‘You’ve got to believe in the mainland story’
James Sun Chen, who was born and raised in Beijing, started his career as a financial consultant for the Manhattan office of Charles Schwab — a San Francisco-based bank and brokerage firm — fresh from university.
He had served in multiple posts over a decade before becoming managing director at Charles Schwab Hong Kong Ltd.
Sun says he really appreciates his stint at an established US bank, and his yearn to return to the Chinese mainland to get involved in its financial services sector had been simmering for years.
The mainland market is now very much like that of the US 20 years ago, Sun reminisces, recalling his time as a veteran financial practitioner in New York. He had seen the encompassing reform on Wall Street in terms of asset management, private equity, hedge funds and quantitative trading.
He had envisaged that such a vigorous revolution would be duplicated in the vast Chinese market, presenting tremendous opportunities.
“And, I want to be part of that when the time comes,” he said when he took over as chief executive officer at Harvest Global Investment in 2015.
It’s a very interesting period for Chinese asset managers, he says, because while many of the established foreign peers have reached maturity, Chinese asset management is still in its youth.
But, he relishes the “vigor” and “entrepreneurship”of Chinese asset managers. Be it an extremely packed two days of brainstorming in a seaside resort in Hainan that would leave him absolutely no time for the stunning sea views, or the some 300 young faces that ardently listen to his speech without a script in Beijing, Sun is heartened to see mainland asset managers “emerging from nothing and growing by leaps and bounds”.
Having said that, he believes that, compared to global asset management houses, the industry is still riding on a steep learning curve with twists and turns.
As the first batch of Chinese asset managers going on a global drive, there are not many examples they can draw lessons from. Sun reckons that the team’s collective wisdom, rather than the leader’s individual judgment, is essential for him to make less mistakes.
He prefers a flat structure in the office, where every employee can speak their minds even for advice that’s harsh for the ear. Be it telling employees off in calling him “Sun Zong” — a presiding Chinese culture among subordinates in addressing their superiors, though such efforts are often futile in its Beijing office — or the habit of interviewing in person every potential employee from management to the entry level.
Sun appreciates new talents with integrity. “Eventually, asset management is people’s business, it’s not just money, but people’s money. Asset managers have to be responsible.”
Global asset managers are much a scene of big foreign names, but Sun sees that, in line with the country’s solid economy, sheer size and renminbi’s internationalization, Chinese asset managers can eventually break into the big bracket and become global players.
“You’ve got to believe in the mainland story.”