From Wall Street to Humane Society of El Paso

Luke Westerman was hired in November as the new executive director of the Humane Society of El Paso but before he came to our city he was managing millions of dollars on Wall Street.

“I was a portfolio manager for JP Morgan for years and managed about a quarter billion dollar portfolio. All traditional investments publicly traded stocks bonds,” Westerman said.

After about five years he decided to move back to home to Ohio.

“I actually left that world and started a venture capital firm and I enjoyed that a lot more because I was investing in people who I could actually meet, look in the eye and shake their hands,” Westerman said.

But it wasn’t until he met a special dog that his life took a turn.

“(It was) when I adopted my first rescue dog from New Orleans named Franky. Right when Hurricane Gustave was coming through and about to make landfall,” Westerman said.

That was nine years ago. Since then he’s volunteered and eventually used his set of skills to help shelters.

“Help them with fundraising, helped them with raising money a little bit more efficiently, marketing, things like that,” Westerman said.

Westerman told ABC-7 his advocacy for animals only deepened.

“Ohio up until 2012 considered pit pulls vicious and so ourselves and a lot of other advocates we lobbied our state Legislature and our governor who eventually overturned that law,” Westerman said.

Before coming to El Paso, Westerman was offered job opportunities in Nashville and Seattle but he chose El Paso for a reason.

“I felt like I had the best opportunity to make the biggest impact here and let’s be honest the food and weather are great,” Westerman said.