Efstathios N Karanikolaidis in a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan, where he is with the Leveraged Finance Group. He has been with J.P. Morgan since 2002, the same year that he received his Master of Business Administration from the William E Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester.

Efstathios N Karanikolaidis has also passed the Series 7, Series 24, and Series 63 FINRA exams. FINRA, as he knows, is the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an independent organization that is authorized by Congress to protect investors in the United States by ensuring that the securities industry is fairly and honestly operated.

The Series 7 FINRA exam, for example, which is administered by FINRA, provides financial professionals like Efstathios N Karanikolaidis with the qualifications they need to make different types of trades with different kinds of general securities. It is also known as the General Securities Representative Exam, and is a six-hour, multiple choice test consisting of 250 questions. Test takers like Efstathios N Karanikolaidis must score at least a 72 percent in order to pass it. It is one of the steps that is necessary so that a member firm associate can register with FINRA. Successful completion qualifies the candidate for the solicitation, purchase, and/or sale of all securities products, including corporate securities, municipal securities, and others.

As Efstathios N Karanikolaidis knows, FINRA is important because it enforces high ethical standards on the financial system in the United States. Investors throughout the country count on having fair financial markets; the role of FINRA is to make sure that every one of them gets the same basic protections; that anyone who sells securities has been tested, is qualified, and is licensed; that securities products are all truthfully advertised; that those products are suitable for the investor's needs; and that investors receive full disclosure about the investment product before they buy it.

Efstathios N Karanikolaidis maintained a 3.8 Grade Point Average at Athens University of Economics and Business, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Management and Business Administration. He kept up a 3.73 GPA at Simon, where he became a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society. He currently lives in Riverside, Greenwich, Connecticut.