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Jerome Wong

NYIF Instructor at New York Institute of Finance

New York Institute of Finance

About me

Jerome has established successful careers in finance and technology, working for companies from Silicon Valley to Wall Street. He is a native New Yorker and is a proud product of its public school system. He was particularly fortunate to attend the Bronx High School of Science, which has produced eight Nobel Prize winners, seven in physics and one in chemistry. What has stuck with him from his high school experience is that regardless of your social or economic background, success can be nurtured and developed with the proper guidance and encouragement. He later graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and then started his career in technology. After working for several years in technical positions, Jerome transitioned into a series of sales roles where he found his true calling: being in front of clients and closing deals. Over the past 25 years, he has continued to learn about salesmanship and hone his sales strategies. He describes the sales style he has developed as "a soft-sell by showing, not telling" and focusing on both the direct and less obvious requirements of clients to successfully win deals. After graduating from Columbia Business School, Jerome began his career in finance in the nascent area of credit derivatives at Chemical Bank in 1996. After working several years in New York, he relocated to London for Citibank with his young family. He ran credit structuring groups in Europe, which involved explaining complex products to clients in the simplest terms possible and continuing to develop his sales skills. After three years in London, Jerome moved to Hong Kong to build out UBS's credit structuring business in Asia. Jerome is fortunate to have lived in and visited such vibrant and diverse locales around the world. His daughters saw Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, and the Roman Coliseum by the time they started kindergarten. He climbed the Great Wall of China with his family, jumped off of 2,000-meter cliffs to paraglide in New Zealand and gained his scuba-diving certification in Phuket. He has come full circle and is now back living in the greater New York City area and is currently an adjunct instructor at the Fordham University Gabelli School of Business. Throughout his career in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, Jerome was actively recruiting college students for the companies he has worked for. His experience sitting on the other side of the interview table from the candidates, combined with his sales experience, provides him with unique insights into the hiring decision process.