Rising Career with America's Largest Bank Began with UAlbany Guidance and Connections

Jeffrey Castillo '06 took advantage of personal attention from School of Business faculty and staff to chart path to JPMorgan Chase vice presidency.

JPMorgan Chase Vice President Jeffrey Castillo remembers the University at Albany as a higher educational experience second to none.

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 1, 2014) — The people at a university make the true difference, says Jeffrey Castillo ’06, a  business administration major who has risen quickly in the administrative ranks of America’s largest multinational bank.

“You go to college as a freshman with only a vague idea of what you want to do with the rest of your life, but UAlbany has a great faculty and staff, ready to guide you” said Castillo, a JPMorgan Chase vice president in charge of its Mid-Atlantic HealthCare Practice. “The people at UAlbany really take the time to sit down with you and map out what you need to achieve your goals. Later, they connect you with people in your chosen field, so that your path comes into being.”

Castillo went to work at JPMorgan Chase right after graduation and was transfered to its Boston, Mass., offices in 2010. By 2012, he was leading a commercial banking team charged with creating solutions for the complex financial needs of higher educational and cultural institutions — "an uncommon opportunity so soon after college,” he called it. He began with a staff of eight people and soon built it to 15, achieving such success that JP Morgan Chase sent him back to New York City last year with an even bigger assignment: leading the healthcare team for the mid-Atlantic region.

With such a level of corporate success at a young age, it is difficult to imagine that Castillo recalls being “a little intimidated” when he first began his studies at UAlbany. “Very quickly, though, I realized I was seeing the same students in my classes, and we began to form what you might call a network of colleagues. Plus, the faculty and staff really took an interest in me and what I wanted to do with my life.

“My professors often sat down with me after class, talking about different ways to look at particular opportunities, and ultimately driving my decision to take the job at JPMorgan Chase. I guess that’s another way of saying that a university is so much more than buildings and facilities. It’s the people who make a difference.”

His original decision to attend UAlbany was based on the reputation of the School of Business, particularly in light of the much greater cost of attending top private schools. Many of his current colleagues have graduated from some of the most prestigious schools in New York and across the U.S. According to Castillo, the biggest difference among them is that, today, he doesn’t have large sums of debt weighing him down.

“Knowing I was given equal opportunities to those who attended private institutions, I would say that the value of the University at Albany is significant. I believe my higher educational experience was second to none.”

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