25 year-old with best job at JPMorgan mysteriously disappeared
Remember Paul Allan? He's the 25 year-old who was seen claiming to be a partner at JPMorgan's London office in 2021. Insiders at the bank say he disappeared a few months ago and that his current activities are unknown.
Neither JPMorgan nor Allan himself responded to our efforts to uncover the reason for Allan's departure. It's possible that he was not as entrepreneurial as he seemed.
JPMorgan doesn't usually have a partner designation. Allan joined the bank in 2019 as a member of the FinTech Investment team and then became a 'partner' Investing in Series A - Pre-IPO technology startups globally, including companies in enterprise and consumer software, digital health and fintech.
It was all highly impressive for someone who'd only left university in Dublin in 2018. Allan was accordingly given a slot on the Forbes under 30 in Europe list in 2021, where he was feted for founding and selling 'a number of businesses in medtech, marketing and biotech' and for being involved in the exit of 'PathoVi, a company that developed a chemical and technical system to identify pathogens that are the cause of healthcare acquired infections.'
Despite this precocity, Allan is thought to have been let go by JPMorgan. His LinkedIn profile says he'll be announcing something exciting soon. Unconfirmed reports suggest his departure came after the bank only belatedly came to appreciate that many of Allan's previous businesses were small with limited revenues, something seemingly confirmed by the fact that in many cases Allan is listed as their only employee. Alternatively, his exit may simply have been due to the difficulty of investing in fintech firms in the current environment - JPMorgan isn't commenting either way.
Irrespective of Allan's intentions or his history at JPMorgan, his CV does have possible learnings for other 20-somethings who want to work for JPMorgan. Namely, if you spend your time at university founding small companies in hot areas like medtech and gaining sponsorship from university investment funds, JPMorgan may take note. It may even hire you and give you a big job title, especially if you also seem to be wealthy and to have links to private investors. It's probably easier than getting a job in M&A.
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com in the first instance. Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram also available (Telegram: @SarahButcher)
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)
Photo by eberhard 🖐 grossgasteiger on Unsplash
