Weinberg College
of Arts & Sciences

Waldron Career Conversation with Prashant Bhayani '91: Working Abroad in Finance

This episode of the Weinberg in the World Podcast features a conversation with Prashant Bhayani '91, who is currently the Chief Investment Officer at BNP Paribas after Graduating from Northwestern with an Economics Major.

Prashant shares insights on the value of a diverse education, business internships, his first job after a recession, developing a career abroad, his role as a Chief Investment Officer, his small town background, learning to communicate effectively!

1:00: The breadth of options at Weinberg College
4:05: Internships
5:30: First Job
7:10: Transitioning to working overseas
10:30: Working in Asset Management
13:05: Adjusting from a small town and the considerations of a global career
18:10: The Value of Arts & Sciences in Finance
22:50: The Northwestern Network

Cassie:
Welcome to the Weinberg in the World podcast, where we bring you stories of interdisciplinary thinking in today's complex world. This episode is brought to you by the Waldron student Alumni Connections program, a resource in Weinberg College where we help current students explore career options through making connections with alumni. Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Prashant Bhayani, who graduated from Weinberg College in 1991 with a degree in economics. He is currently the chief investment officer of BNP Paribas. And Prashant, thanks so much for being here with us today.

Prashant Bhayani:
Thanks, Cassie, for having me. It's my pleasure.

Cassie:
And we're excited to chat more about what you're up to today as a chief investment officer, but we always like to start our episodes with your student experience. And if you can share with us just a little bit more about your time at Northwestern and what were some of the impactful classes, internships, extracurriculars that you participated in that kind of helped you figure out what you might want to do with your post-grad path?

Prashant Bhayani:
Yeah, great question, Cassie. I wish I could go back. This will be a little bit of a journey back in time. So I'd say when I think back about the classes and in particular Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, what I remember most is the breadth of the offering. And there's depth of course in whatever you want to specialize in. Eventually for me it was economics as a major. But what I remember the most is actually courses I also took outside my major. I originally got interested in economics through macroeconomics course in my freshman year. So that led me to get more and more interested in economics. And I really enjoyed that by learning about the economy, learning about inflation, interest rates, and how the whole puzzle of the economy comes together. And that was interesting and it really juiced kind of my interest in that space.
But I would say I took many courses outside that that really stay with me now. So a very interesting course, Intro to Buddhism, where you take something, you learn about a philosophy of life and actually you can relate to it and it's different than something you grew up with and it makes you think outside the normal way of thinking. And I work in Asia now, for example, so I come across Buddhism, so the more often than I expected. So I'm still interested in it, but I found it just fascinating as a course and something that when you read that book, it wasn't as much fun. You were doing homework that night. It was just something that was more intellectually interesting.
Another course, European History was a specific course where a professor was just amazing at storytelling, so she could take you back in time in a way that was different than any textbook could ever do and almost like you could feel like the fact that what it was like to live in the Medieval Ages in Europe in the plague and different things like that. And I always had an interest in history, but the way storytold, the way she told it stayed with me till now and of course some of those lessons. But in any course, there are professors that are better than others and she was one clearly that left a mark and that led me to take other courses in that area as well.
And it also, I had a related interest in other social science, political science, so poly sci is another area where I liked reading about news and current events. But this actually gave me the foundation and knowledge and reading about different types of political science theory. And it's so relevant now. I mean, I think since I started, just before I left, we had the '89 Berlin Wall falling, which was a seminal event. And now look, we're almost in a partial reversal with what's happening with Ukraine. So everything's come full circle where it was all about globalization and democracy and spreading of capitalism, and that is now being challenged. So I go back to some of the lessons I learned in political science and how the cycles around some of these political models and that hits home even now. So those are some of the courses that stuck with me.

Cassie:
Man, I want to go back to college now too, after hearing more about these courses. It's so fun to hear about the specifics and some of those professors who had that impact on you.

