Positive vision of the future
Winner of the BDM of the Year Category in the Women in Financial Services Awards 2018, Colonial First State Global Asset Management’s Jeannene O’Day said she was very grateful not just to be nominated, but for all the opportunities she has had along the way in here career and the people who have supported her over the years.
“It’s wonderful to be recognised by your clients and peers,” she said.
Looking back upon her career as a BDM, O’Day said she was most proud about the work she has done with Women in Super in Queensland and as a member of the NSW Committee.
“In Queensland, the Women in Super Melbourne Cup event which I helped curate and support over the years has become an important local industry event that brings our community together to network and raise funds for charities that support women’s causes,” O’Day explained.
“In that way it has created both a great business development opportunity for our industry while doing something wonderful for the local community.
“In NSW the work I have done at the WIS NSW committee level has been incredibly rewarding and I am so proud to be part of an amazing group of women who genuinely believe in making our industry better.”
Discussing her inspiration for taking up a career in financial services, O’Day said it was her second-year university tutor and economics teacher who advised her to apply for entry to the London School of Economics.
“He somehow saw an aptitude or intuition for economics in me. In taking this pathway I developed a love of markets and a curiosity to understand what influences them,” she said.
“I am grateful I had that advice and insight at point in time in my life when I could act on it.”
However, O’Day pointed out that her financial services career has not been without its fair share of challenges, the main hurdle being her own perception of the opportunities, the obstacles and pathways to success.
“Part of this is reinforced by the statistics – and as someone who studied statistics at school, I learned that numbers don’t lie. Overcoming a negative mindset that is fuelled by the facts about female success in making it to the top is a major issue and not just for me,” she said.
“As often as I can I try to focus less on the negatives and more on a positive vision of the future and how to get there.”
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