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Eric Heaton, 39
Senior Vice President
Merrill Lynch & Co.
It was not Eric Heaton's ability to crunch numbers or put together a sales pitch that won over the people at Merrill Lynch when the new college grad came looking for a job. It was his willingness to do the dirty work.
The Dartmouth economics major had helped pay for his education by working 25 hours a week in the campus dining hall, where he wiped tables and washed dishes after other students were finished eating.
"I guess they figured if I could clean up after my peers, I could be an analyst," says Mr. Heaton, who has risen to co-head of the financial institutions group since joining the investment bank 17 years ago.
He oversees a staff of 250 worldwide and advises some of the nation's biggest banks on mergers. Mr. Heaton is on the road constantly; he estimates that last year, he saw his newborn daughter four days out of her first 90.
His office is filled with plaques commemorating the hundreds of deals that Mr. Heaton has been involved in, including Wachovia's $25 billion acquisition of Golden West Financial last year. He also did the math for last year's merger of Merrill's money management business with BlackRock. "No matter how hot it gets, Eric stays unruffled," says Greg Fleming, co-president of global markets and investment banking at Merrill.
A native of Cortland Manor, N.Y., Mr. Heaton has long had a penchant for high-pressure situations. One summer during college, he supervised swimming lessons in Westchester County for 100 children, ages 6 to 18. "The kids weren't so bad," he recalls. "All those parents, though--they were a much bigger challenge."