Logo

Milwaukee's Best Beats Goldman

Published: Jan 20, 2011

 Finance       

So says Fortune magazine in its latest ranking of the "100 Best Companies to Work For."

At No. 14, Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird, widely known as simply Baird, is the 2011 list's highest-ranking investment bank. (Though Baird ranked No. 11 last year, the honor is definitely one to celebrate, and worthy of at least a few after-work Beast tall boys.)

Goldman Sachs, the second-highest-ranked bank, rose one spot to No. 23.

According to Fortune, Baird employees "praise the integrity that prevails [t]here. 'I have worked with a number of firms,' says one manager, 'and Baird [has] the most hard-working, honest, ethical people in our business.'"

Goldman, not known for its ethics as of late, was instead singled out for its "fierce loyalty among its well-paid employees, who this year moved into a new $2.1 billion steel-and-glass tower with a reading room, sky lobby, and 54,000-square-foot gym."

Other top-ranking financial services firms on the list include retail brokerage network Edward Jones (the No. 11-ranked firm "which has made diversity a priority with new recruitment programs to bring people of color into a workforce that is 93% white"); Plante & Moran (the 26th-ranked firm and highest-ranked accountancy on the list where "during tax season, employees get 'survival kits' with aspirin, stress balls, and candy, and each office throws an 'end of tax season' bash"); American Express (ranked No. 49 due to women holding "more than 30% of the top 500 positions [which is] high for financial services"); and Deloitte (the highest-ranking Big Four firm on the list, at No. 63, thanks to "a third of its employees [being] nonwhite, the highest percentage of the Big Four").

(Fortune)

(Related: A Day in the Life of an Investment Banking Director at Baird)

***