WEBVTT

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My parents were both
born in Puerto Rico.

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I was a page on the New
York Stock Exchange.

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That was my first job on Wall Street.

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With $50,000 and a
dream, I started Ramirez

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and Co. investment
banking December of 1971.

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My first employee was my wife.
And a handful of accounts.

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A good friend felt that
Ramirez was very ethnic.

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He thought it would
hurt us doing business.

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My parents were proud
of that name, Ramirez,

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and I decided why not Ramirez?

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When my father founded the firm,

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Wall Street was an old boys club.

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We have traditionally
had to work twice as hard

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and for probably less than
some of the guys showing up

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with the top-six business card.

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Our biggest areas of business
are our municipal bond area.

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We were the first diverse firm
to be given the opportunity

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to be a co-manager on a
New York City transaction,

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and that was in 1987.

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Today, we compete
against the biggest banks

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in the world on a daily basis.

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And we're usually top
10-15 in the country.

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Today, Ramirez is the
oldest Hispanic-owned

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investment bank in Wall Street.

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We brought them in as
co-managers on a number

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of deals for corporate clients.
And Ramirez introduces us

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to clients that we otherwise
would've not encountered.

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We've been in
40 transactions

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for Wells Fargo over the last 10 years.

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It's really a partnership
that I think has risen

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to a level of being strategic.

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Wall Street's becoming a place

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where people are celebrating diversity.

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In 2021, Wells Fargo was the first

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among the nation's six biggest banks

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to use investment banks
owned by minorities and women

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as joint book runners in a debt
capital markets transaction.

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To be able to see that
transformation as a Hispanic

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and part of the LGBTQ community
really means a lot to me.

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I think my
father was a trailblazer.

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And I think there's a lot
of trailblazing left to do.