Wintrust’s Tom Greene retires after half-century in muni industry
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Longtime municipal trader Tom Greene is retiring after more than a half-century in the business.
Greene is retiring from Wintrust Wealth Management, where for more than a decade he was institutional fixed income manager and head of the institutional municipal bond desk. Greene
“When I got into the business, [bond school] was how I met Tom,” said Josh Shneyderov, managing director at Sapient Capital and now Greene’s son-in-law. “He’s really been instrumental in expanding networks… He’s worked with thousands of people, and he’s probably helped hundreds of people either get into the industry or, if they’re down on their luck, he’s helped them find a way back in.”
Shneyderov noted that despite Greene’s long tenure in the industry, the muni veteran has always managed to keep up with where the business is headed next.
“The main takeaway that I have from Tom is, you’ve got to adapt in order to stay relevant,” he said.
“And he’s managed to do that… Not only from a technology standpoint, but also from a networking standpoint,” Shneyderov said.
“I learned a long time ago that the one thing about our business is that it’s in constant change,” Greene said. “It reforms itself, and so I realized that change was to be looked at as an opportunity, not as something that you should be upset about.”
Still, he said personal relationships remain the cornerstone of the business, and “I worry about [the industry] contracting if it goes too much into AI and algos, and you get less individual stuff and more electronics.”
As he exits, Greene spoke in glowing terms of his many friends in the muni world, and Shneyderov and Fox said the admiration goes both ways. The latter both testified to a legacy built on relationships and bringing people together.
“He’s a hell of a trader. But if there’s anything he’s better at doing than trading, he’s a hell of a people person,” Shneyderov said.
“I’ve had a ball,” Greene said. “I feel so honored just to be a part of the industry because it’s treated me so well. I’m a small-town boy from Indiana who got involved in this business, and I have loved every minute of it.”
