I grew up between Hertfordshire and Essex in the UK, before moving to London for university. I have been interested in computers and software since the age of seven, my first computer being one a neighbour had left out for rubbish collection. In terms of markets, my interest was piqued by my dad checking the value of his stocks each week in the Sunday Times. 

Goldman Sachs, as my friends and family kept telling me, was the ‘best of the best’. I first applied to the firm for an internship at the end of my first year of university. I then had several interviews, failed epically on the intricacies of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol), and didn’t receive an offer. I tried again the following year and spent the summer of 2001 as an intern in the London office, before joining the graduate programme in 2002. After several years in the Technology division, I took mobility into FICC Strats and had some memorable years on the trading floor. Sixteen years after starting my career in London, I took geographic mobility – this time, halfway across the globe to Singapore. Living and working in Asia has been a wonderful experience and a steep learning curve in terms of cultures and markets. 

We aim to embody the firm’s core values of partnership, excellence, integrity and client service. Asia Pacific is a relatively small region compared to others, so it’s incredibly important we work together with a shared mentality to move the firm forward. The people in the office are warm (and not just because of the weather!), friendly and keen to help to solve problems. Since I’ve been here the office has doubled in size to well over 1,300 people and has also significantly diversified in terms of roles and teams, from Core Engineering to Macro Trading. 

We work as teams to solve interesting problems, across a wide variety of domains, for our clients, shareholders and colleagues. One moment we might be focused on ‘How do we find, hire and retain the very best graduates?’ before moving to ‘What AI coding tool should we rollout next to our thousands of software engineers?’ 

What I like the most about my role is the ability to work with and learn from great people, and achieve meaningful outcomes together. I am blessed to have incredible managers who invest time in continuing to help me to grow, even though I am almost a quarter century into my career. Equally, it’s an immense source of happiness when someone I’ve mentored reaches a career milestone or achieves great outcomes. 

Given I have multiple roles, regional and global, I start my day at 8am catching up on emails and Teams messages, and sometimes I make a few zoom calls with US colleagues. A quick read of the Financial Times and Washington Post headlines is also a must. Health is wealth, so I ensure I run or go to the gym every day before coming into the office. My day is spent meeting colleagues, broader teams, clients and regulators. Topics range from AI and cloud to talent management and our long-term plans for the Singapore business. I then have a couple of hours at home to have dinner with my family before evening calls with the west. 

Goldman Sachs’ four core values—partnership, integrity, client service, excellence—are all equally important, no matter if you are building systems to serve the engineers of the firm or talking to clients about product management. To achieve major outcomes, you must partner with other teams, show integrity, and be of service to your clients. None of this is optional.

The magic of Goldman Sachs is when people come together to move mountains for our clients, shareholders and colleagues. These moments are intense, but always with a sense of both good humour and that we are all in it together.