MOST

Multilingual
HOW
A LOVE OF LANGUAGES TRANSLATED INTO A PROFESSIONAL ASSET
BY CRYSTAL DETAMORE-RODMAN

s a young student in Italy enrolled at a classical studies high school, Alida Carcano immersed herself in ancient languages and became procient in Latin and ancient Greek. Although she continued her education at a college more oriented to something practical, the Milanbased business school Bocconi University, her interest in the world at large remained strong. The culmination was participation in a student exchange program to Cologne, Germany, her nal semester. I have loved foreign languages since I started studying Latin and ancient Greek, which is not so uncommon in Italy, reveals Carcano, now a CFA charterholder and managing director and the global head of investment products strategy for Credit Suisse in Zurich. Back then, the main reason for learning foreign languages was to be able to read books and watch movies in original languages. It makes such a difference. If you have ever read an Isabel Allende book in Spanish and then in its English version, you know what I am talking about. While broadening her cultural horizons was personally rewarding, she would soon discover that being multilingual was also a professional asset. There would be an interesting book on xed income to read in English, an article on real estate in French, or the proceedings of a conference in GermanI had access to all of them, says Carcano, who speaks German, French, English, and Spanish, in addition to her native Italian. To start with, foreign languages were useful for educational purposes. Then one of my former employers, UBS, sent me for a couple of years to London, an extremely international place, where being able to speak languages was useful not only to talk to colleagues and clients but also to go out with friends in the evening. She learned that being able to communicate with clients in their native languages helped engender trust and condence in her ability to successfully meet their investment needs. The big advantage is that they do not feel the lanCFA

guage problem will generate misunderstandings, so over the long run, it generates more trust simply because the clients are more relaxed, Carcano observes. Being able to talk to clients from many different countries in their language is denitely something they appreciate. Meanwhile, Carcano continues to expand her foreign language repertoire: She began studying Chinese two years ago. I decided I wanted to learn more about Chinese culture, and of course, the language is a very important part of it, she says. It is so extremely interesting. Carcanos strong desire for learning has made Carcano an ardent student of the investment management profession since she started her career as a trainee at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt in 1990. Because investment managers must adapt quickly to changing market practices and rapidly evolving world economies, she considers a commitment to continuing education vital to her professional success. For example, I would never miss the CFA Institute annual conference and have always participated in the continuing education initiatives of CFA Institute. When I got my CFA charter in 1994, topics like behavioral nance, alternative investments, and managing assets for individual investors (as opposed to institutions) were hardly touched by the program; these elds simply did not exist. Today, they are all high on the list of things to know in order to exercise this profession. Keeping up with the evolving world is essential. Having a thirst for knowledge is the best asset one can have. Carcano, currently a CFA Institute governor, also has been a strong advocate for strengthening the profession through the uniform practices and ethical standards promoted by CFA Institute. Indeed, she cofounded the Swiss CFA Society in 1996 and the Italian CFA Society in 1999, where she served as president until 2003. Today, the Swiss Society has more than 1,000 members and the Italian contingent, nearly 300. I very well remember that in Italy we hardly

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had a handful of charterholders when we got started, she recalls. We sat together around a table, seven of us. I was the only charterholder; the other investment professionals were either candidates or still had to enroll. But I thought we had to think about creating a society in order to attract more people. Carcano has served on a number of CFA Institute task forces and committees, including the Private Client Task Force, the Professional Development Committee, and the Society Partnership Program Advisory Group. That involvement has given her an opportunity to interact with individuals from all over the world and deepened her knowledge and understanding of world cultures and regions. I remember grading exams a few years ago, says Carcano, who was a CFA grader from 1996 through 2001 and in 2003. I was sitting next to a guy from Pakistan, who told me how they were going through a severe drought and energy shortage in his country. Pakistan had to do everything it could to save energy, and he had had problems sending faxes to the United States to conrm his participation in the grading program and get all the necessary papers to enter the country. When you sit around a table at a Society Leadership Conference in Washington, DC, there may be 12 people from perhaps as many countries, and everybody with a story to tell. You always learn something. CFA Institute has more than 130 societies around the world; recently, Bahrain and Egypt joined. The last EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) regional meeting was in Dubai back in February. She remembers a time when the organization was distinctly less global, when she was often the only non-American participating in CFA Institutesponsored conference calls. Because of the time difference, she often found herself

There would be an interesting book on fixed income to read in English, an article on real estate in French, or the proceedings of a conference in German I had access to all of them.

joining a conference call at unorthodox times of the day or night to accommodate others schedules. A member of the CFA staff recently said to me, Alida, do you remember when you sometimes joined our conference calls late at night or very early in the morning? Well, this organization is now so global that we Americans are the ones who start getting up early in the morning to accommodate your time zones. Working in the investment management profession offers Carcano the opportunity for professional development in a challenging and ever-changing professional eld and the ability to put her interest in foreign languages and cultures into everyday practice. What I like in this job is that it couples nancial markets with dealing with people. It is great to have the opportunity to learn every day about new investment solutions on the one side and meet with different clients from different backgrounds and nationalities on the other side. Crystal Detamore-Rodman is a freelance journalist with a background in small business.

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