Keeping the Pencil Sharp

It wasn’t the $80 million trade he had just made that ultimately pushed Mark R. Shenkman, M.B.A. ’67, HON ’25, to entrepreneurial independence. It was a $10 pencil sharpener.

In the summer of 1985, Shenkman, who had already logged 16 years in the financial industry, was the president/CIO at an asset management firm, the final one he would work for that did not bear his name. At this firm, the common practice was for the two principals to hold their weekly meeting with him at 3:30 p.m. on Thursdays. However, he was summoned for a special meeting on a Tuesday at 11 a.m. He expected to discuss the $80 million trade, but was instead asked to reimburse the firm for the pencil sharpener that his assistant had ordered.

“That $10 sharpener was management company money; the $80 million was client money, and that could wait until Thursday’s afternoon meeting,” Shenkman recalled.

That incident illustrated a difference in priorities that would prove to be the final straw. He handed over $10 in cash, took the pencil sharpener and immediately resigned.

A month later—July 22, 1985—he formed Shenkman Capital with no clients, no employees, but with a dream.

“It was a big risk,” said Shenkman, who at the time had two young boys and a mortgage in an expensive Connecticut town. “But I had conviction in what I was doing.”

He won. Big.

This July, Shenkman Capital will celebrate its 40th anniversary and over the years the firm has become an industry leader in the leveraged finance market. The firm has grown from a single employee—Shenkman himself—to a team of approximately 150 with offices located in New York City, Stamford, Conn., Boca Raton, Fla., and London. As one of the largest privately owned high-yield credit firms in the world, Shenkman Capital manages approximately $35 billion in assets. “I built the company on a bootstrap basis: more clients, more team members, more capabilities—step by step,” Shenkman said.

As a pioneer in the leveraged finance market, he was inducted into the Fixed Income Analyst Society Hall of Fame in 2018 and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Museum of American Finance in 2023.

Earlier this year, Shenkman, a Monumental Alumnus of the George Washington University, added an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters to his long list of achievements when he was recognized at Commencement on the National Mall. His influence is spread far and wide as a financier, collector and philanthropist, all of which have been felt at GW.

“Mark Shenkman exemplifies how perseverance and purpose can change lives,” said President Ellen M. Granberg. “His drive, vision and generosity have propelled him to remarkable heights, and from there, he has opened doors for generations of GW students to dream bigger, raise higher and lead with impact. We are incredibly proud of Mark’s success as a GW alumnus and profoundly grateful for all that he has done to strengthen and support his alma mater.”

Abraham Lincoln once said that the best way to predict the future is to create it. Shenkman, a connoisseur and collector of American history, has lived by those words. He was rewarded when he took a big risk in 1985 and now has achieved professional and personal success.

Perched on a middle bookshelf in the firm’s state-of-the-art, 29th-floor office overlooking the Times Square Ball in Midtown Manhattan? The $10 pencil sharpener that sparked the creation of his future dream.

Shenkman’s Journey

While other kids read comics, Shenkman devoured the pages of Forbes. His father, a second-generation entrepreneur, had provided him with subscriptions to such business publications as The Wall Street Journal, Businessweek and Barron’s.

“My dad would tear out articles, hand them to me and then asked me questions,” said Shenkman, who grew up in Pawtucket, R.I. “I was basically pre-programmed for Wall Street.”

Shenkman earned his undergraduate degree in political science at the University of Connecticut. Already commissioned as an Army officer, he chose to pursue an M.B.A. at GW because of its proximity to the epicenter of American history and politics that he long admired.

During his second year at GW, he took a course called Case Studies in Business Management. Part of the course required writing a career plan—its purpose was for the student to chart their own post-graduation career plan. Shenkman laid out short-, medium- and long-term goals: first, become a securities analyst at a Wall Street firm and then become a managing director at a major firm. He, of course, would do one better by creating his own firm.

This career planning forever stuck with Shenkman, who believes preparedness allows a person to create their own opportunities, as he has achieved throughout his storied career.

“Having a plan is essential,” said Shenkman, who served as a first lieutenant with the U.S. Army Computer Systems Committee at Fort Lee, Va., for two years following his GW graduation. “You may not stick to the plan, but at least you are moving in a direction.”

Shenkman spent the first few years of his post-military career searching for a specific direction as he navigated the financial industry.

During this period, he met the financier Michael Milken, HON ’23, who later would contribute $50 million to endow the Milken Institute School of Public Health at GW. Milken encouraged Shenkman to find his niche in high-yield bonds, a recommendation that Shenkman immediately pursued.

“You can’t be a generalist in this complex world,” he said, which is advice he bestows upon students today.

Values and Legacy

Shenkman hired his first employee after meeting the man in the back of a taxi. One was looking for a job, the other fulfilling his dream. In the four decades since, during which Shenkman Capital has turned from a dream into a powerhouse, his foundational business philosophy has remained.

Shenkman seeks team members who are goal oriented, transparent and authentic—values that have helped him build his firm. Over the years, GW graduates with those traits have found their way to Shenkman Capital.

When Ted Bernhard, M.B.A. ’98, interviewed for a job with Shenkman Capital in 1998, the firm was well established, but entrepreneurial. Shenkman asked him a simple question: “Are you willing to change light bulbs?”

“It wasn’t a trick question —it spoke to the collaborative, all-hands-on-deck culture here,” said Bernhard, now a senior vice president and a 27-year veteran of Shenkman Capital. “I would meet CFOs and CEOs during the day and change light bulbs when needed. That spirit of shared responsibility still defines the firm.”

At its heart, the firm is a family business that Shenkman treats with a sense of care that fellow GW alumnus James Larsen, B.A. ’07, says defines the culture.

“Even as we have grown more complex, the foundational values remain, which require being good stewards of capital, hiring smart and kind people and fostering a collegial environment,” said Larsen, Shenkman Capital’s deputy general counsel. “It’s a rare culture, especially in the credit industry, which can be a sharp-elbowed business.”

Alumnus David Lerner, B.B.A. ’90, said Wall Street rarely sees family-owned firms like Shenkman Capital. The firm understands every aspect of the credit process, from loan closing to client service, which creates a tight value chain that benefits clients and employees alike.

“He’s deeply passionate—not just about markets, but about fairness. He genuinely cares,” said Lerner, the firm’s head of structured credit. “Even as ownership has been distributed more widely, that culture hasn’t changed.”

Shenkman also believes in service, giving back and bestowing knowledge and resources that can be passed down. He has co-authored two textbooks on the high-yield market, with GW alumnus Bill Maxwell, Ph.D. ’98.

He and his wife, Rosalind, have been deeply involved philanthropically through nonprofits, museums, Jewish causes and at his alma maters: UConn, GW and Wilbraham & Monson Academy.

At GW, Shenkman supported the F. David Fowler Career Center and GW Career Services Enhancement Initiative, as well as several programs at the School of Business. Shenkman also funded the relocation and expansion of GW’s Veterans Memorial Park and The Shenkman Initiative: Applying Big Data for Political Success at the Graduate School of Political Management. In 2014, Shenkman Hall was named in his honor, and he takes great pride in having his name attached with a building that houses so many GW students beginning their own journeys.

“I believe education is the cornerstone of a civil society,” said Shenkman, who served on the GW Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2016 and is now an emeritus member. “GW was a great experience for me—the location, the professors, the academic programs. Giving back felt natural.”

Shenkman’s success has been made possible because he established a plan, found his niche and was willing to take a risk and seize the opportunity. Shenkman has retained the $10 pencil sharpener as a cautionary symbol of the consequences of misaligned priorities.

“If you don’t plan your life,” he said, “fate will decide for you.”