Stifel Managing Director Speaks to Business Students

On Oct. 20, Ike Papadopoulos, a managing director at Stifel, spoke to Sykes College of Business students in a packed room at the Lowth Entrepreneurship Center. The investment bank is headquartered in St. Louis and has more than 400 offices across the U.S., including 30 in Florida and one in Tampa.

During an interactive, 90-minute session, Papadopoulos shared his career journey, from studying in Greece as an undergraduate to working on Wall Street, in state government and in investment banking. He described the work that analysts do early in their careers, walked through case studies from his portfolio and shared five lessons for students: learn the business, be useful early, build trust, choose culture deliberately and keep your options open.

Papadopoulos also assured students that although investment bankers use artificial intelligence, it is not replacing people. AI makes his team more efficient, he said, “but you still have to read it as an analyst to make sure whatever it produces makes sense.”

Papadopoulos also shared that Stifel hopes to identify a handful of students to hire as analysts. “The good news for this room,” he said, “is that we hire a lot for offices across the U.S., across Europe.”