Winner
Charmaine Cheung, BT Financial Group
Overseeing $30 billion in funds under advice and leading a team of 10 investment professionals in the highly demanding investment research business before the age of 30 are some of the impressive career accolades that led to Charmaine Cheung being named Money Management Young Achiever of the Year for 2014.
Cheung is head of managed funds and product research for the BT Financial Group where she is responsible for the oversight of research efforts, strategic asset allocation and model portfolio construction for BT clients.
She began her career eight years ago as a financial planning administrator at a boutique financial planning firm whilst studying at university. When promoted to a paraplanning role at the boutique, Cheung realised her passion for investment research in a support capacity for the firm's investment committee.
Firmly committed to this field, Cheung moved to AMP financial planning as a research analyst assisting with planner queries. She later joined BT as a senior investment analyst and played a pivotal role in the realignment of various approved product lists following the Westpac/St George merger.
This paved the way for Cheung being appointed to her current position last year, researching products suitable for an advice network of over 1500 advisers.
Her achievements have been both internally and externally recognised. In 2012, she was awarded the portfolio construction academy CIMA scholarship and achieved top quartile results throughout the course. Internally within BT, she was awarded the 2014 David Williams fellowship, a development program for high potential leaders.
She has garnered the respect of many in the financial services industry, including Zenith Investment Partners director David Smythe, who believes Cheung is a worthy recipient of this award.
"The challenge for a young achiever managing a team of considerable numbers in this field is to balance the management side while at the same time absorbing new challenges," Smythe said.
"Charmaine has the right balance at this point of her career to fulfil the expectations placed upon her by a large institutional advice business."
