Alumni Interview

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your time at Strathallan

After graduating from Strathallan, I did my undergrad at the University of Edinburgh studying BSc (Hons) Geology, which is something I personally had an interest in from a very young age. I like everything outdoors. Since the pandemic, I've gone back to Hong Kong (where I am originally am from) and have started doing a lot of trail running, scrambling, bouldering, and camping. In the colder months here I'm always running around mountains and participating in trail races, and I try to go camping twice a month. I also like classical music and play the cello and piano.

My friends always say I'm an ambitious person who always plans for the future. I'm hardworking when I need to be, the rest of the time I just like to have fun, spend time camping and being on the mountains, exploring the city, and also shopping.

I was in Glenbrae (G'17), and I think most people then knew me because I was extremely active in the music scene. I was a music scholar and played in the orchestras. I remember always asking teachers if I could play at dinners because of how much I loved performing. My fondest memories were definitely of House Music, which forged a sense of belonging to our houses. Tell us about your role at Ernst & Young

I work as a consultant in Green Finance, essentially, it’s any financial activity that supports green or environmental activities. I'm in a fast-growing team of around 20 sustainability professionals, providing green finance assurance services for green and sustainable products. Our role is to verify that the bond or loan is 'green' or 'sustainable' according to established international principles. We also provide climate risk and ESG integration services for investment funds, banks, and corporations, as well as climate policies and risk assessment tools for financial institutions to better govern climate-related risks and understand material risks within their portfolio.

Tell us what inspired you to get involved in the field of Climate Change I've always been involved in environmental projects and initiatives, and my degree in Geology was related to climate change and the environment as well. In my dissertation I wrote about microplastic contamination in aquifers, where I learnt more about the seriousness and widespread pollution we are producing. When I graduated and was offered the role at EY it was quite natural for me to accept it.

What have been your career highlights?

My career highlight to date has to be when I was in a team of five that won the EY FY22 Asia Pacific Recognition Program award, for an engagement with a leading global bank in a series of large scale green financial products.

In life and work there are always challenges and we are always learning. Early on in my role I often found I was making careless mistakes and ended up doing things the wrong way, however now that I'm more than a year into my career, I have learnt so much and rarely get that anymore.

What impact did the pandemic have on you and your career?

The pandemic helped me start my career. I graduated in the middle of the pandemic (May 2021) and since there was absolutely nowhere, I could possibly travel to, I started working. If the pandemic hadn’t happened who knows what I would have been doing, maybe I would have taken a bit more time for myself before working. Due to the pandemic, many companies have found that working from home is often way more efficient than working in the office. That's why even now I still have flexible working locations, which I really enjoy. What advice would you give anyone who wants to work in Green Finance?

Study something environment related, and if you want to do something related to green finance, do some finance courses at university. Then it will be much easier for you to understand all the financial terms you encounter at work. It’s also important to read the news! The industry is changing at a rapid pace, so you need to make sure you are on top of all the trends! There are always new ESG regulations and in our team we have to monitor and study any new developments related to our scope of work, and offer it as a product to potential clients.