Prashant Bhayani:
Yeah, that was great. And then you asked also about internships. So there's one on the business side, I did an internship back then down near the Chicago border trade, so downtown Chicago. So I was fortunate enough to get one that was close to Evanston with, at the time, Shearson Lehman Hutton, which is the precursor to Lehman Brothers, which was valuable to really just getting an introduction to finance, getting an introduction to what it means to go to and see what financial advisors, the pressure they're under, the kind of information they take in every day, how it's fast-paced, how it's challenging, how no day is a normal day. I know it's a cliche, but you got a taste of that.
And I just also, I enjoyed being downtown, so you get a taste of what it's like someday when you graduate. And I came from a small town, but I always thought in the back of my mind, you see the social life, you see the restaurants like everybody. So you just get a taste of what you're going to get when you leave university. So I enjoyed that whole experience and that also led me to focus more and more on the banking side before graduation.

Cassie:
Yeah, that's great. That's really helpful and to hear more about some of the specifics of the internship that helped you kind of consider that path for yourself. And next, I'd love to dive into your first job and hear a little bit more about where you started your career after graduation and what did you learn from that? Was it a good fit? How did that impact your path from there?

Prashant Bhayani:
Sure. No, that's a great question. So I still remember because I graduated in 1991, so it was actually we were coming out of a recession then. I was looking in banking and banks were not doing so well. And I found this position with Chase Manhattan Bank in a corporate banking program through the on-campus recruitment in the end. So you had to be persistent, you had to take rejection well. I still remember getting rejection letters and I believe Norris had a bar where you could go and get a ding letter. They called it a ding letter and you get a free beer. So I remember that the most.
But it was really great because it was a global program, so there were people from all over the US, so good universities, Ivy League and other universities like Northwestern. And then there were also people from MBA schools as well, like Wharton and others, and it was people from overseas. So it was a global banking program, but the international people trained with us for a year. It gave me a foundation to rotate in different areas of banking. And I didn't know exactly which area of course I was interested in when I first joined, but over the two years I was there, that gave me on the job experience to understand, okay, where do I want to be as I come through and out of this program? So that was my first job experience.

Cassie:
And how did that impact your path from there as training ground for your next steps? Because I know you mentioned you're now working in Asia, you're in Singapore. Can you share a little bit more about the steps from there to get to Singapore where you are today?

Prashant Bhayani:
Yeah, that's a great question. So like anything, the first job, it was a good fit, but then I looked in another, I was interested in asset management, portfolio management. I switched to another firm in New York after a few years at Chase Manhattan and I was fortunate enough to do that. And I had an interest in working in London, and I'll get to how I got to Asia in a second. I worked a few more years in New York after Chase and they had a London office and I put my hand up and I had shown an interest in going and I got transferred to London. I loved being in Europe, traveling in Europe, different cultures, different business cultures, different languages obviously. You could go very interesting places at the weekend, holidays. But work-wise was also very stimulating because I worked with a very international group of people.
And frankly, Americans were common, but they weren't dominant. So you had to adapt to working with English, people from England, people from France, people from other parts of the world. And London over that time period became a business center of Europe from the late '90s they entered, the EU is expanding and there was a lot of deregulation. Again, we came full circle now Brexit. So we talk about how political cycles can change. But it was a fantastic time and I thought I'd come back to the US after a year or two and I ended up loving London and I ended up going instead of coming back to the US where I deferred some MBA admissions, I joined INSEAD in France and then came back to London in 1999, worked for Goldman Sachs as an equity portfolio [inaudible 00:08:43] I spent a fair amount of my career.
And to make a long story short, I eventually met my future wife in London who's from Singapore, so from Asia, but I'd only been to Asia visiting my in-laws. And a job opportunity sometime later 2011 had come up in Asia and I actually wasn't completely frankly looking in Asia. But then as I came out here and I learned more about the growth in Asia, of course, which we all know about how the economies are growing, China, and one thing led to another, and I also had family relationships here even though I'd never lived here. So I ended up taking a role out here at that time with JPMorganChase, so back to Chase, but with JPMorganChase and before joining BNP Paribas.
So it was a combination really the opportunities of I had a family connection, but more importantly was the opportunity also to work in my third continent, explore even very different cultures from European, Western cultures, even European and US cultures actually seem more similar, dare I say that, being in Asia. But obviously Asia's that much further away and there's also a huge complexity of cultures here. And I have an Asian background, my parents are from India. So even though I did not grow up in India at all, I was born in the US and I'm second generation, I guess that background made me more adaptable as well as Northwestern's experience.

