Business Insider's 2026 Rising Stars of Wall Street
From financing the future of technology to building new businesses, here's why these young finance leaders are the ones to watch in 2026.
Ten rising stars in Wall Street's investment, trading, and dealmaking sectors have been recognized by Business Insider as part of its 10th class of young professionals. These individuals were nominated by colleagues, bosses, recruiters, and other industry insiders, with US-based candidates aged 35 or younger being considered. The final selections are made by Business Insider's editors.
Maya Venkatraman, a managing director at Morgan Stanley, is among the rising stars who is shaping the data-center debt boom. She played a significant role in structuring a $3.2 billion bond for data center developer TeraWulf, with credit support from Google. Venkatraman had to develop an innovative financing structure as there was no established playbook for this emerging asset class. This deal has since become a template for the nearly $45 billion in high-yield bond issuance in the market.
Theo Saarinen, 27, is the chief research officer for Bridgewater's AIA Labs, the AI research unit of the $102 billion hedge fund. Bridgewater's AIA Labs AI-powered fund has increased nearly 16% through September, outperforming the S&P 500 and average hedge funds. Saarinen, who joined the AIA group in 2023 while pursuing a doctorate in statistics from UC Berkeley, focuses on connecting AI with markets, studying the decision-making processes of the strategy, and writing his dissertation.
Written by urgent.news from Business Insider's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
