u003cpu003eu003cstrongu003eAaron Low, president of the CFA Institute, was recently in the country for a seminar organized by CFA Society Mauritius. Meeting with Business Magazine, the financial expert talks about his career and shares his thoughts on the Mauritian financial sector.u003c/strongu003eu003c/pu003eu003cpu003eBetween seminars and his busy agenda, Aaron Low accepts to meet us at the Intercontinental Hotel, Balaclava. He is a workaholic who travels a lot for his job and the CFA Institute. Despite being the president of the CFA Institute, Aaron Low is a very low-profile person. In fact, at the very beginning of the interview, he admits that he prefers discretion and does not like to talk about himself. This is why he focuses mainly on his professional career.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eIt is in San Francisco, in the United States, that Aaron Low began a fruitful career in 1997 after joining RCM Global Investors (Allianz). As Head of Asian Fixed Income and Senior Portfolio Manager for RCM Global Investors, he travelled regularly from San Francisco to Singapore and vice versa.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eAaron Low helped start up and managed around USD 3 billion in institutional assets for Asian Fixed Income Portfolio Investment team. After a couple of years at RCM Global Investors, Aaron Low moved to PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company) in 2001. The company is situated in Newport, in the States. And as the Head of Asia ex-Japan Portfolio Management, he travelled regularly to Singapore.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eAt PIMCO, his job consists of overseeing and manages the portfolio investment team. He explains that for PIMCO, he managed USD 21 billion in Asian institutional and central bank global bonds. u0026ldquo;u003cemu003eI also helped in managing the firmu0026rsquo;s USD 600 billion in global assets. I had the responsibility to oversee PIMCO Asian strategiesu003c/emu003e.u0026rdquo; he relates.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eAfter PIMCO, in 2005, he left for Lumen u0026ndash; where he still is u0026ndash; which is an alternative asset management company investing in global markets. At Lumen, he is the Principal and Managing Director and he manages long and short investment strategies for institutional and retail clients, including traditional long-only funds and hedge funds.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eWhen and why did he join the CFA Institute? Aaron Low says that he did not join the CFA Institute on his own.u003cbr /u003e Everything started when he was at RCM Global Investors. He remembered getting a phone call from the institute. His familiarity with the Asian financial market encouraged the institute to seek his help to share Asian Pacific Policy. At that time, Aaron Low was freshly CFA Chartered.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eThe proposal was to get engaged with regulators and governments on the good practices that should be followed inu003cbr /u003e order to be reckoned as a standard financial market. Aaron Low said u0026ldquo;u003cemu003eyesu003c/emu003eu0026rdquo; and joined the CFA Institute. For the first five years, he was the Chairman of Asia Pacific. But this system was dissolved and the CFA Institute integrated everything into what they call a Capital Market Policy Community. u0026ldquo;u003cemu003eThe mission of the CFA Institute with this new system remained the same, that is, we are engaged with regulators as FSC and essential banks across the world. Our mission is to make sure that there is good governance in the financial sector in those countries where CFA is present. The CFA Institute helps the financial industry to formulate good practices, it helps investorsu003c/emu003e,u0026rdquo; he comments.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eWith this new system, Aaron Low is the president of the CFA Institute and is on the Board of Governors. u0026ldquo;u003cemu003eCFA has now 500 full-time working staff and, on top of that, there is the Board of Governors. I became one of its members, five years ago. And itu0026rsquo;s only last year that I was nominated president of the CFA Instituteu003c/emu003e,u0026rdquo; he points out.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eWhat is the vision of the CFA Institute for Mauritius? u0026ldquo;u003cemu003eWhat we want to do is to advance the mission and the vision of the CFA Institute, which include the codes of ethics, the professional standards and conduct within the society membership, and regulatory bodiesu003c/emu003eu0026rdquo;, says Aaron Low.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eIn Mauritius, the CFA Institute supports CFA Society Mauritius by providing it with quality programs and services. It is also trying to establish a strong sense of community and share va-lues with the Mauritian members. u0026ldquo;u003cemu003eAnd we want to work towards being a leader in this community in Mauritius, within the country and the regionu003c/emu003e,u0026rdquo; he reveals.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eFurthermore, Aaron Low delivers his impressions on the financial sector of Mauritius. He strongly thinks that the island has impressive aspirations and ambitions and can become a regional financial center. According to him, all the conditions are met. u0026ldquo;u003cemu003eI think Mauritius has a strong leadership and it does have an outlook focus which is a key essential to achieve those things. It has good incentives and legal system. Even if its financial sector is young compared to that of other countries, it has huge potentialu003c/emu003e,u0026rdquo; he observes.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eHowever, the sector needs to further build up its infrastructure and its ecosystem to be a truly global financial center. u0026ldquo;u003cemu003eTo become a global financial center, you need to have a huge amount of human talents and a skill pool. Mauritius has to develop that pool of peopleu003c/emu003e,u0026rdquo; he recommends.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eIn addition, Mauritius needs to further understand the global current that is shifting in the market place, provoked by the global financial crisis. u0026ldquo;u003cemu003eThere has been a change in the landscape of how banks and financial firms interact with regulators and the investment community, and itu0026rsquo;s not as friendly as it was before. There are many things that have shiftedu003c/emu003e,u0026rdquo; he adds.u003c/pu003eu003cpu003eCommenting on the BAI saga, Aaron Low says the Mauritian financial sector should take the positive out of it. u0026ldquo;u003cemu003eAll countries go through this kind of episode and I donu0026rsquo;t think that any center has been spared. I think it gives us a good lesson on what needs to be done and on what one has to focusu003c/emu003e,u0026rdquo; he comments, conceding that such an incident may discourage investors. Right now, the Mauritian financial sector needs to restore trust among investors. The CFA Institute can play a major role on this front, the financial expert believes.u003c/pu003e
Aaron Low : The investment strategist