Cassie:
Yeah, that's great and really interesting to hear about some of these moves and I love hearing about the interesting aspects of London and what brought you to Singapore. And for students who are considering careers in finance, can you share just a little bit more about your role today? And I know you mentioned being interested in asset management earlier on in your career. What are some of the specifics you're doing today that you can share with students who are considering finance more broadly but want to learn more about the ins and outs?

Prashant Bhayani:
Finance is a broad space. So when you think about finance, there are different areas. There's investment banking, there's asset management, there's wealth management, there's trading roles. When I think about how you do it is I think as a student you need to talk to people you need to talk to. I know there are a number of clubs at Northwestern, Investment Banking Club, Economics Club, there's an Investment Management club. And I think that gives you an introduction to what involves in some ways in some of these organizations and functions and areas. I think other ways is through alumni and through networking with Northwestern alums and other people in that industry, talking to them. Because it's one thing to read about in a textbook or watch a podcast, but it's another to have lunch or a coffee with someone. And I think the Northwestern alumna is very valuable. It's global. There are people across industries including finance. So I would say that also helps.
And then frankly, the internships, you have extracurriculars, but internships also are key because I think that shows, it gives you real taste and your perception and reality also is different where you start on the totem pole and where you go over time also. And I think the internship type opportunities give you a real taste. And some people will, I went to school with a lot of engineers, my MBA, and they were career changing because they ended up realizing they want to move, get an MBA, then use their engineering degree, but do other things with it. So I think the internship also gives you an idea of how to apply some of your degrees. And frankly, finance takes people with mathematics backgrounds, it takes people with liberal arts backgrounds, writing backgrounds, English backgrounds, a mix. So different areas of finance can utilize different skill sets, and I think that also helps you learn.

Cassie:
Yeah, absolutely. Getting a feel for it on the job with those internships is such a value add. And at Northwestern, there's just so many opportunities. I was just speaking with some folks who did some Chicago field studies internships during their academic experience that they were speaking very highly of as well. So absolutely great recommendation for students. And I know you mentioned you grew up in a small town in Illinois and then now you've spent most of your career in these big international cities. And I'm sure there are unique aspects to reflect on around a global career. And I'm wondering if you can just share a little bit more about your experience growing up in Illinois and then moving abroad for your career.

Prashant Bhayani:
I'd say, yeah, growing up in a small town, I still have that informal close-knit when you go back home. And I grew up in a town called Bourbonnais, which is about 60, 70 miles south of downtown Chicago. I kind of knew I wanted to maybe work in Chicago or New York or something like that, especially being in finance after graduation. I didn't quite dream of being abroad this long and for this time opportunity. So that's how life's twists and turns can take. If you're focused on a global career and there's also international students who perhaps also looking abroad to come back to as Northwestern is a very international place, but also I think it's really valuable because you don't have to spend 20, 30 years, 25 plus years like me abroad, even if I had spent two years in London and gone back, which I had many American colleagues do, they still remember it because you've lived in a place, you've tasted it, they're stereotypes and those aren't necessarily correct.
And I think it's valuable. So even if you get a couple of years and you want to go back because you want to be closer to home, you want to be closer to your parents, I think that's a challenge. For me, knock on wood, my parents have been in relatively good health, so it made it easier. They traveled a lot to see me, especially when I was in London and places like that. So they enjoyed visiting and they would do other things. That also is a consideration as part of a global career.
But I think the way firms operate is the world's getting smaller. And when I was starting my career, it wasn't as small as now. With technology, now you can work anywhere, you can work remote. That option was not available to me. So I think even global is interesting, but you have companies in the US and other places of the world or tech companies are leading the way where, oh, you can work from anywhere for three months. Well, that's a hybrid way of doing what I did. You can go to Barcelona or you can go to Sydney or wherever you'd like. So I think that's another way to look at it. And I think companies are becoming more flexible. The finance industry is a bit more conservative than perhaps the tech industry, but they're all changing because it's a war for talent. So I think as a Northwest graduate, upcoming graduate and a student right now, I think your starting point is actually fascinating because I couldn't dream of not commuting by subway to work or public transport. And obviously we know the pandemic has really accelerated that with technology.
But the great thing about Northwestern is that it attracts a lot of global corporates, consulting firms, banks, technology companies, engineering firms, consumer goods. And a lot of global corporates are based in New York, they're based in Chicago, they're based in all over the US, but they have huge operations overseas, in particular in Europe and Asia. So I think again, you can leverage the Northwestern foundation to start exploring that. And you can start in the US and go abroad. It is really all about internal mobility. And I find now as well as a junior person at a company, you're asked much more and managers are better trained and not all managers are effective managers by any means, but much more enlightened than perhaps when I started where it was buttoned down, it was more structured. You left after your boss left. That's not the culture now.
So I think that means there's more career mobility. You can say what you want earlier, the keys are you performing. If you're performing, those opportunities open up. And I think Northwestern students obviously are used to performing well and they're thought of as well. And I think the brand of Northwestern, including Kellogg and other related areas, Northwestern Law, it all helps because those people are across industries. So it's not even just your undergrad, but what I find is just that Northwestern network in general is helpful.

