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Episode 86

Rocky Pontikes Mesirow Financial

Apr 22, 2026 48 min 09 sec

Overview

Rocky is Senior Manager Director and Co-Head of Investment Banking at Mesirow, the Chicago-based employee-owned, diversified financial services firm. A Chicagoland native who survived Eastern stops for college at Penn and a first job at Merrill Lynch, Rocky has been at Mesirow since 2001. He has charted and contributed to the firm’s emergence as a significant force in middle market M&A. On the personal side, Rocky talks about his youthful athletic prowess, something he shares with one or none of the MMM hosts, depending on who you ask. Interesting discussion about the near extinction of publicly traded middle market companies outside of growth sectors like health care and tech. Also of note – the correct plural form of Pontikes, which is apparently “Pontiki.”

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