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Christian Wilson ’16 doesn’t mind admitting he didn’t have a clue where to begin when he arrived at ���ϲ�����’s School of Management (SOM). He asked a lot of what he now jokingly refers to as “dumb questions,” but he learned valuable lessons from every answer.

However, the advice of the president of Binghamton’s Finance Society over coffee helped Wilson discover that advising companies on large transactions and devising strategic logic for valuing those companies was one big puzzle he couldn’t wait to solve. Now a New York City-based principal at Atlas Merchant Capital, a global investment firm, he focuses on private equity-style investments in the financial services sector.

Never one to forget the value of building connections, Wilson maintains a strong relationship with Binghamton and SOM students. That dedication has earned him a spot among the University Alumni Association’s Bearcats of the Last Decade (BOLD) award recipients for 2025. Through the awards, Binghamton honors alumni who have graduated within the last 10 years, demonstrated a very high level of career achievement since leaving campus and show great potential for future leadership.

“One of the things that is really unique about Binghamton and the School of Management is that our alumni network is really strong and truly cares,” Wilson said. “We’re one big family. Having a sounding board, someone a student can spitball ideas with, helping shape and guide their journey from their academic pursuits to their career in whatever it might be, is a valuable asset.”

Wilson is a member of SOM’s Alumni Advisory Board, an alumni mentor for the Finance Society and a frequent resource for current students eager for feedback on how to succeed. He still remembers how that cup of coffee changed the course of his academic career and hopes to keep returning the favor.

Growing up in Vestal, N.Y., Wilson was inspired by his father’s entrepreneurial spirit. He channeled that into his skills development at Binghamton, where he majored in business administration and concentrated in finance.

Wilson’s first job after graduating was in the financial institutions group at JPMorgan, where he covered insurance companies. He interned there between his junior and senior years and enjoyed learning about how the life insurance business model works and how macroeconomic factors impact company performance.

After two years at JP Morgan, Atlas approached Wilson for a job. While it posed a difficult choice at first, he was won over by Atlas’ more entrepreneurial culture.

“I was actually helping to build a business and being able to see tangibly what I’m doing and how that’s impacting the growth of the firm,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate at Atlas to learn about different asset classes outside of traditional private equity and find an angle for Atlas to be a player in those markets and to help build out a more diverse investor base.”

One key lesson Wilson has learned since beginning his career is that the science of finance relies as heavily on personality as it does on mathematical principles. To an extent, he often tells Binghamton students, it’s very simple: “Does this deal make sense, or doesn’t it?”

But experience has also shown Wilson how that question can mean different answers for different people.

“There are personalities everywhere; priorities are going to be different, the way management teams think about operating their businesses is going to be different, so that changes the equation in terms of balancing the science with meeting people’s objectives,” Wilson said. “Learning all the technical skills for this field is very important, but it’s also important not to forget that at the end of the day, finance is a people business.”