Stephanie Flodrops

Q: Why did you join Barclays Wealth?
A: Barclays proposed the opportunity to have an accelerated career path to become a private banker. They also proposed some jobs to people with different kinds of backgrounds and they were especially favourable of carrying out change. And thirdly Barclays is at the beginning of a new era and they have many exploratory plans which makes me very confident to join at the moment.

Q: What have you been doing since you joined?
A: So I joined Barclays five months ago. I spent two months in London in a global training programme and then joined my team in Geneva where I am located at the moment, catching up with all the procedures, processes and getting a broad overview of the responsibilities of private bankers and private banking executives.

Q: What does your current role involve?
My role at the moment is to catch up with all the dimensions of both the private bankers and the PB Executive’s responsibilities. That is to say being able to do everything through the systems we have, performing all the transactions, understanding the processes of portfolio restructuring, so working with investment specialist teams and also attending some client meetings with the private bankers. So that is to prepare the meeting, attend the meeting and then debrief the meeting.

Q: What did you do yesterday?
A: Yesterday I met with my senior banker and the investment specialist I am working with, and the manager of one of the company’s discretionary portfolios who is in charge at the moment of getting some feedback from the local offices. So we discussed the past performances and current issues with regards to marketing to client, with regards to the performance and tried to gather some proposals for the evolution of this product. I also, performed a whole bunch of transactions in the context of restructuring the complete portfolio of a client. So that is selling all the positions he had and then transforming and buying some new positions in different kinds of assets. So, working differently with the PBEs, the advisors, and the traders, to perform this task.

Q: What qualities do you need to work here?
A: I would think about two main qualities. The first one would be the adaptability. Barclays is a very fast changing environment and I think you need to be able to adapt to new systems, new organisations all the time, and be flexible with this environment. And the second quality would be coordinating qualities. Being in a front office position you need to be able to work with very different types of people, from the back office, from the investment team, from the trading team, from the credit team, from people in your office, and with people from London as well. So I would say the ability network with as many people as possible and get along with all the people you are going to work with on a day to day basis.

Q: Why should someone come and work at Barclays Wealth?
A: Barclays Wealth is a very meritocratic environment as are Barclays Capital and BGI. Secondly, Barclays Wealth is a very international working environment. At the moment I am working with people from Spain, Italy, the Middle East, Africa as well. And thirdly, it is very entrepreneurial, there is a lot to do and people do rely on you to bring in new ideas in the workplace.