Jeff Weber’s Second Act: From Wall Street to the Fencing Strip, a Champion Finds His Way Back to the Sport He Loves

By any measure, Jeff Weber has lived more than one life: hedge fund heavyweight, Cornell fencer and Williams fencing coach, film actor, philanthropist, husband, father. And now, he finds himself back where it all began — on a fencing strip, saber in hand, rediscovering the sport that first captured his imagination as a 10-year-old.

Growing up in New York City, his small school had limited offerings for athletics, so his parents supplemented his education and introduced him to fencing at the Santelli Club. There, surrounded by foil drills and weapons clashing, the young Weber — already an actor with a flair for the dramatic — was hooked.

“I was into pirates and The Three Musketeers,” he recalls. “Saber was swashbuckling, theatrical. It just fit.”

Weber kept with the sport, competing nationally, and eventually was recruited to Cornell. After, he transitioned from athlete to coach at Williams College, teaching fencing in the PE department. The pay? A modest $7.50 an hour. The real prize? A faculty parking pass.

“It was priceless,” he laughs. “That pass was worth more than anything they paid me.”

Fencing quietly receded into the background as Weber embarked on Harvard Business School, an incredibly successful career on Wall Street, marriage and raising a family. Until, that is, his longtime friend Robin McGraw — now a fellow Foundation Board member — extended an invitation: join him on the U.S. Fencing Foundation Board and come to the Paris Olympics.

“That trip reignited everything,” Weber says. “It’s been spectacular.”

Now, Weber fences two to three times a week at both Tim Morehouse Fencing Club and the Fencers Club in New York. He was “all in,” taking lessons from Olympian and world champion Eli Dershwitz, OLY — an experience he likens to “playing catch with Derek Jeter once a week.” He embraced the camaraderie of the veteran fencing community, which welcomed him back with open arms.

“Vet fencers want more people on the strip,” he says. “It’s an incredibly supportive group.”

This fall, he’ll appear on CNBC’s new fencing series, The Fencing Show, a perfect blend of his professional background, on-air ease and lifelong love of the sport. Weber sees a clear connection between fencing and performance.

“Before saber was electric, you had to make the referee believe you hit and earned the point. It was theatrical,” he says. That instinct serves him well today. Off the strip, he’s filming a feature movie in New York, playing the owner of a karaoke bar.

“I sing a little, act a little,” he smiles. “The bar is central to the whole story.”

Beyond the saber and acting is service. Together with his wife, Stacey, the Webers approach philanthropy as a team, balancing the causes closest to their hearts with the institutions that shaped them. For Stacey, Jeff’s return to fencing isn’t just about nostalgia.

“She loves that I’m active and engaged,” he says. Weber is quick to emphasize that fencing shaped him far beyond the strip — discipline, resilience, the ability to pivot from one challenge to the next. “The sport has given me so much,” he says.

Through his work on the Foundation Board, as a member of the 2026 Maccabiah Games in Israel, and with CNBC, Weber sends a clear message: fencing deserves to be seen, supported and celebrated. As LA28 approaches, he sees both urgency and opportunity.

“There’s obviously the excitement of winning medals on the world stage,” he says. “But with the Games being at home, we also have an incredible chance to grow the sport — to make sure kids and adults alike can pick up a weapon, find community and experience the same joy fencing has given so many of us.”

After building a life that feels almost cinematic, Weber chose to return to the sport that first sparked his imagination — not for medals, not for glory, but for the joy of it. And in that joy, he’s helping to shape fencing’s future.