It's not easy to get into Hollywood or Wall Street. Aaron Siegel carves out both places.
As Head of Entertainment Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs, he oversees a team of bankers working on transactions across sectors, from live events and video games to television and film production. His team sold $3.5 billion to Saudi-owned Scopely on behalf of Amusement Park owner Cedar Fair in a $8 billion merger with Six Flags last year and a merger of Niantic, the video game maker behind the hit franchise “Pokémon Go.”
This year, he was named to Billboard's annual list of Power 100 list and ranked 8th in the publication's financial sector expert list.
As a former Hollywood reporter who now covers Wall Street, I wanted to hear Siegel's thoughts on the future of entertainment and his advice to make it on Wall Street. Siegel joined Goldman as an analyst more than 20 years ago, and last year he was promoted to the company's highest ranking partner outside of C-Suite.
He said when Entertainment Banking Group launched its own business line in 2021, he was its sole managing director. Today he oversees four MD teams, including Hemal Thaker, who is at the forefront of the gaming and interactive entertainment business. Gaurav Madan handles M&A execution; Jack Cummin cares for movies, television and content. and Evin Broder, focusing on live entertainment, entertainment services and growth.
Morgan Stanley's managing director Jenny Kim joined in June to lead the bank's music business.
Goldman's expansion is amidst the turbulent entertainment industry. This is due to double attacks on AI and labor concerns in 2023, to labor concerns over climate disasters such as $250 billion wildfires and mass evacuation in California.
Check out the conversations edited for length and clarity.
Whether it's your morning routine or the way you relax, take us into the day of your life.
I often get up early enough to go jogging around Central Park. It's a global business and we generally have something fun going on. So, when I head to the park, I check in with the European and Asian team working on the project. This week it was a team from Stockholm and Singapore. Stockholm in particular is the vibrant epicenter of the world of music production.
Once you reach Central Park, there's nothing better than spending time surrounded by earth and trees. And there's no better way to finish a day or a week than to get the chance to participate in a small league baseball game, one of my kids' musical performances, or a religious service played by my wife, a rabbi in a New York temple.
What lesson or takeout do you want to tell every analyst or associate you work with?
When I joined the company as an analyst 22 years ago, I really had the privilege of being at Trench with my clients and building those relationships. So I'm really trying to encourage and assure that the whole team is getting that exposure and building those relationships.
I am inspired by the incredible creativity and tenacity of my clients and want junior bankers to experience working for the world's most creative entrepreneurs and people.
What are the biggest opportunities and challenges for the entertainment sector today?
Entertainment is a very broad sector, with some sectors that have grown consistently in recent years, such as music and video games.
In Hollywood, film and television productions have gone through an era of epic challenges, ranging from the pandemic to the evolution of streaming wars, from the 2023 strikes of actors and writers and the evolution of La Fire. But I believe that the environment for film and television content has become stable and is growing again, from the work we do with our clients.
Viewers are once again filling the theatrical experience in film, and the scaled streaming service is on a very strong footing.
It makes sense that companies combine their businesses so that each has their own capital structure, management teams and strategic direction. I think this will help people start working again from a position of stability and strength.
AI – or how does Hollywood's skepticism about AI have an impact on your business?
AI is affecting all the transactions we are currently working on.
We watch AI empower creators, writers, songwriters and directors. It's easier and more spacious to create content.
Within a client base, AI is a proven win-win for everyone.
I look at music as an example. Over 100,000 songs are uploaded to streaming platforms every day. And as a result, shares shifted to independent DIY artists.
Major also benefits from the expertise that promotes artists to global superstars. Their knowledge in this environment becomes even more important as they have intuition and models that help artists reach the next level.
You have one of the cool banking jobs I've encountered. Tell us about some of the highlights – Night Out and Award Show.
I will never forget to be in South by Southwest for the premiere of “Everything, Everywhere, Everywhere, Everything” for one of my studio clients in 2022. For me, it was an unexpected story about parent-child relationships and the young children watching the film at that moment.
Looking back on your career, what advice does Goldman partner Aaron Siegel give to an analyst who started over 20 years ago?
This is a career that celebrates achievements by changing your role. As an analyst, you spend two or three years mastering modeling. As an associate, your job is to oversee the narratives of presentation materials. And once you master it, you will be moved to a new role as a VP management project and as a daily job with clients.
And these are all very different roles that require you to build different skills. And my advice is to enjoy the experience and embrace the fear of new challenges.
And if so, you probably won't find many boring moments throughout the journey.
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