Andrew Goldberg ’02, senior vice president and head of collectible cars at Sotheby's Financial Services, strides through the Audrain Newport Concours d’Elegance with purpose. Sotheby’s is an event sponsor and he’s on the clock, but laid out in front of him are a galaxy of cars of every make, model, and color — some of the finest in the world — arranged on the lawn of the Breakers mansion in Newport, Rhode Island.

He can’t resist stealing a moment to take it all in.

As he strolls down the rows of automobiles, Goldberg passes Mustang muscle cars, the stuff of American legend, and a gleaming Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. A little further in, he ambles by a small fleet of Packards that seem poised for a chase with Dick Tracy and a sleek, and a black MacMinn LeMans Coupe that looks like something Batman would drive on his day off. Lovable oddities like a baby blue 1962 Morris Mini and a looking-incredible-for-its-age 1913 Renault Type DP 22/24 Coupe-Chauffeur catch his eye, but his pause is barely discernible.

He’s on a mission — driven by passion.

There are cars here today that are so rare they might as well not exist and others that have won laurels on prestigious European racetracks. Goldberg appreciates these marvels, but they’re not what he’s looking for.

Finally, he stops at the Ferrari division, not coincidentally sponsored by Sotheby’s Financial Services, and gazes lovingly at a red F40, a mix of raw power and Italian elegance. “These are my favorite,” he says with satisfaction.

Goldberg’s passion for cars dates back to his childhood, where he grew up modestly in the suburb of Simsbury, Connecticut. When he was nine years old, his family took him to a firefighters carnival, and he happened upon a dart game. “There were a bunch of prizes, stuff like big stuffed animals I really did not want — and one framed photo of a red Lamborghini Countach that I absolutely did,” Goldberg recalls.

As luck, or perhaps destiny, would have it, Goldberg won the poster. “My dad helped me hang it in my bedroom when we got home and, overnight, it became a really important symbol to me,” he remembers. “I became really obsessed with the idea of not just getting a car like that, but also reaching the level of success that it would take to own one.”

Ever pragmatic, Goldberg began to form a plan. “I knew I wanted to get into business, because I thought that's how I could make enough money to fulfill my personal passion, which is to be around cars,” he says.

Goldberg’s mission led him to enroll in Bryant University’s Finance program, and he remembers Professor Asli Ascioglu, Ph.D., who joined the faculty in 2000 and has gone on to lead Bryant’s prestigious Archway Investment Fund, as a favorite. “There was something entrepreneurial in how she was teaching finance, and a lot of students like me who had that ambition gravitated to it,” he says.

Bryant also helped him to discover what would go on to be one of the secrets to his success. “My classmates will remember I didn’t start out as the best communicator; I had to force myself out of my comfort zone,” says Goldberg. “But one of the best things that Bryant does is put you out in front of the classroom, they have you do a lot of group projects and presentations to prepare you for the real world. There's no way I was getting out of that school without being able to stand in front of a room and make my case, with the data to back it up.

“By the time I got to Wall Street, all of that felt comfortable to me,” he says.

“I realized I could use my strengths: I’m a car guy.”

Achieving that level of comfort took a lot of practice, though. “I did all of that nerdy stuff they tell you to do, like practice in front of the mirror — which is really embarrassing if you get caught, by the way — and I recorded myself with an actual camera because I didn’t have an iPhone back then,” Goldberg says with a mixture of humility and pride. “But that’s what you have to do, because when you get to the real world, no matter how bright you are or how good your idea is, if you can't sell it, it's not going anywhere.”

After college, Goldberg began his career at J.P. Morgan — Bryant alum Richard Carriere '82, '87MST helped him secure the position by introducing him to a connection at the firm — where he excelled and rose through the ranks to become global head of market strategy. There, he hit upon an idea that would prove to be a gamechanger.

“It wasn’t quite like the old days where they hand you a phone book and ‘dial for dollars,’ but you had to go out and build a client base somehow,” Goldberg explains. “And that's hard to do, especially because you're calling on people who are often older and more sophisticated.

“You have to be able to answer the questions, ‘Why are they going to take my call?’ and ‘How are you supposed to connect with somebody who's got 300 million bucks?’” he points out.

The answer, it turns out, could be found in the framed poster he won at nine years old. “I realized I could use my strengths: I’m a car guy,” Goldberg says. “I would go to car shows, and because that's my personal interest, I could talk to pretty much anybody there about the cars and build a rapport. And after 20 minutes, I’d say, ‘By the way I work at J.P. Morgan’ — and I’d make a connection with the exact same person I couldn’t get on the phone.”

