Employer Name  

IXIS Financial Products

Employer  Website

www.ixisfp.com

Job Title  

Director, Inflation Product Manager

Additional education-

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), 2001

Briefly describe what you do   

I develop and structure new instruments designed to protect investors from fluctuations in inflation; I speak to investors and issuers to explain this new market and these instruments; I trade inflation-linked products and manage the risks resulting from creating these instruments.

What other jobs have you had?

• Managing Partner - Ashton Analytics LLC (a hedge fund)

• Trader, Interest Rate Derivatives - Barclays Capital

• Futures Strategist, JP Morgan

What are the key skills, abilities, and personal qualities necessary to succeed in this type of work?  

•  Personal drive/willingness to work long hours and hard

• Well-developed communications skills, both written and interpersonal

• Openness to criticism (my weakness, for many years)

• Ability to handle and defuse work-related stress

•  Problem-solving acumen (by which I mean, understanding how to take an approach to a problem that may result in a solution, and to learn from the results if that approach is unsuccessful. It sounds odd, but I think GAMES Magazine teaches the right attitude if not the exact right skills.)

What do you enjoy most about your current position?  

Working closely with customers on their big problems related to inflation (for example, a big industrial company who needs protection against rising medical care costs) and coming up with unique solutions - inflation-linked derivatives is a new field in the U.S., and I get to develop solutions no one has ever thought of or tried before.

Most important/valuable lesson or activity in college that impacted your career  

In my field, I continue to be shocked by how few people understand or remember basic economic principles - and they guide virtually everything in financial life! Outside of econ/finance, I would say that what I learned in Toastmasters  - the ability to express one's self in front of an audience - is the most widely-applicable skill.

What advice for someone entering this field?

1) In college, you are shooting for 100% accuracy. In the markets, though, you would be a rare breed if you were not wrong at least 40% of the time. This can be a difficult psychological transition.
2) Warren Buffett once noted that a stream of great investment returns gets really wrecked by one "-100%." (See 'Long Term Capital'.)
3) JP Morgan admonished his employees to always do 'first class business, and that in a first-class way.' Honor that principle and greed, sloth, pride, envy, lust, wrath, and gluttony take care of themselves.

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