Not every job will feel like the perfect fit, but for David Verbitsky ’10, every new position is an important stepping stone in your career, and an opportunity to learn and grow.

When David wanted to pivot his career from engineering to finance, the path led him straight to an MBA at Rice Business. His experience at Rice spring boarded him into a career in investment banking with a special focus on agriculture and food. Over the past 15 years, he’s worked as the global head of agriculture and nutrition investment banking at Goldman Sachs, as the global head of AgTech and sustainable food investment banking at Nomura Greentech, and as a member of the global chemicals and agriculture investment banking team at Barclays.

Now, David is applying all of his industry expertise to his own investment banking firm, Verbitsky Capital. In this episode, he chats with co-host Maya Pomroy ’22 about how Rice Business prepared him for a successful career in finance, what he learned through every job change and where he thinks innovation in the agriculture sector is heading next.

Episode Guide:

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:59 David’s Early Career in Engineering

03:06 Transition to Business School and Finance

06:09 Investment Banking Journey

08:59 Shift to Agriculture Sector

18:20 Navigating the VC Fund Experience

21:30 Exciting Deals in AgTech

23:24 Challenges and Lessons Learned

29:44 Building and Leading a Team with Verbitsky Capital

31:37 Future of AgTech

34:35 Career Advice and Final Thoughts

The Owl Have You Know Podcast is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

The importance of judgement in every leader

31:26: [David Verbitsky] I do not really know if you can quantify or measure it, but it is judgment. The only way you can really see that is seeing people in action, right? It is seeing, okay, when you are in a difficult situation, or maybe it is not even difficult, but when you have to make decisions. And take responsibility for things. And some of it is, could be very easy, like simple things who just, we are in the middle of a deal and you gotta just decide on what, how you move forward. Right. How do you take decisions? How do you move forward? How do you take accountability? How do you, in certain circumstances, decide not to do something? Which is probably more important in many different ways.

On networking and constant learning

36:25: [David Verbitsky] So first and foremost, I would say it is all about relationships. And her ability to, to maintain them. Right. That, that is part networking, but it is also just part effort of just people you already do know. Maintaining those relationships. Do you think that is first and foremost is the most important thing? Do not burn any bridges. Right? Keep them, keep them all active and then building off of that just sees opportunities when they present themselves, be open to things. Because they might be the wrong choice, but. You should learn something from every new step you take.

From missteps to momentum

Show Links:

• Transcript
  
  

Guest Profile:

• David Verbitsky | LinkedIn
• Verbitsky Capital