Cassie:
Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate you sharing these perspectives of just how different the environment is right now for our current students graduating in a post-pandemic or into a pandemic economy and how it has evolved even a conservative industry like finance. Because I think we were having some conversations with folks in finance in the early days of the pandemic and they're in the office, they're like, "We never left." And I was like, wow, it's just fascinating. Whereas tech is like, we're programming anywhere. Like you said, you could work abroad for three months and then come back. So it is interesting to hear you share. It is a war for talent now two years, two and a half years later, having to be adaptable to what the new graduating classes are asking for because I think they're looking at the industry to say, okay, what is the norm here? But also this is what we're interested in and hopefully can meet in the middle. It's just a fascinating time for graduates. Absolutely.
And Prashant, you had mentioned early on something that you enjoyed about Northwestern was just the breadth of the experience. You mentioned some of these really interesting courses in Buddhism and history. I'm curious if you can share how the arts and sciences background has been an asset to you in your particular work.

Prashant Bhayani:
One of the things I found the most valuable about Weinberg is the ability to think laterally, connect the dots. I work in an industry where things aren't black and white and as is most industries in situations. I work as a chief investment officer and investment strategist. So you have to be able to analyze economies, sometimes politics, you have to analyze company information. And it's uncertain. You have to make forecasts, but your confidence in that forecast is not 100%. You can't score 100% on a quiz or a test even obviously. So if you're right two thirds of the time, you're probably in the top 25%. So it's a humbling business as well.
But I found that when I look back at my Northwestern experience, more than even the MBA, because MBA is practical learning, it's very useful, but it's practical. Well, when I think about undergraduate, I think about what we talked about, history, political science, economics, but then also learning about philosophy. Also of course now, comp sci, Python skills, very important. Also, quantitative skills have become more important. We know how important coding and other facilities, so I don't want to leave out the quantitative and computer science side because depending on your interest, those are extremely in demand, more in demand than when I graduated. They were in demand. I remember MMSS people, they were very in demand. But the skill set in general, beyond that, as you include some of the other computers, is very much in demand. So round yourself out where you have interests.
For me, connecting those dots really helped by taking the social sciences with the economics and the econometrics and the mathematical disciplines, which I took as well and the courses. But it's really, I think the social sciences that found me to think, write. So I write research reports, but it's not about writing 30, 50, 100 pages. Can you take complex context and put them out simply? Can you make a case? Can you make it... In some cases, people's attention span, I know the younger generation will know this better than us. My generation's attention span is shorter. You have to make your point quicker. Can you get across your three points, bull or bear case on equity market in a one page and make it entertaining?
Otherwise in this Twitter world, see you later. They're going to move to something that's engaging. So I think the bar is higher. At the same time, the tool set of just, I know it's going to sound cliche again, but it's like the reading, writing, be able to do that in an effective way, summarizing but in an effective way but that's also entertaining, matters. Because you can have all the knowledge and all the research, and have done all the quantitative work, but in cases where you can't get it across effectively, and I'm in a role where I also have to speak to clients, I have to speak to the media, I have to be a thought leader, a brand ambassador, and it takes time. You don't learn this in one year. I had plenty of failures to learn from. And then that's how you get better. That is key. And public speaking is key.
And I know Northwestern, there's a lot of courses where it depends on the coursework where you're doing or not doing that. But I think that skillset is also underrated probably. It's important in interviews, being able to express yourself, summarize your resume in a way that's interesting, but also informative for the person you're meeting. So I'd say those skillsets improved dramatically in Northwestern because the quality of the students. I came from a small town in Illinois, and the quality of the people I met, I mean, forced me to raise my level. And I wasn't the number one in every course like you were in high school. And that's going to be the same thing when you go work for a large corporate with a competitive program. We've recruited a lot of other bright graduates, so that never ends. But it also raises your bar. And to make a long story short, I thought, and I'm biased because I went to Weinberg, but Weinberg gives you many of those options we spoke about.

