Jimmy Dunne is Senior Managing Principal of Sandler O’Neill + Partners, L.P. and heads the firm’s Executive Committee. He co-founded Sandler O’Neill in 1988 with the senior management team of Bear Stearns’ Financial Services Group. Today, Sandler O’Neill is one of the largest full-service investment banking firms exclusively serving the financial services sector.
While Mr. Dunne oversees Sandler O’Neill’s long-term strategy and growth, he also plays a very active role in many of the firm’s key client relationships. Under his leadership, the firm has built upon its longstanding strengths in fixed income, capital markets and investment banking, and has expanded its efforts in research, equity sales, trading and mortgage finance. In addition to its New York headquarters, Sandler O’Neill has established offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, and an affiliated mortgage finance company in Memphis.
In recent years, Mr. Dunne has been a crucial contributor to Sandler O’Neill’s investment banking practice. Among others, he was instrumental in advising Compass Bancshares, Inc. in its $9.5 billion merger with Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria; Mercantile Bankshares Corp. in its $6 billion merger with PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.; Countrywide Financial Corp. in its announced $4.4 billion merger with Bank of America Corp.; and Greater Bay Bancorp in its $1.5 billion merger with Wells Fargo & Co.
On September 11, 2001, Sandler O’Neill lost 68 of its 171 partners and employees in the World Trade Center attacks, including Herman Sandler and Chris Quackenbush, two of the three executives who ran the firm. Mr. Dunne, who had been Managing Principal with responsibility for all aspects of the day-to-day operations, spearheaded the firm’s recovery process and set the tone for its determination to succeed. Currently, Sandler O’Neill has a total of more than 250 professionals in its various business units, is a market maker for approximately 400 financial stocks, and writes research on approximately 200 companies.
Mr. Dunne is a frequent financial industry commentator and is often invited to speak on leadership, management and the financial services sector to business, academic and civic organizations.
Mr. Dunne began his 30-year career on Wall Street after graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in Economics. In 1978, he started at L.F. Rothschild’s Bank Service Group and continued on at Lehman Brothers, where he joined in 1982. Two years later, he made the transition to Prudential Bache and in 1986 became part of Bear Stearns’ Financial Services Group.
Mr. Dunne is an avid golfer and active with numerous charitable organizations.
