The Broadsmoore Group is an agile company, where quick thinking and an entrepreneurial spirit drive profit and value; AJ Discala, Broadsmoore’s CEO, embodies the fast-paced merchant banking and investment advisory firm. He’s the love child of Type A and ADD.

“I’ve been here since 4:30 this morning,” said AJ Discala in his New York office, between meetings on a Thursday afternoon. “You have to be willing to be the first person in the office and the last person out.”

Discala has been long working since his high school years, when his focus was on crew, not market capitalization. Rowing was the first place he learned how to lead a team, a skill he refined when he took his rowing skills to Northeastern University’s Men’s Crew team. Almost 20 years out of college and the 41-year-old still moves and thinks like an athlete – forcefully and with intention. And he still talks like a varsity captain: “Look alive, people. Lots to get done today,” he hollers across Broadsmoore’s floor, where the firms’ 10 most junior team members work in cubes.

He’s also retained an athlete’s confidence. A numbers savant, Discala says he can structure transactions faster and better than most the other guys in New York. “Structuring deals is easy. I can do it all day long,” said Discala, typing on his Blackberry. He also calls himself a serial entrepreneur. When asked how many companies he’s founded in the past 20 years, he looks up from his mobile and pauses to think. “More than 20. I’ve done 67 deals [taken private companies public],” he says as he marches to his next meeting.

And, with the solid foundation AJ Discala’s setting at Broadsmoore, he’s sure to launch just as many companies and take even more public in his next 20 years.