Nick Markola

Big games are won by those that work hard, stay ahead of others but know to keep their eyes on the game, not on the scoreboard.   

Nick Markola has a slew of degrees and an impressive office in one of the most coveted areas in American business and beyond—Wall Street. But the road he traveled to become a bigwig was long and turbulent. Markola and his brother, Anton, were raised in Ulqin by their mother Maria. His father passed away two months before he was born. Maria taught her boys to work hard, stay focused and face life’s adversities with audacity. When the winds of war swept through former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and Markola was drafted by the Yugoslav Army, it was hard to stay there as an Albanian. After refusing to fight in a war he adamantly opposed, Markola found himself in exile—first in Belgium, then Germany, and finally the United States.