Zhengfang Yu, also known as Sven, graduated from Wenzhou-Kean University in May 2016 as a part of the inaugural commencement class. Since graduating, Yu has been employed by UBS, a Swiss global financial services company.
Yu has always excelled in math, even going to the point of asking his math professor to move up to the next level, since he already understood what was being taught during the time. After being tested, he was able to study a more advanced math, where he was both challenged and assisted by his professor.
“At first, I didn’t know some of the formulas, but my professor taught me independently to help me catch up. Finally I studied very well and got an A [in the class],” recalled Yu. “[I feel] very grateful to have such a professor [during my] college life.”
Just like most graduates, Yu misses his roommates during his undergraduate years.
“We studied together, played together and lived together every day,” he said. “They are in the United States for graduate school now, so I really miss the great time we spent together.”
Wenzhou-Kean University did its best to prepare each and every student for their future education and career. Yu was one of the many students who were guided by Wenzhou-Kean to be where he is now at UBS Investment Bank.
“The most helpful thing Kean provides me is the courage to communicate. Everyone in WKU did presentations in class [spoken] in English. We learned to talk about our opinions in public, share ideas with teammates and even argue with professors,” said Yu. “We will get into random groups and would need to learn to study together [as] unfamiliar classmates to finish projects.”
Yu related this experience to his current job.
He said, “When I’m at work, I’m not afraid to deliver a speech before other employees. I know the proper way to communicate to all kinds of people. Communication is really a necessary skill at work. It helps save a lot of time and can better solve plenty of issues.”
During this past year, Yu has worked as a financial analyst for the middle office EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) shift. Initially, Yu worked on the equity derivatives trade capture team. For them, he did a daily trade booking into the settlement system and relevant investigations between the settlement system and risk control system. In addition, he calculated floating rates for swaps with life-cycle coupon payment, as well as mutual and hedge funds contract note booking and amount discrepancy investigation.
Now, Yu works in the equity pre-regulatory reporting team. There, he solves daily issues during regulatory reporting and analyzes root causes for exceptions. He also advises the reporting rules of different jurisdictions to UBS employees, such as notional check and analysis for all reputable UBS trades while providing feedback for UBS’s performance by volume change for different types of products.
“I’m not thinking about my ‘ultimate career goal’ just yet,” Yu said. “As of now, I’m still a new addition to the company. I will first learn to be the task owner and then later become the leader of my team. For an ultimate goal, I think I would like to be the CEO in China’s branch of UBS, if possible? I’d want to play a significant role in development of China’s financial industry, so when people talk about UBS, they will think of me.”
From a student in Wenzhou, China to a worker for UBS Investment Bank, Yu has achieved the dream of many finance majors. As he has shown, it is possible to achieve such goals.
Next time when someone mentions UBS Investment Bank, think about Zhengfang Yu and his journey to go anywhere, starting from Wenzhou-Kean University.
