Διευθυντής τμήματος επενδύσεων, ΕΑΤΕ

Having a lesson-giving career about fund management, AP learned that this profession goes well beyond the obvious and is both a science as well as an art; science in the sense that one needs all the technical, legal, regulatory and reporting knowledge that goes with the job; art in the sense that one must master the interpersonal skills that aid the management of groups of people. This list includes but is not limited to motivational, disciplinarian, cooperative, social as well as psychological skills that enable one to lead, and to lead by example.

This career can be broadly separated in two periods. The first period (Eurobank and European Reliance) is predominated by day-to-day asset management under the mutual funds and/or segregated accounts’ discipline. This period gave lessons on how to manage risk and bring satisfactory results to all those people that entrusted their wealth to professional management. It also highlighted the importance of formulating sound strategies and then following them in a heavily regulated environment, the need for a clear chain of command, and the importance of role assignment and complementarity of skills in a group of colleagues. The second period (VC funds and HDBI) can be characterized as venture capital/private equity/ fund-of-funds type of management, which – although in good use of all previously formulated skills – also demanded strong interpersonal and negotiating skills, as the fund manager needs to be directly involved with each and every one of the holdings of the portfolio or the fund managers that manage the portfolios of the fund-of-funds, as well as the shareholders of the venture(s).