The Engine of The New New Zealand

High Finance

To say Nathan Bond is working with large sums of money is an understatement.

As Director of Investment Banking for UBS in New York, he works with companies worth up to US$20 billion, and on average more than $500 million.

The bank itself has a market cap of $60 billion – about the same size as the entire value of the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

Nathan's story

Nathan started to get interested in financial markets and the sharemarket when he was a teenager.

It was while doing his undergraduate degree that he realised investment banking interested him the most.

After completing a Bachelor of Business Studies and a Masters (with First Class Honours, BTW) Nathan taught at Massey for a few months. He then headed into the corporate world via the BNZ, where he worked in corporate banking for around a year. Since 2005 he’s been with UBS, one of the world’s biggest financial services groups, first in Auckland, then in New York.

“I’d decided at an early stage of my career that I wanted to work offshore – either in London, Hong Kong or New York – all major centres of investment banking and finance.”

As Director of Investment Banking he works in the ‘investment banking department within the bank’. His team specifically works on advising mergers and acquisitions and capital market transactions – both debt and equity. It’s all about giving large companies strategic advice on optimizing the use of their capital or how to raise more of it.

He admits the sums of money are sometimes a bit daunting, but it’s something you get used to. “At the end of the day the principles of the work you do are generally the same, regardless of the figures involved.”

Nathan Bond

Director of Investment Banking,
UBS, USA

Master of Business Studies (2004),
Massey University

What career will I have?

Graduates with a major in Finance have a wide range of employment opportunities.

You may find employment in corporations, retail and wholesale banking, insurance companies, finance companies, or brokerage houses.
There’s a kind of evolution to jobs in Finance.

1. Analyst is an entry-level position, doing number-crunching/analysis and due diligence type tasks.
2. As time progresses, you are likely to spend more time in front of clients…
3.  …then even more time doing client liaison…
4.  …then perhaps guiding the interface between clients and advisors…
5.  …and finally, fully acting as client liaison and advisor, using your expertise to help guide their decisions.

As an analyst for public companies, Reserve Banks, or the nation’s Treasury itself, you can provide economic analysis and make operational or strategic decisions that can affect the flow of truly massive piles of money.

As a sharebroker you may act as an agent for buyers and sellers of securities – and whether your clients make or lose money, you still earn a commission. It’s pretty tough to beat that!

How you can do it too

Since finance is largely about numbers, you’re going to want to get your Maths skills as strong as you can get them.

You’ll also need good skills in both English and Statistics. Getting your skills in both of those subjects up to NCEA Level 3 will help you tremendously. Economics and Accounting are two more subjects that you’ll find helpful at all levels of business.

To deal with big sums of money, unfortunately, the opportunities are mainly offshore. But New Zealand is still a great place to start your career and get some fundamentals of banking and investment.

If you are thinking about investment banking as a career, or in fact any career, Nathan says his top tips would be to look for something that interests you. “Don’t go after the money or the prestige, rather go after something that interests you. You’ll be better at it, and enjoy your career far more!”

Think about where you want to be in two, five, or ten years – however long it is, make a long-term plan of where you want to be and work towards it.

Network – While you are at university, or even before, talk to people about what they are doing, establish contacts, get some part-time work – just generally find out as much as you can.

Don’t restrict your learning to university. If you’re interested in international finance, keep in touch with the news, work out how you can apply what you’ve learnt in real world situations.

Why Massey?

Finance is an exciting and fascinating field of study which can open new career opportunities and teach you how to manage not just someone else’s money, but your own as well.

By studying financial institutions, markets, and business finance, you’ll learn about the components of the financial system and how it impacts upon financial decisions in any organisation.

Nathan Bond, investment banker at UBS in New York, says there are a few things about the way Massey teaches Finance that stand out for him:

• “The content of Massey degrees is really useful out there in the world of investment banking.
•  “The Masters is the equivalent of an Master of Business Administration in the US – it’s internationally recognised as being at a high standard.”
• “Massey gives you the tools you need, then lets you use them to augment your skills outside of the lecture theatre. A kind of element of ‘finding it out for yourself’.”

Massey has multiple programmes relevant to a job in Finance, but you’ll likely find the Bachelor of Business Studies (Finance) to be the best fit.

You need to choose a major when you begin your studies, but you can keep your options open: you may change your major if you identify a new direction or interest during the first year.

At a more advanced level, you can choose from a variety of papers in advanced business finance, international finance, investment analysis, financial risk management (futures and options) and banking.

Once you successfully complete the programme, you should have developed high numeracy, logic, and analytical skills, and you’ll have the interpersonal and communications expertise needed to succeed at all levels of business.

Find out more about finance

Get started!

If you want to follow in Nathan’s footsteps or just want to learn more about what he does all day, check out our Area of Interest page for Finance.

There you’ll learn more relating to what Finance is really all about, what kinds of careers you can get in that field, and how Massey University can help you get started down that path – just like Nathan.