June leads the Finance and Middle Office recruiting functions at Principle Partners, including Legal and Compliance, Operations and Office Managers/Executive Assistants, ranging from Manager to Executive level. June has been proactively connecting and mapping out talent in Asset Management, Hedge Funds and Alternative Investments across Asia for the past 10 years at Principle Partners.
Prior to joining Principle Partners, June spent 7 years of her career at PwC as an Auditor. June, who is a Singaporean, holds a Bachelor of Business in Accountancy from RMIT and is a Chartered Accountant of Singapore.
June will be live to answer your questions on the 6th October.
Hello June. After many years behind and in front of the scenes in banking I am thinking that the time may have come to reinvent myself as an executive assistant to someone looking for an assist. But is this a viable route when an agentic ai might be more helpful than I can ever be? Also what skills might I need? I cannot do shorthand.
I want to ask. Do you think we will still have recognisable Compliance & Operations people in the next 2,5, or 10 years? I do not think AI will leave much room for this. There must be some concern in the industry that it will simply not exist as a profession very soon, much like chimney sweeps.
Thanks for your time. Below are my questions related to IT for you:
Are Banks really relying on AI and engineers who have these skillset to make it a revenue matter in live production? ie with the core engines/adapters of the bank that needs maintenance, enhancements , support etc. ( pls exclude chat bots or risk detections or repetitive OPS tasks, quick and deliverables etc.)
In case Banks are not trusting or spending on AI much , why is there scarcity of Jobs in the market even in Finance Tech.
what in your opinion are best Jobs to look for(In finance) with the skill set that relies heavily on human critical thinking, reasoning, aptitude and judgments based past work experience ?
I do see a genuine need for EAs, particularly in mid-sized to large organisations that are willing to invest in a dedicated headcount rather than outsource everything to AI. That said, the barrier to entry can be quite high, especially within investment firms, where mid-level hires are often expected to already have experience in calendar management, travel arrangements and supporting senior executives. For someone making a mid-career switch, it can therefore be difficult to compete directly with experienced EAs, unless they come through a recommendation or find someone willing to take a bet on transferable skills and potential. I’ve seen successful cases like this before, so it’s certainly possible. And I wouldn’t worry too much about shorthand - today, organisation, discretion, communication, attention to detail, stakeholder management and being comfortable with technology are far more relevant.
Wow, that’s a bit of a crystal-ball question! From what I’m seeing today, I don’t think Compliance & Operations will disappear, but the nature of the roles will certainly change. If people aren’t already using AI in their work, or at least adapting to it over the next couple of years, there is a real risk of becoming less relevant. I don’t necessarily think people will be replaced directly by AI; rather, employees who don’t adopt technology and aren’t effective at using tools like AI will increasingly be replaced by people who are more tech-savvy, more efficient and able to leverage AI to do more with less. So I think the profession will remain, but the skill set required will look very different in 5-10 years.
I’ve always love this question! I actually stumbled into recruitment rather than choosing it as a planned career path. The year I left audit, I had a hospitalisation eipsode that gave me a rare window of time (finally, after 7 years of relentless audit days) to pause and think about what I wanted to do for at least the next five years of my career. I realised I didn’t want to continue in accounting, nor did I want to pursue another audit or finance-related role. I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do next, and that was when I like to think God (I’m not a Christian by the way, but I do believe in divine powers haha) opened a door for me. I happened to meet my current founders at a bar while they were out with one of our Private Equity clients, and somehow that conversation led me into recruitment. Everything else is history! And yes, I do enjoy it more, it’s much more people-driven (which aligns closely with my personality!), unpredictable and entrepreneurial, which suits me far better than audit ever did.
I think a good back-office professional is someone who is highly reliable, detail-oriented and process-driven, with a strong control mindset and the ability to ensure transactions, reconciliations, settlements, NAV, accounting and other BAU processes are completed accurately and efficiently. A good middle-office professional needs many of the same qualities, but I would expect more product knowledge, analytical ability and judgement because they sit closer to the investment process and often needs to understand whether something actually makes sense rather than simply whether it has been processes correctly.
I don’t think dedicated FCC roles are particularly common within hedge funds. AML/KYC and sanctions tend to sit within a broader compliance function, so hedge funds are hiring a compliance manager or officer who has strong financial crime expertise rather than a pure FCC specialist.