What is your occupation and how did you come to work in this field?
I work at Morgan Stanley as a portfolio manager within the firm’s credit investment business. It was a natural progression after beginning in investment banking and after appreciating the available pathways within financial services that suited my interest and temperament.
What is the biggest challenge of your work?
I have been at my current firm for 14 years. Given this tenure, I believe the biggest personal challenge is being open to, and being an agent of, change in team dynamics and goal-setting.
What is your proudest achievement?
- Being a manager and leader that sets an example
- Finding my niche and comfort zone in American society having immigrated here as a young adult
What leaders, thinkers or doers do you admire most?
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Jamie Dimon
- Bob Gates
- Barack Obama
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
In a leadership/management role where I can help guide, influence and motivate young people to maximize their potential.
What would be your advice to young people who want their careers and lives to have an impact?
- Set out to achieve realistic, small goals and measure yourself against those
- Seek out perspectives that run counter to yours and analyze those perspectives dispassionately
Did you have a mentor or do you mentor someone else? How has that experience changed you?
I have only recently found a mentor. It is important not to seek a mentor for the sake of having one but to find a person who is interested and motivated in providing counsel and advice that has practical application to one’s life and career.