At ViewTrade, our team is critical to our success – and we want to give them the spotlight they deserve! Check out our interview with Kerri Buggy, Operations Manager, and stay tuned for more employee profiles in the future.
What was your first job?
I worked as a waitress at a local restaurant during my teenage years while I was still in school. This experience taught me valuable life skills and helped me understand the importance of hard work and money. I embarked on my first role in Finance at the young age of 19, as a customer service agent with Barclays Stockbrokers handling client trade instructions and account queries.
Initially, I anticipated only a short stint in this role, but I remained with the company for almost 7 years. Prior to this opportunity, I had no knowledge of stockbroking and had not envisioned it as a career path. However, as I progressed within the company, working on various high-focus projects and secondment roles, I found myself drawn into the field. These experiences proved pivotal, ultimately leading me to a management position at Morgan Stanley. I am grateful for the path I chose and could not imagine working in another field.
What excites you about financial technology today?
Being able to open accounts and trade via mobile phones using digital technology is very exciting. Investors today are accustomed to modern, streamlined experiences thanks to leading consumer brands like Google, Apple, and so on. Whether on their mobile or using a desktop, or anything in between, it’s these apps that promise a unified and intuitive experience on any screen that shape expectations, and I’m excited to join a team that’s bringing more of this kind of powerful user experience to investing.
Where do you see financial technology and finance evolving in the next 5-10 years?
I believe most markets will reduce settlement periods and follow the US moving to T+1 settlement, possibly even moving to distributed ledger technology with instant settlement. I believe there is also a higher demand to access more complex products and unlisted products at a retail level, and bringing these offerings together under the same trusted relationships that investors already have will help to make them a reality.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I was extremely shy as a young child and still as a teenager. I believe the various roles I had as a young teenager and in the early years of my finance career helped boost my confidence—I was pushed out of my comfort zone, and, over time, I learned to manage my anxiety, and I learned techniques to improve my public speaking and handle difficult situations. For these reasons I feel my work experience has been extremely valuable.
