Compliance and Risk Manager
Fidelity International

Rahul O

00:00:03 My name is Rahul O, and I work as a Compliance and Risk Manager. As a Compliance Manager I provide support to the Business Unit on regulations, and how best to implement monitoring. So what that means is, I train the Fund Managers on new rules, and I work with our back office team to set up rules to prevent us from violating any regulation. As a Risk Manager I produce reports, and matrix and tools for the investment team, so they can use those tools to better assess the risks in their funds.

00:01:30 I was born in the US. I lived in the US till I was about 13. When I was 13 my parents moved to India, so I went to India with them. I was in boarding school for a couple of years, and I gradually moved to Delhi, to finish my undergraduate degree. Initially I had quite a bit of problems moving to India. I didn’t speak the language, I didn’t know a lot about the culture, but I think over the years I’ve really begun to enjoy India a lot. Understand the culture, I’ve made lots of friends there, can speak the language, love the food. I look back now, and I actually thank my parents every day, because moving to India actually forced me to work a lot harder, pay more attention to what I was doing. And I think over time that’s really shown in kind of my career and, you know, even my academic endeavours.

00:01:58 Job loss is the hardest thing I’ve had to deal with. When I was working at the small bank that was bought by Rocovia, we were laid off. And that’s – that’s a tough time, I think, in anybody’s life, because you’re laid off and, you know, you don’t have a job to go to the next morning. So just getting out of bed at that point and, you know, kind of saying how am I going to deal with all of this? I mean I think that’s quite overwhelming, and that was difficult.

00:02:31 I moved back to New York, and I got a job with Alliance Bernstein, which is another Institutional Asset Manager. And I worked for them for about two and a half years – before joining Fidelity. So I joined Fidelity in Bermuda. I kind of just wanted to take some time and get out of New York, it was a little stressful – working at Alliance was quite tough, because you had to get in at five thirty in the morning and, you know, usually out by around seven, eight o’clock. So I decided I needed a break, and sunny Bermuda was a great place to be. And I just kind of felt being there that this was just so much more relaxed lifestyle than New York. So I was – I felt the decision was actually quite easy for me.

00:03:19 I think I really just want to be the best at whatever I do. I always want to learn, read more, very interested in learning things, and that’s part of the reason that I’ve been doing different degrees, you know, you just want to be the best at your career.

00:03:35 I think a high point for me has been moving countries actually. At a very early age I moved to India, and that was an experience – you know, massive cultural change, dealing with that. And I think when I finally got used to moving – living in India, and actually enjoying the culture, I moved back to the States. And then from there moving to Bermuda, and then again to London, I think all of these – these moves had a significant impact.

ENDS