People & ideas at Deutsche Börse
Release date: 09 Nov 2020
In our "Settled in" series, our colleagues who have decided to start their careers at Deutsche Börse Group share their journeys with us. Next, Caden Lee from the Equity & Index Sales unit at Eurex tells us about his experiences and personal milestones within the company.
Why did you want to start your career at Eurex?
My interest in the financial markets was first ignited when I read about derivatives and financial engineering. Being an engineer by training, sophisticated concepts have always intrigued me, hence my love for derivatives which only grew as I got more familiar with this instrument. Eurex stood out to me in particular since it is by far one of the most innovative derivatives exchanges in the world. My experience during my six-months internship with Eurex reaffirmed this impression, and I see great opportunities to build up expertise in listed derivatives by starting my journey at this company.
You have previously been a Derivatives Sales and Project intern in 2018. What made you decide to join the team full time in 2019?
Some attributes which drew me to Eurex Asia are the spirit, teamwork and the diversity of the team. The team is relatively young and is always bustling with energy. Despite being separated into different cities (Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing and Dubai), everyone remains approachable, even towards the interns, and is always ready to help and share knowledge with one another.
From my few internship experiences in different fields and locations, my Eurex internship was the most culturally diverse. Despite being a small team, we have people from different nationalities and backgrounds. The intercultural communication at Eurex helped broaden my perspective and it was one of the most valuable skills I acquired during the internship, which I am very grateful for.
The overall environment of the Eurex Asia team was nurturing and embracing, which is why when I was given the privilege to join the team, I accepted without hesitation!
What are your main tasks?
As a sales and business analyst, I support the sales colleagues in daily sales processes such as building sales materials for client outreach and attending to clients’ requests regarding product and market structure information. As operations are managed internally by the sales team, I also support the team in improving the operational efficiency and achieving optimisation. This can be done through digital transformation – bringing in new tools (e.g. python programming) and implementing automation. As Asia is very segmented and there are different requirements on the various markets (Greater China, South Korea, Japan and South East Asia), the sales processes can be very complex. To achieve this, I have the task to organise the student interns as a sales support team that is equipped to respond to the different requirements in each country.
One of your responsibilities is managing a team of interns and students across Singapore and Hong Kong. How did this challenge influence your professional and personal growth?
Being a mentor to the student interns at Eurex has been a valuable experience to me in both my personal and professional growth. Firstly, being given the privilege to organise the interns helps me to learn faster about our business, since I am the first point of contact for all their questions and for their trainings. It keeps me on my toes to constantly challenge my knowledge and broaden it, to achieve a strong fundamental knowledge that can be passed on to them.
Being a mentor also makes me a more empathetic person. Working closely with the interns, I need to consider their situation, their abilities to manage steep learning curves and their morale. It is important to always step back and think about my approaches on how to keep them motivated and provide them with the best experience. Overall, this privilege helps with making me be a better individual.
What do you enjoy especially about working in Singapore?
For fintech enthusiasts, Singapore is a great place to work in as it is a hub where different financial technologies and innovations come together. There are communities made up of start-up members who share their expertise in their respective domains. Many of these topics are extremely relevant to Deutsche Börse Group and Eurex. Being in Singapore helps one to gain good perspective on how these emerging technologies may change the market infrastructure in the near future.
Also, Singapore is a connecting point between South East Asia and the rest of the world. It’s a one-stop shop to different cuisines, such as Thai, Vietnamese and the local food, which makes every meal as exciting as can be.
