We profile South African professionals of Chinese descent, in the financial services sector. What's your name and age? Tian Pan, 32 What has been your experience?: • Willis Towers Watson (previously Towers Watson) – Investment Associate • Old Mutual Wealth & Investments SA – Investment Product Actuary • Current: Prescient Investment Management China – Head of Product and Business Development What do you do? Investment product development and distribution Your area of expertise? Investment product development and strategy What is your place of birth? Shanghai, China When did you immigrate to South Africa? What brought you here? There were a lot of tax incentives for Taiwanese investors in the early 90s to invest in the SA manufacturing industry. My father is an engineer and was hired by a group of investors to come to SA and help set up several manufacturing operations. Our family moved to SA then. Where did you study, and your qualifications? University of Cape Town – BBusSci Actuarial Science (Hons) Institute & Faculty of Actuaries (UK) – Fellow (FIA), Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary (CERA) Why did you choose your line of studies? I was fighting against my parents’ wishes of studying medicine at the time. Being pretty strong at mathematics while hating accounting, I decided to try actuarial science. I didn’t really know what actuarial science was, just that it was very difficult to study. After getting into the studies, my interest in the investment areas grew a lot. How did you get into the financial services sector? I majored in finance and actuarial science in university. I also had a great interest for the investment markets, so it was natural to join the industry after graduation. What are your hobbies and interests in your spare time? I enjoy going to gym, playing badminton and squash. I also enjoy exploring different delicious cuisines along with travelling. How do you see the future of South Africa? I’m concerned about South Africa’s future. I believe the overall competitiveness of the country is consistently declining. Both government and SOEs are plagued by corruption which greatly affects the country’s fiscus. Unemployment and crime rates are high and no improvements are expected in the short term. Income inequality is also widening which I believe is a dangerous direction we are heading into. I believe that structural changes are needed within government and the country to change the medium term outlook for the SA economy, however this may be a long, painful and risky process. Even though changing and growing will be long and painful, I believe SA as a country has huge potential in the long term. What advice or encouragement do you have for university students who want to enter the financial services sector? I think the most important thing is to do what you love, do not do it because of the money because it will be tough to push through the lows when doing something you do not love. Then it would be to always have a learning attitude, to continue to learn and improve one’s own ability. This will not only help you improve consistently over time but also help you work happier in my opinion. Remember the survivourship bias and understand the hard work behind the scenes of someone successful in finance. Good luck! Tian Pan's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tian-c-pan-68849821/
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