Founder's Story

My Story: Projects

The Story

I grew up in Hackney, one of the most dangerous social housing estate in the UK. I always had to have my wits about me. Growing up in a dangerous neighbourhood was strange as the same people you ‘knew’ were the ones who could be deemed to be dangerous! With the typical immigrant family mentality, my parents and sister drove me to study hard to help our family get free. I worked on getting a scholarship to Charterhouse, a prestigious UK boarding school. It was strange as fulfilling this early aspiration translated to finding myself in the opposite end of the social spectrum. As a teenager, I learned to read the dynamics of my new environment and experimented with different tactics to adapt.

I was always fascinated by the ingenious logic of scientists, especially when tackling problems to develop solutions. It was a skill I felt would serve me well, no matter which career avenue I choose. After high school, I continued to pursue my passion for science and graduated with a Masters in Theoretical Chemistry at King’s College London.

To support my university studies, I discovered the trading floor of Chase Manhattan bank, as a part-time Trading-assistant. I bonded instantaneously with the world of finance. I found myself navigating what was seemingly a ‘cut-throat’ environment with relative ease. Although people wore suits and drove expensive cars, once seated at their desks, these same individuals went to war, war with the market, their colleagues and even with their clients. The remarkable similarity between this environment and Hackney was surreal.

After university, I formally entered into the world of finance and joined JPMorgan. I felt like Eddie Murphy in the 1983 movie ‘Trading Places’. I managed to navigate JPMorgan to work across numerous areas, however, the words of my line manager from 2002 echoed with ‘…if you think this is tough, go work for a hedge fund…’! I spent the next six-months networking and reading on the hedge fund industry.

In 2003, I managed to join Cheyne Capital in Mayfair, London a well-known and respected hedge fund. Here I started trading, initially for others and subsequently for myself. Having done well in London, I was asked to set-up their Asian office. Just before the financial crisis I moved to Singapore to run the entire Asian trading operation for one of the largest, and frankly, most ruthless hedge funds in the world, Millennium. Having joined when they were only three people in Asia, I was instrumental in building out their business in the region. Subsequently, I worked in Europe and Asia for a number of global investment banks. I joined a hedge fund over 5 years ago, where I am currently the Head of Strategy and Business Development.

In my personal time, I began working with former colleagues, friends and corporate connections on an informal basis to help guide them through challenging environments. Over time this passion has become more focused and I now work with senior leaders and executives who are looking to perform and adapt to achieve their ambitions.

Having worked at some of the largest hedge funds in the world and also on the trading floors of some of the largest investment banks in the world I realised that a striking number of people struggle to navigate these institutions. Using the skills I learnt in my early years, I was able to aide people to visualize their battlefields more clearly and to ensure optimal positioning to achieve their goals.

What does this mean in practice? I have an intuitive understanding of people – their motives and their drivers. I have been successful in applying that gift to inspire leaders to perform at their best by knowing themselves, knowing their operating environment and knowing the people around them. By assisting clients to use this framework they have witnessed a noticeable reduction in stress, an increased ‘comfort’ in the workplace, and in many instances receiving greater responsibility and career progression.

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My specific focus in the last few years has been two-fold:

Working with portfolio managers and traders to hone their investment process and risk management techniques;
Providing insight to allow clients to analyze, interpret and manoeuvre around corporate political situations with ease.