting collateral, including municipal bonds, corporate bonds, Treasuries, and other fixed-income securities.

His job, he said, was to analyze that collateral and help determine whether the Fed should be comfortable lending against it. He again explained the work through an everyday comparison.

“It’s a similar idea to a house appraisal for a mortgage,” Mandelbaum said. “The bank wants to make sure it’s comfortable with the value of the collateral.”

After six years at the Fed, Mandelbaum moved to Baltimore, where he worked in investment risk at Legg Mason, now part of Franklin Templeton. He later joined Stifel, working in counterparty credit risk and then as a corporate bond analyst at 1919 Investment Counsel, a Stifel subsidiary.

Those roles kept him in the same broad field: fixed income, credit analysis, and evaluating the risks behind a bond, trade, or investment.

Inside the Ratings World

At KBRA, Mandelbaum is no longer evaluating how rating agencies may view a company from the perspective of a bond investor. He is now part of the team conducting the underlying research and developing those credit opinions.

“When you’re on the bond-investing side, you often evaluate how rating agencies may view a company’s credit profile,” Mandelbaum said. “Here, I get to conduct the original research and help develop that opinion.”

He said he especially enjoys covering private firms, where the analysis often requires developing a detailed understanding of a company’s business model, financial performance, and risk profile.

“I get to conduct detailed research and form an independent credit opinion,” he said, “so I feel like I’m really adding something.”

Connections That Matter

Mandelbaum said Touro played an integral role in helping him enter such a competitive field. He specifically pointed to Ken Bigel, LCM professor of finance and chair of the business department; Jodi Smolen, director of Career Services; and alumnus Jason Appleson, who was working at the Fed when Mandelbaum graduated, for helping connect him to his first job opportunity.

He also said LCM’s finance coursework translated well to the work he later performed on the job.

“People sometimes question how much of what they learn in college will apply to their careers,” Mandelbaum said. “I found that in finance, the math and analysis were very similar to what we did at LCM.”

Today, Mandelbaum serves on the executive board of the Touro Finance Alumni Network, helping create for current students the kind of access that helped launch his own career.

“Touro helped me a lot,” Mandelbaum said. “If I’m able to give back in some way, I’m happy to do that.”

His advice to students interested in finance is simple: Make sure your interest in finance is genuine, learn as much as possible, and meet as many people as you can.

“It’s a numbers game,” Mandelbaum said. “The more people you meet and learn from, the more likely you are to find an opportunity that fits.”

For Mandelbaum, that persistence led to a career analyzing how companies operate, the risks they face, and whether they can meet their financial obligations. Now, he is helping the next generation begin asking those same questions.