Cassie:
Absolutely. I love hearing that, the assets of the arts and sciences, both the hard skills but also how to think and how to write and communicate succinctly. I think that's really helpful for students to hear because so often you're thinking, what am I doing? And is this worth it? And writing these papers or whatever it is, and it is. It is all worth it in the end. It all helps. And I know, Prashant, another piece of advice, I have one more question for you. And you had mentioned some great advice earlier about networking and connecting with alumni. I'm wondering if you have any fun stories of how the Northwestern network has supported you and your career after graduation?

Prashant Bhayani:
When I was in the corporate banking side, I was interested in asset management and I used that network. So back then it was a little bit more manual, how to access it and just when the internet was taking off so it got better. So in New York there was a Northwestern, there were drinks, social, so there were other graduates in New York, for example, because obviously a number of people working. So that was fantastic. So one of my best friends was a year ahead of me at Chase and who also went to Northwestern, who I didn't know really that well at Northwestern being a big enough school. So he became my mentor and he was in the same company but a year ahead of me. So that proved valuable. And then him and I obviously met and socialized and frankly drank and partied and went out to restaurants and dinner was with lot of Northwestern students and other schools as well in New York.
So you meet people from other Ivys and just other schools in general. And that helped tremendously because as I networked to move into asset management, I utilized that. And I think it's underrated because these were my friends first in many cases. But then when you need your friends, you can reach out and say, "Hey, do you know someone that works in asset management I can talk to?" And then if it's a friend of a friend, they'll open the door because for obvious reasons. And I think when you're young, you don't think about that as much. And I think now again with social media, LinkedIn, other tools, you can do it that way as well, which is helpful. But I think the old-fashioned way still has some merits in terms of look up the Northwestern alumni in your city and they're all over the world. There's one in Singapore that I've been to. Even now I go and people are a lot younger than me in it. So that's a valuable network.
And I think through that network, you meet many like-minded people across different industries, especially a lot of people. Some people are going to want to move industries, they're going to want to move. You may not like banking or you may like something more or you may like something, the technology, you want to do something entrepreneurial. A huge amount of people are doing entrepreneurial things. And I think utilizing that both informally, building that informal network and then that formal network, it really paid off. Despite all the drinking sessions, other things, it actually ended up being some of these people are my best friends now, even years later, some from Northwestern and some through that network I met from Northwestern.

Cassie:
Yeah, I love hearing about those different aspects to networking, the informal with your friends and the formal with these different groups and how both can really play into both career success, but satisfaction just with work-life balance and whatnot. That's really fun to hear. And Prashant, you shared so many great insights with us today. We really appreciate you for being here with us and sharing more about your career path. So thank you again for joining us.

Prashant Bhayani:
Thank you, Cassie. And I encourage all the students to enjoy those years at Northwestern. They're fantastic and they pass by so quickly.

Cassie:
Thanks for listening. If you want to hear more of these conversations, links to the full videos and podcasts are below. For more information about Weinberg College and this podcast, visit weinberg.northwestern.edu and search for Waldron. As always, we would love to hear your feedback. Please email us with your thoughts on the program. Have a great day. And go Cats.