2022 PRESIDENT’S MEDAL RECIPIENT
Thomas P. O’Brien ’86, P’19 is Senior Managing Director of SumRidge Partners, a Raymond James company, based in Jersey City, N.J. Prior to the acquisition of SumRidge Partners, LLC, by Raymond James in July 2022, Tom was a Co-Founder and the Chief Executive Officer and President of SumRidge Partners, LLC. Formed in 2010, SumRidge Partners is a top-ranked electronic fixed income market maker specializing in high-yield, investment-grade corporate bonds, municipal bonds, institutional preferred securities, and emerging market bonds.
Prior to launching SumRidge Partners, Tom was Co-Head of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Capital Markets division and was also a member of the firm’s management and risk committees; during his time in those roles, he was instrumental in building and developing the retail capital markets division into an industry leader. Previously, he was head of Morgan Stanley’s retail fixed income trading, which included U.S. credit, rates and municipal bond trading. He began his career with Dean Witter as an institutional MBS trader and subsequently traded various fixed income products; later, he took responsibility for risk management oversight of several product lines.
Tom earned a bachelor’s degree of economics/finance from the University in 1986 and a master of business administration from Fordham University. He is a former member of the University’s Board of Trustees, where he served as Vice Chairman, and a former Chair of the PBC. Today, he acts as a mentor to current University students and frequently teaches in the fixed income securities and markets course, which he co-developed with the late Frank Corcione, Ph.D., and Murli Rajan, Ph.D., G’84. Tom resides in Basking Ridge, N.J., with his wife, Denise, and their three sons.