Businessweek Daily
A report from the streets of Frankfurt
View in browser
Bloomberg

The big news in Frankfurt today was the latest rate cut from the European Central Bank. But last night the finance community—including a squad from the ECB—gathered in the streets of the German city to try to lower their finish times in the JPMorgan Corporate Challenge. As Laura Noonan writes, it’s become quite a competition. Plus: Bill Ackman finds a new release valve beyond the boardroom.

If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up.

When Brexit spurred London bankers nine years ago to consider moving to cities that remained in the European Union, Frankfurt—denigrated as boring and stuffy—was a destination few professed much desire to go. And yet, the German financial capital on Wednesday hosted what’s arguably the biggest social mixer in finance, with almost 50,000 runners thronging the streets for the JPMorgan Corporate Challenge.

Although the race is open to entrants from any kind of company—as well as police officers, teachers, postal workers and more—in Frankfurt it’s finance that dominates the field. Investment bankers jostle with hedge funders, traders, consultants, regulators and more than a few crypto bros. The 5.6 kilometer (3.5 mile) course starts near the opera house, then winds its way among the city’s signature skyscrapers.

Frankfurt’s skyline towers over hospitality tents.  Photographer: Laura Noonan

The event might be dismissed as a low-stress amble, thanks to the tens of thousands of participants who walk or jog as well as a prize purse that doesn’t go beyond JPMorgan-branded swag. But the global finance community sees it as a blood sport, with some banks rumored to hire college track stars to improve their chances. One person who might fit that description is Gianluca Pozzatti, an Italian triathlete who competed on his country’s Olympic squad in Paris and Tokyo. Pozzatti joined JPMorgan Chase & Co. in February to work with midsize German companies, and though he was keen to win in Frankfurt, his bosses insist that’s not why he was hired. “I needed a new challenge,” he says. “It was time for me to do something different.” As it turns out, he’s still pretty good at his old job, too, finishing fifth, 24 seconds behind the winner.

More typical is Alex Mayer, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner who took over JPMorgan’s Germany and Austria business in November. He wasn’t much for jogging before he got the new position, but ribbing from colleagues prompted him to buy new shoes and a Garmin Fenix Solar 7 smartwatch and hit the roads and trails. “I had people calling me up saying, ‘Hey, Alex, we are so happy you’re joining, but also, to be clear, we have high expectations for you when it comes to running,’” he says. “I’m very nervous!”

The event traces its roots to 1977, when Manufacturer’s Hanover (a JPMorgan forerunner) held a 3.5 mile race in New York’s Central Park, which lore says is the reason the events all cover the same, somewhat unusual distance. The race has since grown to 16 events in eight countries, and Frankfurt is the biggest, accounting for more than a quarter of the global total of participants. “Whether someone needs to walk it or crawl it, it’s better than looking out the window at it,” says Aidan McSwiney, a Morgan Stanley executive director who’s part of the bank’s 120-member team. He’s not, though, a walker or crawler himself; he was fifth overall last year and 14th on Wednesday.

At the finish line: 65,000 bananas. Photographer: Laura Noonan

The European Central Bank, often criticized for dragging its heels on processing risk models submitted by banks, proves far speedier in running shoes: Its 469-member squad clocked the fastest average time among big teams. Lining up at the start, the ECB’s top competitors bounce on the balls of their feet while scanning the crowd for speedy members of the Frankfurt Police and the German Football Association teams. “We know each other,” says Birgitt Bohn, a former winner of the Frankfurt event. “There’s always the usual suspects.”

Bohn was right to have an eye on the cops. One of their women—Nina Voelckel—storms home in 18:08, more than 30 seconds ahead of her closest rival. The male winner was Simon Stützel, a one-time Deutsche Bank AG employee who now runs his own firm, Scholarbook GmbH, which helps match athletes and universities. His time of 16:06 was two seconds faster than 12 years ago, when he also won. “If you’re better at 38 than at 26, I think that’s an accomplishment,” he says. 

