Beyond Markets: A Career Shaped by Curiosity

So I'm just going to go to our last topic.

As an Asian American who has risen to one of the most senior investment roles in the industry, how has your background shaped the way you lead and make decisions? And I'm just going to preface that.

So I think too often in our industry, people are given leadership roles for the wrong reasons.

Incentives aren't always aligned.

And I've experienced people getting promoted into leadership roles without having the experience or ever becoming an effective leader.

So I guess, were there experiences in your career that influenced the kind of leader you wanted to become or not want to become?

I'm going to answer your question in a slightly different way.

So taking myself out of it, I have a good friend from college who went into being a career coach because he saw Asian Americans in particular and women as well get passed up for opportunities.

And he just based on the merits of these people relative to others who were getting the promotions, this kind of made him frustrated.

And so he sort of made it his career and life mission.

And so maybe just sort of piggybacking off of some of the things he talks about, have a voice, put yourself out there, believe in yourself.

Don't be quiet in the room and just make sure you have a voice.

Just sort of adding on to something that I've said to people in the past, don't wait until you have a big title to have a voice.

And I've said this within my own organization.

I don't care who has the good idea.

I don't care if it's an investment analyst or investment officer or a senior investment officer or director or me.

I don't think it really matters.

Be willing to do the work.

Be willing to put your voice out there.

Don't wait.

Until you have some big titles, because if you wait until then, you're probably going to get passed up.

Was this advice that you were given or just learned along the way?

I think it's advice that I've learned along the way.

Having opinions is a good thing.

Taking risk by believing in yourself is a good thing.