Shaw University Announces 2022 Awards Day Speaker Alumnus Jermaine Simmons

He is experienced in identifying and managing risk resulting from human error, inadequate or failed processes, and technology.  Mr. Simmons possesses strong knowledge of Equity and Interest Rate derivatives.  Within the financial services industry, Mr. Simmons is recognized as a leader who quickly identifies business needs, formulates strategic plans, initiates change, and implements new processes in challenging environments balanced with excellent interpersonal skills.  Throughout his professional career he has demonstrated the ability to lead, develop, and motivate teams.

In his current role Mr. Simmons is an Audit Director, responsible for leading a team of 36 auditors who focus on the Wealth and Investment Management (WIM) line of business.  WIM manages over $2.1 trillion in Client assets and over $900 billion in advisory assets.  Mr. Simmons team primary responsibilities include WIM Client Relationship Group, Investment Solutions, and WIM Operations.  Jay is responsible for managing a risk based audit plan, and audit engagements that provide and independent assessment of line of business risk management and internal controls.

In his previous role, Mr. Simmons served as a Senior Audit Manager supporting the Wholesale Banking business which is comprised of approximately 120 team members.  This team provides coverage of a range of wholesale banking and corporate activities.  Wholesale’s products and services include treasury management, commercial lending, commercial real estate, asset-based lending, equipment finance, insurance, foreign exchange, trade services, correspondent banking, corporate trust, investment banking, capital markets, asset management, and international.  Mr. Simmons and his team had oversight and coverage responsibility for capital markets and investment banking specifically Rates, Equities, and Spread.

In his previous role May 2013 to August 2015, Mr. Simmons served as the Operational Risk Officer supporting a 500 million dollar Equities Sales and Trading and Investment Solutions business.  His responsibilities included providing operational risk expertise and consulting for projects and initiatives with high risk, generally spanning multiple products. He also evaluated the adequacy and effectiveness of internal controls, processes, systems and procedures. Mr. Simmons and his team analyzed business and/or system changes to determine impact and resulting operational risk issues.  Further responsibilities included assigning risk ratings consistent with established policy standards and in some instances development of risk ratings. Mr. Simmons and his team consulted with the Equity business to develop corrective action plans and effectively managed change, and collaborated with various risk and support partners to achieve risk tolerance goals.

In his previous role from February 2012 to May 2013, Mr. Simmons served as Project Manager for the build out of Wells Fargo Securities, Futures Clearing Merchant a 92 million dollar business.  In this role, he was the lead Project Manager for Non-Dollar Clearing for Wells Fargo Bank for Interest Rate Derivatives and EUR iTraxx CDS as mandated by the CFTC.  Mr. Simmons also served as project manager on various components of the LCH Client Clearing project which established Wells Fargo Securities as a FCM with the London Clearing House.  He also managed projects and initiatives for LCH House, and CFTC Mandatory Clearing Initiatives.   As the project lead he completed Business Requirements and facilitated meetings with Front Office, Finance, Market Risk, Credit Risk, Compliance, Legal, Operations, and Technology.

In his previous role with Bank of America, Mr. Simmons served as the business manager for the Corporate Investments/Corporate Treasury Middle Office.  He was the liaison for the Middle Office for the Dodd/Frank Regulation reform team assessing the potential impact of the new legislation on the CIG/CT portfolio.  Mr. Simmons also served as the liaison between the Middle Office and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) as well as Price Waterhouse and Internal Audit.

From March 2007 to December 2010, Mr. Simmons managed a nine member trade capture and substantiation team as a member of the Corporate Investments/Corporate Treasury Middle Office Division.  This team included three trader assistants and six trader support analysts.  The trade capture team was responsible for trade processing and affirmation for interest rate derivatives, credit derivatives, FX, and equity derivatives.  He was also responsible for ensuring that Corporate Investments doesn’t exceed its hedging capacity for the Asset Liability Management (ALM) portfolio.  In 2010, He led an effort to improve the trade capture control model globally for a 14.6 billion dollar structured note portfolio. Mr. Simmons worked extensively with trading, legal, risk, COO, and compliance to support new product development. 

In 2006, Mr. Simmons worked with a quality expert and led an operational team on a 2.5 million dollar greenbelt project to implement and improve the infrastructure for trading equities and Over the Counter Equity Derivatives for corporate investments.   This critical design project enabled trading capabilities across equity products and jurisdictions within the G-20, and achieved greater scalability through automation.   Specifically, key components of the initiative included the selection and installation of an external Prime Broker, front end risk application, and pre-trade compliance system.  Automation efforts improved the trade flow process from a baseline of 43% manual processing to 23% manual.  This initiative delivered $8.52 million in type 1 2007 revenue benefits allocated to the Front Office.

Prior to joining Bank of America in March of 2006, Mr. Simmons managed a six member trade support team as a member of Equity Derivatives in the Institutional Trading Operations Division at Wachovia supporting a 200 million dollar Equities business.  He was responsible for managing trade processing for Equity Derivatives and their underlying hedges.  This responsibility included ensuring the risk system and back office systems were reconciled and in balance.  Mr. Simmons also managed the General Ledger posting process for unrealized and realized P&L for OTC Derivatives.  Lastly, he worked extensively with technology to specify, design, test, and implement technology solutions, and support new product development         

Prior to joining Wachovia, Mr. Simmons was employed by Merrill Lynch.  He was a member of their Management Associate Program and served in several operational roles, including Equity Derivatives Trade Support, and Program Trading Support.

Mr. Simmons grew up in Savannah, Georgia.  He earned his degree in Mathematics with a minor in Accounting from Shaw University, in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Mr. Simmons has been elected to the Board of Trustees of Shaw University as of July 2016 where he chairs the audit committee.