国际商学院特邀嘉宾、2006届校友宋甲在2016级新生开学典礼上的致辞

撰稿：admin   2016年09月12日   浏览 3021 次

Honorable Dean

Dear Professors

My Fellow Schoolmates

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to be here in Beiwai today and to participate in the opening ceremony of International Business School. I thank you for giving me this occasion of great significance.  Two months ago President Xi Jinping addressed his expectations to the young people during his speech at the ceremony of the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.  We the young people should not forget where we come from, and continue to move forward.  BFSU is the place I am from, and IBS is the place where my dream starts.  This year, the year of 2016 marks the 10th anniversary of my graduation from IBS, together with another 23 alumni who formed the first batch of graduates majoring in finance.  Standing here, I think it would be the perfect time to look back a little bit and share my experience over the past decade as both a student and a working professional. 

The first word that bumped up into my head as I step into my memory is passion.  It is a word I am remembered by my colleagues since I started my career as a trader, it is also the source of power that pushes me through the academic endeavor as finance major.  At the beginning I was just as innocent as you since I am little exposed to the real financial world before my enrollment into BFSU.  While the carefully selected courses that IBS offered gradually helped me establish my interest in this area.  I especially love the courses such as Macro Economics, International Trade, Essentials of Investment, Financial Engineering and Econometrics.  Sometimes I am even crazy about some courses: during school, I went through the text book “Essentials of Investment” that was written by Zivi Bodi and Alex King Seven times in a roll.  Moreover, such passion gradually spilled over into my after school practice, I was so hungry that I spent two summer vacations and one winter vacation working in various financial institutions ranging from foreign creditors to local regulators.  I would say all the above moments eventually lead me into the real financial world and, thank goodness my passion towards finance was never left alone since then.

Where there is a will, there is a way.  To me passion is the will, and patience is the way.  Rome is not accomplished overnight and pursuit is always accompanied with obstacles.  When you face those difficult times, please take a breath, think about your glorious past, put down the necessary assignments you need to finish, and finish them in order.  I have no problem sharing one of my most embarrassing moments with you: In July 2006, It was just several days after I joined BNP Paribas and my direct manager asked me a piercing question: Hey Andy, does your school have a course of “how to interview”?  His French accent almost burnt me but I knew it was not the end of the world.  What I need was simply stretching my learning curve into Mont. Everest.  And I did it. In three months’ time I learned and practiced the most updated pricing models of linear products and convexity ones, finished reading the Bible that written by John Hull (the book name is “Options, Futures and Other Derivatives”, highly recommended) and became proficient in Cantonese.  By the National day of that year I am already able to market making Renminbi Non-Deliverable Forwards alone and three months later I started to trade my own book.

Let’s move our vision to a longer time span, passion gives me a good start, patience guide me through the mountains and rivers, but what makes me a vice president out of an analyst within four years time? What carved me into a Wall Street trader from a normal Chinese interbank dealer without any overseas study background? The answer is persistence.  Firstly persistence is contract spirit, once I agreed or promised, I always try my best.  You know I normally stepped into office around 6:45 in the morning because the global customer morning conference started at 7 in which I need to speak.  On December 26th 2010, The New York City experienced the most devastating snow storm over the past 50 years.  There was no lights, no traffic, and no people on the street, that morning was unforgettable.  In order to arrive at office before the morning conference, I started my adventure at 5 o’clock with tools of my bare legs.  It was a three and half mile torture during which I passed the so called center of the world, the Times Square.  What in front of my eyes was a frozen area with no moving creature, and when I looked ahead after I passed 47th street, the snow was already growing above my knees.  It turned out I was the only guy there and given the fact that most employees were not able to make their ways to office, the New York State Government later put that day a one-off public holiday.  That morning I got no reward by arriving in office on time, but over the period of my professional career the commitment driven attitude brought me with reliability.

Persistence also refers to a constant chase of changes.  We know the only unchanged thing in this world is change itself, and this is especially righteous in the financial industry.  The market is developing in a quick pace in which new tools and products are created almost every month.  An open mind towards those most updated asset category and strategies will deliver you with unbeatable advantage.  Over the course of my past ten years as a trader, I have been moving from China specialist towards Asian focus, dealing with products from foreign exchange towards credit, it was just this Monday when I closed the first secondary market transaction of the newly issued SDR bond (SDR means Special Drawing Right) and in probably another several weeks time you would witness the first CDS (Credit Default Swap) issuance from my department.  To me embarrassing new tasks is exciting, but keep this enthusiasm over decades is not easy.

Today I summarized part of my working memories into three words- passion, patience and persistence.  I hope today’s experience sharing could bring you with a different perspective.  At this moment you are either starting or in the midst of your academic progress, which means you still have plenty of time before packing yourself in front of the unknown professional environment.  I am confident that you would eventually find your own dream and working with full passion fulfilling it.  Fourteen years ago I was a freshman just like you and the Dean at that time Mr. Peng Long said the following sentence at the opening ceremony: today you are proud of being a BFSU student; tomorrow BFSU will be proud of being your old school.  President Peng is a prophet, as China further deepens the connections with the rest of the world after iconic events such as the joining of SDR and the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, Economic and financial expertise with global vision will play more important role in China’s exchange with the outside.  BFSU is well known for its cradle of Chinese diplomats, and the young professionals who graduated from IBS would be naturally embedded with looking-out, stretching-out characters.  The school will be providing you with a unique platform that is rarely seen in this country and I hope everyone could make good use of it.  In the end please allow me to wish everyone of you a success in your study and good luck to your future career.

Thank you!