A Conversation with Michael Minikes ’65:
A special Professionals off Campus event hosted by Michael Minikes ’65, managing director and vice-chairman of J.P. Morgan Prime Brokerage.

Michael Minikes, '65, is a managing director and the vice-chairman of J.P. Morgan Prime Brokerage.

He began his business career at the CPA firm of Spicer & Oppenheim, where he became a partner in 1972. While there, he became widely known for his expertise and effectiveness in the development of federal securities regulations affecting broker-dealer financial requirements.

Upon joining Bear Stearns in 1978, Mike soon became a general partner and then a senior managing director when the firm incorporated and went public in 1986. He was a member of the board of directors and operations committee, and served as treasurer of the Bear Stearns Companies until January 2008, when he became CEO of Bear Stearns Securities Corp.

He is associated with having helped build Bear Stearns’s extensive prime brokerage and broker-dealer correspondent clearing network, as well as bringing the company into the “banking” business. He was instrumental in establishing Bear Stearns Securities Corp. in 1991.

Mike is a former member of the board of directors of Depository Trust Company and the Securities Industry Automation Corp., and past chairman of the Securities Industry Association Capital Committee. In addition, he is active in a host of charitable and community activities. Among them, he is senior vice chairman of the board of trustees of Mount Sinai Medical Center, trustee and former chairman of the Queens College Foundation, a member of the City University Business Leaders Council, and a member of the UJA Wall Street Strategic Council. In 2014 he was listed among Crain’s “Most Connected New Yorkers.”

A 1965 graduate of Queens College, Mike attended the NYU Graduate School of Business. He resides in Manhattan with his wife Cheryl. They have two grown children and four grandchildren.