US Diversity and Inclusion House: Academy Securities
Take no prisoners Academy Securities has hit twin goals of topping league tables across segments for diversity and inclusion firms and reaching a scale to allow it to hire veterans to help them transition out of service into civilian life. For those achievements, Academy Securities is IFR’s US Diversity and Inclusion House of the Year.
Academy Securities, founded in 2009 by former US naval officer Chance Mims, is a dominant force among diversity and inclusion investment banks and cemented that position in 2024 at the top of league tables for investment-grade underwriting, while also showcasing its geopolitical intelligence capabilities.
Standout deals for the New York-based firm in 2024 included for BNY Mellon, John Deere, Motorola Solutions and Johnson & Johnson. In November, it was joint bookrunning manager on a US$2.25bn bond offering by State Street, which the bank said was structured in keeping with its inclusion, diversity and equity efforts, and where Academy more than pulled its weight.
“It was unique. When a large issuer says they want you to lead, it’s quite a validation,” said Bret Lowry, Academy's head of special situations.
“As a joint lead we are expected to bring in high levels and we were able to perform. Our investors stepped up and helped us drive that transaction.”
Lowry is also a US Navy vet, alongside Mims, who is chairman and chief executive. So is Spencer Wilcox, president and head of capital markets, and Phil McConkey, who was previously president and is now vice-chairman (McConkey even followed his military career with six years playing football in the NFL, including a touchdown catch in Super Bowl XXI as wide receiver for the New York Giants). Head of equity trading Dan Stahlschmidt is a former Naval aviator.
Wilcox has been a managing director at Academy for eight years and before his recent promotion was head of fixed income and capital markets. He worked at Jefferies for five years. Randy Lauer has stepped in as head of fixed income. Lauer, who was an officer in the US Marines, has been a managing director at Academy for three years and spent 23 years at Citigroup.
Some 47% of Academy’s staff are veterans, 20% are disabled, 18% are women and 18% are minorities.
When Academy was formed during the financial crisis, its mission was to create an investment bank that hires as many military veterans as possible and trains them alongside Wall Street veterans, Lowry said. Pairing teams in this way allows the vets to learn the ropes in trading, public finance, investment banking and capital markets, while the firm plays up what past military training brings.
“If they end up going over to larger firms, that’s great,” Lowry said. “It keeps the pipeline going and we keep training more military veterans.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly given its background, Academy also has a geopolitical risk platform that includes 30 retired admirals and generals, two astronauts and a former agent from the FBI and one from the CIA – providing expertise on foreign policy, national security, cyber/AI and regional instability.
“The geopolitical intelligence group has been a big growth driver for us,” Lowry said. “Being a D&I investment bank, we can’t lend billions of dollars, but we can lead with unique perspective and market commentary.”
Living the mission
Academy finished 2024 at the top of the league table for D&I firms in debt capital markets, its biggest business. It was the leading D&I co-manager on the US investment-grade league table; the leading veteran-owned investment bank and the top D&I firm on asset-backed securities and residential mortgage-backed securities.
Lowry attributed its success to a variety of factors, including a unique coverage perspective.
“We are out there aggressively covering clients, adding value where we can. We have the capability and the authenticity to support what we are saying and doing,” he said. That means on every deal at meetings with a treasurer, IPO candidate or financial sponsor, Academy has a team that’s representative of its mission – it includes military vets with a few experienced bankers. And clients have responded well, Lowry said.
Academy was joint bookrunner on a US$3.85bn investment-grade offering in May for Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’ Foundry JV Holdco with Intel. The offering came in four parts: five-year, seven-year, 10-year and 13-year secured notes, and proceeds will help fund a semiconductor fabrication facility in Arizona.
It was joint bookrunner on BNY Mellon’s US$2.5bn offering in three parts. That followed a role as part of the syndicate for BNY Mellon’s first all D&I-led offering in 2023, which was billed as the first issue for a global systemically important bank led entirely by minority, veteran and woman-owned firms as bookrunners.
Academy was joint bookrunner on John Deere’s US$1.75bn offering of three-year and five-year notes and San Diego Gas & Electric’s US$600m 30-year offering.
Growth mode
2024 saw D&I firms continue to make inroads with increased participation generally; they had roles on more than 60% of all US DCM underwriting and 70% of US investment-grade DCM underwriting, according to Academy.
D&I firms have been taking on bigger roles as lead managers on more transactions after Allstate planted a flag in 2020 by mandating the first sole D&I bank-led bond deal, followed by John Deere and BNY Mellon.
Financial and telecoms sectors have been the largest supporters of that push and accounted for 80% of all elevated role deal flow, Academy said. It said the transactions stand as proving grounds that D&I banks have the capability to perform at the highest level in capital markets.
In addition to State Street's offering, Academy worked on two New York Life transactions in 2024, as joint bookrunner on a US$1.2bn offering and as sole bookrunner on a US$95m offering.
Academy has maintained a standing on top of the DCM D&I league table for three years. In the US in 2024, the bank underwrote more than US$420bn across 251 deals through mid-December, an increase of 15% compared with 2023.
“We are proud that we have been able to joint bookrun several transactions with names like State Steet and BNY Mellon where we take a leading role,” Lowry said. “We have the investor base and we are able to bring in meaningful and significant orders to these transactions to help drive a wonderful outcome for our clients.”
Beyond D&I
Academy has regulatory capital close to US$75m, which allows it to underwrite multiples of that without any kind of backstop or need for lines of credit. On short-term bond issuance, Academy can do close to US$1bn on its own. Still, roughly 90% of its deals are co-managed assignments. It ranks as the top co-manager among D&I banks.
In 2024, it was co-manager on Motorola Solutions’ US$1.3bn offering of five and 10-year notes, Johnson & Johnson’s €2.5bn eight, 12, and 20-year notes and Wesco Distribution’s US$1.75bn offering.
Academy also ranks top among peers in underwriting foreign currency debt, having issued more than US$38bn-equivalent since 2022 across euro, sterling and yen. The bank was co-manager on Prologis’ €350m 16-year note offering and Aflac’s ¥48.6bn (US$330.9m) offering of five, seven and 10- year notes.
The bank’s DCM business is continuing to grow, and looking beyond its role in the D&I space.
“On total volume perspective and market share, we are bumping through that landscape and looking at the mid-tier investment banks,” Lowry said.
In equity underwriting the bank trailed some D&I rivals but was the top veteran-owned investment bank.
Academy was co-manager on ServiceTitan’s IPO in December, which raised US$718.5m, including greenshoe.
“Equity capital markets have been quiet over the last few years, especially for software companies,” Lowry said. “To see a [ServiceTitan] come out with an incredible background, growing revenue and price above the range and continue to trade well was encouraging to see.”
ServiceTitan sold 8.8m shares at US$71 each in its IPO, above the expected range, and another 1.32m in the greenshoe. The shares rose more than 42% on debut, closing at US$101. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were lead bookrunners and First Citizens Capital Securities, Academy and Loop Capital Markets were co-managers.
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