Loveth Itohan Obozokhai

I attribute my success to my parents. I'm a first-generation graduate and first-generation undergraduate. My parents, unfortunately, did not go to university, but they wanted me to go. I did go, I'm currently in graduate school, and I'm doing very well in my career. Even though they didn't go to school themselves, they wanted me to get to the top of my career. Their support and encouragement have been instrumental in everything I've achieved.

The best career advice I received came from the Bible, and it was technically not career advice but life advice: 'Whatever the hand finder to do, do it with all diligence.' I've always applied that to my career - anything I'm doing, whatever I'm finding, whatever I'm doing as it relates to my career, I'm always doing it the best I can. Also, one of my previous bosses told me that you can be whoever you want if you put your mind to it. You can be whatever it is you want to be if you put your mind to it, and that has kept me going every day whenever I remember that.

I would say be resilient. It's a tough industry. The investment landscape is mostly dominated by men, and as a woman in this field, you have to be resilient, you have to have grit, and you have to be dedicated to make it. There are times where I have woken up and I'm like, I'm done. It's tough. So have resilience and make sure you have a goal you're pursuing. We have more women now in the field, but it didn't used to be that way, and we still need more women in investments and asset management. I've been to rooms where I am one of two women or one of three women, and we don't want it to continue being like that. So they should be confident that they can do it and be willing to want to do it.

With artificial intelligence and everybody calling it an artificial advisor, and everybody telling you how to run your finances, it's one of the challenges we've had. Sometimes you meet clients that are taking advice from ChatGPT or what they find online, so that's a struggle because when we see that, we begin to try to fix a problem. But while that is a problem, it's also an opportunity. I'm looking forward to having AI solve some of the problems we have in the field today. So it's a challenge when we see clients take advice from artificial intelligence or people who are not licensed to do this. We hope that in the future, it will get better and people will be more concerned about their finances.

Integrity is what's most important to me. Call it as it is. I work in the financial market, and I can't deal with people who don't have integrity. Your yes has to be yes, your no has to be no. I know a lot of people want to look at gray areas of life, but to me, when it comes to my career and when it comes to how I relate to clients, I try as much as possible to be very straightforward. So integrity is very important to me. Very, very important.