Myra Chan, Sales Director at Aubrey Capital Management – Sales Manager of the Month

Myra Chan is a seasoned investment professional with over 25 years in the finance industry. Prior to her relocation to Europe, she was a senior banker at Citibank Private Bank and Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild in Hong Kong, managing investments for Ultra high net-worth individuals. Prior to that, she was a division head at JP Morgan’s Structured Product Distribution, tailoring financial solutions for private clients and family offices in Asia Pacific with objectives that ranged from return enhancement to risk mitigation. She accumulated institutional experience as Asian equities sales in New York and Hong Kong with HSBC and Société Générale. In addition to being a Chartered Financial Analyst, she holds a Master’s degree from the University of Hong Kong, and a B.A. from International Christian University in Japan.

1. When and how did you start your career in the financial industry? Did you have any other vocation?

I started my career in finance right after I graduated from university. But as you know, financial industry is actually very broad, so throughout the last 25 years, I have been in many different areas of finance: on the buy side as a private banker, as well as sell side as an equity broker, structured derivatives sales, and now fund sales. In fact, my first finance job was as a commercial banker where the core business was lending against real estate projects.

2. What do you do as a Sales Director? How does your day a day look like?

Aubrey is a boutique firm based in Edinburgh, and my role did not exist before I joined in 2019, as we did not have a dedicated European sales. So, it is a very steep learning curve to draw out the map of which markets to develop, who to target, how to make our performance more visible in the market place. In addition, as we have decided right from the start to connect with institutional investors, I also spend a fair amount of time keeping abreast of the companies that are in our portfolios so that I could communicate more effectively our investment philosophies with clients.

3. What’s your biggest challenge as a Sales Director at Aubrey Capital Management?

My biggest challenge is to get non-native English speakers to remember the name “Aubrey” over the phone!

4. What investment sectors do you believe are more interesting for clients at the moment? 

China growth equities, Europe decarbonisation and digitalisation plays.

5. In your opinion, what are the key drivers for successful fund distribution?

Finding investors who share the same investment philosophy, in as short time as possible, and to impress upon selectors in the midst of so many providers.

6. Would you give any advice for anyone wanting to start a career in the asset management industry?

If you are someone motivated, creative and like to work with imagination, I recommend you to work with a boutique firm like Aubrey. There is a lot of scope to do wonderful things as the objective is not to reach scale, and the approach to business is definitely not a cookie cutter.