Wall Street's Rising Stars Are Trading Golf for Mahjong and Padel

When Kate Casey had to choose between golf and mahjong at a work conference, she picked the Chinese tile game — and it stuck. "It's become really important to relationship building," the 32-year-old KKR principal and infrastructure investor told Business Insider.

Her case is part of a broader pattern Business Insider found when it surveyed its 2026 Rising Stars of Wall Street list. Free time is scarce in finance, but relationships drive careers, so hobbies are doubling as networking channels. The golf course is no longer the default venue; mahjong tables, ski slopes, padel courts and Barry's Bootcamp classes are moving in.

New sports, new connections

Blue Owl's Diana Liu, 33, a data centers investor, learned to ski as an adult. That skill now pays for itself on work trips to the slopes. "I grew up in a position where I wouldn't have been able to do any of these hobbies, so it's been very helpful to learn for work," she said. She's also trying golf, with less success: "I have one of the two things that people like doing on Wall Street," she joked.

Mussie Tizazu, head of CLO origination and financing at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, has picked up padel and is planning client events around it — though he admits squash habits are hard to unlearn. "I can't say I'm any good yet, but it's a fun time, and a lot of clients have been getting into it," he said.

Time constraints matter too. Evercore banker Jim Tilson took up squash because, with a one-year-old daughter at home, marathon golf rounds don't fit. "If I could be golfing every day, I would," he said. With squash, "you can be in and out in an hour."

Blending business and pleasure

Mike Washington, a 32-year-old Goldman Sachs managing director and equity salesbroker, has studied wine "extensively" and this year combined a fireside chat with a wine tasting. "As a person that's dealing with clients every day, what better way to truly connect with people than hobbies?" he said. He calls it bringing his "full self" to work.

The mix has costs. Three years ago the former Princeton basketball player tore his shoulder playing basketball with clients and needed surgery. "During that process, I found golf," he said.

Allie Becher, 30, a Citadel Securities sales trader, didn't pick up anything new — she scaled up what she already did. A natural host, she launched a macro dinner series with portfolio managers who "now all get along really well, and it's created some good connectivity." She also organized Barry's Bootcamp workouts with clients, teammates and the head of her business.

Guarding time away from the desk

A third group uses hobbies to disconnect rather than connect. David Oppenheim, 35, an Evercore managing director and self-described night owl, became a morning person, exercising early and building a home gym to keep the habit through winter. "My wife teases me that I no longer have an excuse not to," he said.

Bank of America's Cody Kiechle started running during the pandemic and kept it up as an escape from daily job stress. Maya Venkatraman, 34, a Morgan Stanley managing director, calls running her constant through demanding stretches — and her best thinking time. "A lot of the time it's my best problem-solving time," she said. "I get a little bit of distance from the immediate problem, and, you know, just somehow that's when the ideas appear."

For anyone mapping a finance career, the signal is clear: the next deal may start on a padel court or over a wine list, not on the back nine.