Alumni of the Week “Paul Nico Luna”

Paul Nicolas “Nico” Luna is an investment banking analyst in the California K-14 Education Group at RBC Capital Markets in Los Angeles, California. Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Nico started practicing karate at the age of 6. He continued with karate throughout his high school years at Brophy College Preparatory and, as a result, was exposed to many great opportunities including the opportunity to compete at the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. He placed 5th in Kumite at the world championships and was awarded the Top Male Fighting Spirit Award among 1300 competitors.

Nico went on to attend the University of Southern California – Viterbi School of Engineering. While at USC, Nico became a member of the Delta Chi fraternity and founded the mentoring program “SHPE SHAPE” through the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). SHPE SHAPE is an extended college mentoring program that takes high school sophomores and pairs them with a single college mentor for four years with the aim of getting more high performing, under-served students on a 4-year university track. He graduated from USC with a Bachelor’s of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering and a minor in International Economics.

Nico currently lives and works in Los Angeles providing technical and analytical support in the underwriting of tax-exempt bonds for California School Districts and Community Colleges. He has worked on 60+ separate transactions for a combined par of over $2 billion. He also serves on the board of directors for the Northern Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross and is a founding member of the Red Cross young professional group NextGen LA.