"'There's an old saying that ‘In niches, there are riches’ — and this is the ultimate niche.'"

Goldberg built a systematic approach to doing exactly that, using J.P. Morgan’s data stores to inform the firm’s advisors of their prospects’ personal interests. “If I'm someone that's really interested in wine, I can find a prospect who also shares that passion,” Goldberg notes. “It turns the interaction into a human discussion.”

And so, the Passions and Pursuits Advisory group, where a team of specialists works with clients to identify their priorities, passions, and pain points and develops a personalized strategy for them, was born.

“It was about trying to get people to stop thinking about clients as a balance sheet and remember they’re a human being just like you — and that most people make their decisions about who manages their money based on personal rapport and trust,” Goldberg says.

The key, he notes, is authenticity and matching the right people. “I, as a car enthusiast primarily hit it off with other like-minded car enthusiasts. Whereas if I tried to fake it and pretend that I'm an art lover, I'm going to get found out.”

The program found success across a variety of areas. “We built it out for cars, boats, planes, watches, wine, art, horses, philanthropy, whatever your passion is,” says Goldberg. “We stopped short of golf, though, because it's just too ubiquitous. Like 20 million people play golf.”

Along the way he was instrumental in helping to convince J.P. Morgan to begin actively recruiting at Bryant. “I made a fuss about it,” he remembers with a smile. “Because I knew the quality of students that we would get.”

As the division found success, Goldberg knew he wanted to scale his work even further and, after a long career in investments at J.P. Morgan, moved to Sotheby’s Financial Services in 2023. In his current role, he leads a team of lending specialists dedicated to financing rare and collectible cars, allowing collectors to borrow against their passion assets to invest in businesses, for example. “In terms of real scale, we can lend $250 million at a time. Our biggest loan right now on the car side is $85 million. Some of the art loans are much larger,” Goldberg notes.

Just saying those numbers out loud, he admits, is still “mind-blowing.”

Lending against cars at such scale is a relatively new business, says Goldberg. “Any real asset class — like real estate, or stocks and bonds — you can leverage and you can borrow against; there’s a $40 billion art-lending industry, for instance. But that really wasn’t an option for car collectors until now.”

Part of that shift is a growing esteem for car collecting — a sea change Goldberg is all for. “They are, to me, literally rolling art — and I think the auction results tell the story,” he says, noting that Sotheby’s sold a rare 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe for $142 million in 2022. And just last week, RM Sotheby’s sold another rare Mercedes for $53 million.

“That’s solidly into fine art territory,” he points out.

“The total addressable market for this business is very, very narrow, it's essentially defined as people who are wealthy enough to have $50 or $100 million worth of cars, but also currently still need money, either for business needs or to continue to grow their collections,” Goldberg says. “That's kind of a narrow window. But there's an old saying that ‘In niches, there are riches’ — and this is the ultimate niche.”

“The sky’s the limit when you can create your own business card. Don’t give up on your passion, make it work for you.”

Looking back, he marvels at the career he’s been able to build at the nexus of opportunity and passion. “The work is very finance-oriented, and we take it very seriously. There’s research and underwriting and deals and terms and contracts and negotiations and deadlines — but we’re still talking about cars, and helping people achieve their goals!” he enthuses. “It’s so cool and I love it. It makes me laugh out loud sometimes.”

Goldberg recently returned as the keynote speaker for Bryant’s Financial Services Forum, where he led a standing-room only discussion of his career, the collectibles market, and his advice for the next generation of finance professionals. “The sky’s the limit when you can create your own business card,” he advised. “Don’t give up on your passion, make it work for you.”

It’s advice he’s taken to heart. Back home he and his wife Kristen ’05, director of financial operations at Suitebriar, drive an Audi Q7 SUV (“Which I love,” claims Goldberg), but they also have a Ferrari GTC4Lusso, “our four-seat, all-wheel drive, 700-horsepower family car,” he chortles. “We all pile into it and take it to the pumpkin patch in the fall where we fill it with pumpkins. Or I’ll drive it down to Home Depot and fill it with mulch and planting soil”

The Countach from his bedroom wall, though, remains his dream car. “I’m told they’re actually a son of a gun to drive, but I don't care,” says Goldberg with a wide grin. “Every time I see one, I still freak out.”