Millionaire banker who punched woman to the ground in affluent Park Slope preached the importance of ’empathy’ and ‘understanding’ in 2023 interview as his company confirms an internal investigation is underway

The millionaire investment banker who was filmed punching a woman in the face, causing her to fall to the ground, preached the importance of “empathy” and “understanding” on the streets of New York in an interview last year.

Jonathan Kaye, 52, was captured in Brooklyn on Saturday night throwing a vicious overhand at the unnamed woman. The woman is seen being thrown to the ground by the force of the blow. It is unclear what prompted the confrontation.

Kaye works as a Managing Director at Moelis & Company, a leading investment bank with offices in Midtown Manhattan. The company has initiated an investigation into the incident, a spokesperson previously confirmed to DailyMail.com.

The Wall Street executive, a married father of three, revealed during a May 2023 podcast interview that he often mentors junior bankers and identified the skills he believes are crucial to a successful career.

Kaye told me LSE Focal Point podcast that a successful person demonstrates ’empathy’, ‘understands’ others and has good decision-making skills, including ‘managing your reputation’.

Kaye is partner director and head of business services at Moelis.

In his current role, he oversees ten verticals within Moelis’ Business Services group, leading ‘a dedicated team of bankers and… an extensive network of relationships with both strategic companies and private equity investors’, according to his profile on the Moelis website.

He also serves on the company’s management committee, demonstrating his stature in the financial industry, and does “a fair amount of mentoring” with junior associates, Kaye told the podcast.

He said he advises his students and aspiring bankers that they will not have the “freedom” to work in the roles they want until they “achieve one precious thing: judgment.”

“Any job you ultimately want to have in finance — whether it’s advising companies, managing money, deploying capital or operationally running a business — you get that position because of judgment,” Kaye said .

He argued that while entry-level positions in finance and investment banking “accelerate your judgment in a remarkable way,” the most successful people in the industry “really invest in your experience” at the firm as a whole.

“That means not just working hard, but focusing on putting yourself in companies, in positions and with people who can give you the most comprehensive amount of experience you possibly can,” he advised.

“Pay attention and focus on the people you admire because they are probably successful for a reason.

‘So yes, you need to learn the hard skills as quickly as possible, but at the end of the day it’s really the skills of perseverance and resilience, learning to listen, understanding what motivates other people, and empathy – those are the indispensable skills you need. divorce yourself from a calculator.’

Kaye holds a BA from Tufts University, where he studied history and organic chemistry, and graduated with honors from Duke University School of Law.

During his ten years at Moelis, Kaye helped the company “become an industry leader with more than 125 transactions completed representing a collective enterprise value of more than $100 billion,” according to The Jewish Grad Organization.

But before joining Moelis, Kaye held positions at JPMorgan and Jefferies.

He told the podcast that as someone who came into the banking industry without a financial background, he had a “rough” start to his finance career.

“These were difficult years, but I learned a lot,” he said of his move to banking. ‘I found out I wasn’t as special as my mother told me.

“I learned that Wall Street can be a brutal place and that and the rewards – and I don’t mean compensation, I really mean opportunities, mentorship attention, the opportunity to work on the best situations, those things – followed those, who did a good job and consistently delivered good work.”

He said he not only had to familiarize himself with the basic financial concepts his peers had learned during their collegiate studies, but also learn how to navigate the industry as a whole.

Kaye added, “I learned some basic concepts that probably seem obvious, but when you’re in your 20s you basically have to learn them all from scratch.

‘These are things like doing what you say you’re going to do, being consistent, being careful with your reputation, being careful with difficult people and staying away from toxic people.

“This was also a time in the financial world where they were fair, there were just less rules and people were a little rougher than I think the environment is today.”

Kaye was filmed punching a woman in the face on Saturday, causing her to fall to the ground.

Video shows him throwing a vicious overhand at the unnamed woman in Brooklyn, where he lives in a $4 million four-bedroom mansion in expensive Park Slope.

The woman is then thrown to the ground by the force of the blow, while an onlooker rushes to her aid in vain.

Others watching call Kaye an ‘asshole’ and tell him to ‘fuck himself’ – which catches his attention for a moment before he abruptly walks away.

The footage, meanwhile, is short and shaky, but includes a moment where Kaye turns to the camera after knocking the woman to the ground.

Kaye walks away with a bag in one hand, a wet stain on the back of his blazer.

In one clip captioned over the footage, a user wrote: “This man punched me in the face today and broke my nose. [He also] my friends arrested[sic] poor… can anyone find him?’

A spokesperson for his employer confirmed to DailyMail.com that Kaye is the man seen in the viral video, saying it has already led to an investigation.

“We have become aware that one of our employees was involved in a serious incident in Brooklyn on June 8,” a Moelis representative said, as the 12-second clip continues to gain traction online.

“We are taking this matter very seriously and are conducting an investigation,” she added.

The context of the punch-up is still unclear.

Although Moelis is investigating the incident, it remains unknown at the time of writing whether it was reported to the NYPD. DailyMail.com has contacted police for comment.