On April 11, we were honoured to have Erin Chen, CFA, CAIA, Associate Investment Counsellor at RBC PH&N Investment Counsel as our DSS speaker. Erin specializes in constructing and managing customized discretionary investment portfolios for high net worth investors, corporations, trusts and charitable foundations.


Considering the nature of the job, investment counsellor will have plenty of interaction with clients. Thus, do investment counsellors need a certain type of personality? Erin believes comparing to a certain type of personality, it’s more important to understand clients needs. Most counsellors are more active to listen rather than speak.
Audience were also impressed by Erin’s presentation skills and they were wondering how Erin improves her language skills as an ESL. Erin suggested that it is quite helpful to go to public speaking events such as New Horizon Voices Toastmasters. Another tip is that enthusiasm is as important as presentation content.
Erin was also asked to share some experiences about “managing up”. Erin says she would proactively update her progress with her manager. It is also essential to find yourself a long-term relationship mentor that you can talk to when you are in dilemma.
The Distinguished Speaker Session provided the audience with a valuable opportunity to communicate with experienced professional in financial industry. We hope everyone has learnt something from Erin’s experience. We sincerely appreciate Erin’s time and look forward to our next speaker event.
The successful event was hammered by the efforts from our volunteers. Great thanks to all the volunteers who have contributed to this event.
We would also appreciate the author of this review Molly Li. Molly Li is currently working as a consultant and project manager at First Derivatives. Before that, she worked with a Regulatory Initiatives group and a project team to automate regulatory reporting and provide optimized workflows solutions at Scotiabank. Molly has a bachelor’s degree with major in Mathematics from University of British Columbia and a Master of Economics from University of Toronto.