UWI graduates continue to make a difference in their working environments. In this regard, “UWItoday” will highlight some of our achievers to show how a UWI education has prepared them to meet the challenges of the workplace, while contributing to the success of the organization. Our first article is on 25-year-old Nesha Debysingh, a first class honours student who, in a relatively short time, has risen to the top of the organisation.

Since joining the staff of Caribbean Money Market Brokers (CMMB) three years ago, there has not been a day on the job that 25-year-old UWI graduate Nesha Debysingh let slip by without learning something new.

In fact, the ever-growing need for learning and the fast pace of operations at CMMB have not only forced Debysingh to rise to challenges she never thought possible, but has propelled her quickly up the corporate ladder: from Marketing Assistant to Senior Research Analyst and currently the Subject Matter Expert on the Core Business Application (CBA), one of CMMB’s core research projects. All this, in just under three years.

“The environment never allows you to settle into a comfort zone. Once you show potential and you’re up to the challenge, upward mobility is fast. Each day is dynamic, as it is exciting, and you are forced not only to learn many new things, but to learn them quickly,” said Debysingh.

Seconded from her role as Senior Research Analyst to the CBA’s special project team, Debysingh said she felt honoured to be part of this major strategic move at CMMB aimed at securing the company’s footing in the international market.

Prior to entering CMMB’s well appointed offices, this St Augustine Girls’ High School graduate and holder of a First Class Honours Management Degree with a Minor in Finance, said that stocks, bonds and investment banking were the furthest things from her mind. She had pictured herself only in banking.

“A banking career was my first choice. It was the one thing I thought I could use my management and finance studies and training towards,” said Debysingh.

But soon after starting out as a Marketing Assistant, Debysingh’s views changed. She spent a year assisting in the planning, co-ordinating and managing of CMMB’s many events, and though this had little to do with finance, Debysingh said it was the stepping stone to her next move – a Research Analyst.

“While the exposure in Marketing was great, finance beckoned and soon enough after expressing an interest in research, I found myself in the Research Department where I began doing presentations locally and abroad,” said Debysingh.

One of her key functions was writing articles and assisting in the publication of materials for public consumption. Again, Debysingh learnt fast. She not only started contributing articles to the business publications in the daily newspapers, but received the attention of her peers in the industry.

It was not long before she jumped one step higher, up the corporate ladder to Senior Research Analyst and spent just under two months there before landing the position - Subject Matter Expert - within the specialized CBA project. She is also now poised at a vantage point to get a bird’s eye view of all operations at CMMB.

“I have now found myself supervising people who were recently my peers… it has been challenging but it has also matured me in many ways,” said Debysingh.

She described the CBA project as one which is expected to consolidate approximately six software projects being used at CMMB into one.

Said Debysingh: “The aim is to conduct business in real time anywhere in the world with the touch of a button. The CBA is a nine-month project whose objective is exactly that. Success of the project is expected to mean overhaul of the entire operations at CMMB and will change the way CMMB does business.”

Debysingh is currently a Level II candidate in the Chartered Financial Analyst programme. This programme is one of the most challenging in the financial industry and Debysingh hopes to become a charter holder in the near future.

She also credits her undergraduate studies at St Augustine for setting the right foundation for where she is today.

“My final year at UWI was one of the best times of my life. It was hectic, having to submit all these group projects and having to work with different personalities…but in retrospect I would not ask for anything better,” said Debysingh.

And how long would she stay at CMMB? Well, as she puts it: “As long as the job continues to teach something new, I will be there.”

Caribbean Money Market Brokers Ltd (CMMB) is the first full-service brokerage house in Trinidad and Tobago with an office in Barbados as well. As a member of the Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Eastern Caribbean Stock Exchanges, CMMB also actively trades in equities. With a mandate to create an active secondary market in bonds and fixed income securities, CMMB has emerged as a pioneer in the regional financial services landscape.