Once the competition winds down, the event’s real purpose comes into focus. Yes, the participants take a blistering or leisurely run through Frankfurt, but it’s the after-party networking that really counts. Frankfurt’s opera house is transformed into a multitiered hospitality extravaganza put on by JPMorgan, where a DJ spins tunes and everything from salmon and salads to schnitzel and beer is on offer. The bank’s executives, showered and changed back into their suits, chat up the hundreds of clients who’ve been invited for the fun. Out on the plaza and leafy boulevards around the opera house, and in bars across the city, scores of other companies invite runners and spectators to hospitality events, with barbecues, beer and dancing amid the remnants of the 65,000 bananas that were laid out at the finish. Caroline Pötsch-Hennig, head of German private banking for JPMorgan, has a well-honed routine for those meetings in the hospitality tents: She avoids asking about finish times. In a crowd packed with high-achieving finance pros, “we have a lot of people who will tell you proactively, especially the ones who are fast.”

In Brief

Ackman Tries Other Kinds of Activism

Photo illustration: James Kerr/Scorpion Dagger for Bloomberg Businessweek

Last May, Bill Ackman made up his mind about the 2024 presidential election. He was approaching his 58th birthday and had pretty much achieved a hedge fund manager’s version of nirvana: He was a billionaire; he was five years into his second marriage, with the love of his life; and, much to his delight, he’d amassed more than 1 million followers on X, with a profile that was starting to transcend the boundaries of finance. He was about to test how far.

On a trip to Los Angeles he met Elon Musk on the sidelines of the Milken Institute Global Conference, a kind of Davos-lite affair for the finance set. Ackman had helped support the Tesla Inc. chief executive officer’s purchase of X (formerly Twitter), but up until then the two hadn’t spent extended time together. They convened in a greenroom for roughly a half-hour, where the soon-to-become Department of Government Efficiency overlord encouraged him to support Donald Trump, before peeling off to deliver a fireside chat.

Days later, Ackman got a chance to sound out Trump himself, back in New York, over ravioli. Ackman was a longtime Democratic donor; in the 2024 presidential race, he’d already supported a series of would-be Trump challengers, including long-shot candidates Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Dean Phillips, who was then a Democratic representative from Minnesota. Ackman was adamant that the country needed alternatives to President Joe Biden, who he said back in 2023 was in decline and should step aside. For a billionaire, a second Trump term also had much to offer: the promise of lighter regulation and a business-friendly environment, for starters.

Ackman made his name as an activist investor, but he’s since remade himself into a very-online, Trump-loving culture warrior. Annie Massa and Katherine Burton write about the transformation and what might come next: Bill Ackman Is Tweeting Through It

Bon Voyage

22,000
That’s how many tourists are boarding or returning on cruises from Galveston, Texas, on its busiest days. The port’s easy access to less-crowded Caribbean destinations has fueled the growth.

Universities Threatened

“They are bullies pressing full strength on higher education to see where institutions break. And where they break, they’re going to follow with a lot more force. What starts at Columbia doesn’t end at Columbia.”
Todd Wolfson
President, American Association of University Professors
The Trump administration escalated its fight against top American colleges by targeting Columbia University’s access to federal student loans—a new tactic in the White House’s drive to wield power over academia and key financial streams.

More From Bloomberg

Like Businessweek Daily? Check out these newsletters:

  • Markets Daily has what’s happening in stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities right now
  • Supply Lines follows the trade wars, tariff threats and logistics shocks that are upending business and spreading volatility
  • FOIA Files goes behind the scenes with Jason Leopold to uncover documents that have never been seen before
  • Working Capital analyzes trends in leadership, management and the art of career building
  • Bloomberg Pursuits is your weekly guide to the best in travel, eating, drinking, fashion, driving and living well

Explore all Bloomberg newsletters.

Follow Us

Like getting this newsletter? Subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights.

Want to sponsor this newsletter? Get in touch here.

You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Businessweek Daily newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, sign up here to get it in your inbox.
Unsubscribe
Bloomberg.com
Contact Us
Bloomberg L.P.
731 Lexington Avenue,
New York, NY 10022
Ads Powered By Liveintent Ad Choices