As a finance and marketing major at Lehigh, Ken Hoexter ’93 ’25P spent a great deal of time with Professor James Greenleaf ’66G ’93P.
“He would always take time with me to ensure I understood complex finance topics,” he says. “He became a great contact and mentor for me afterward.”
That personal history made it even sweeter when the Lehigh Wall Street Council honored Hoexter for his career success and service to Lehigh during its annual spring reception at the New York Stock Exchange this month. He received an award named after the late professor emeritus of finance and law.
“I remember sitting with Professor Greenleaf when he asked me to join him in what was becoming the Wall Street Council,” Hoexter said in his speech at the event. “Here we are 30-plus years later with the council that hosts an incredible annual educational day in the fall on campus with dozens of alums, this amazing alumni event in the city in the spring, and a bunch of networking events throughout the year.”
Hoexter is a managing director and equity research analyst at Bank of America for air freight, surface transportation, and shipping. He has been ranked as a top analyst 29 times in the Institutional Investor All-America Research Poll, including #2 in air freight and surface transportation and #3 in shipping last year. He also has been ranked as the #1 analyst by Institutional Investor magazine and the #1 stock picker by Financial Times.
Hoexter credits Lehigh with preparing him academically to hit the ground running in his first job after graduation. He says he also benefited from his extracurricular activities, including serving as president of the Student Senate and a member of University Forum, as well as playing on the Ultimate Frisbee team and belonging to Delta Tau Delta fraternity.
“Those Delts I met then and whom I’m still in touch with were real leaders, not only in teaching me about things on campus but also how to be a leader in life,” says Hoexter. “I use a lot of things I learned from those individuals in business today.”
A Delts brother who worked in equity research explained the field to Hoexter, which helped in his job interviews, and he began his career at Lehman Brothers.
“It really tested me right from the start in terms of learning all the different facets of finance,” he says. “But half the job is then going and selling your idea to investors, showing them why you like or don’t like a stock. So, not only was the finance part of my major invaluable but so was the marketing part.”
Hoexter earned promotions but left Lehman Brothers after four years to take a position as a senior analyst for telecommunications at Goldman Sachs, going on to become one of its youngest vice presidents. He joined Merrill Lynch (since acquired by Bank of America) in 2000, starting in telecommunications and switching to the transportation sector after the dot-com bubble burst.
In addition to success, Hoexter’s career has provided colorful moments and lessons, some of which he shared in his Lehigh Wall Street Council speech.
“Back in the day, when smoking was first banned in workplaces, my research director had permission to smoke in his office if he had a mini fan on,” he said. “Before we could launch, we had to go pitch our idea. Well, the more you talked, the more he smoked. So, you wanted to get it right quickly so you could get out of there. Moral of the story: Be prepared and practice ahead of time.”
He also mentioned the time when water pipes burst and flooded his office at Goldman Sachs, soaking everything the weekend before his wedding. His boss told him to start his vacation a few days early to allow for his office to be dried out and cleaned up.
“I disappeared for 10 days and came back,” Hoexter said. “They had put fans in my office, totally forgotten about me, and left the fans on full bore. A week later, you can imagine everything had dried out, and hundreds of papers were blowing in a circle like a tornado in the office. Moral: You can be forgotten pretty quick, so find a way to make yourself indispensable.”
Hoexter has done just that, and not only for his employer. He serves on the boards of the Lehigh Wall Street Council and Lehigh University Alumni Association. He’s also a past board member of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s New Jersey Metro chapter and has raised $712,000 for the nonprofit by riding in its annual Bike MS event.
