Albert Ip: Advising and guiding young careers

Written by Carl Chen, MSFQ 2018, on behalf of Weston Career Center.

For finance students, asset management firms in Hong Kong typically won’t hire new graduates. Instead, they prefer experienced professionals on their teams. Meanwhile, in the United States, asset management firms provide plenty of job opportunity for newly graduated students.

These are a few of the insights Olin master of finance students received recently during a visit to the Weston Career Center by Albert Y.K. Ip, BS 1973, WashU board of trustees member and dedicated alumnus.

Students also learned during Albert’s visit that in Hong Kong, sell-side firms have a more prominent presence compared to their counterparts in the United States. For students who wish to start a finance career in Hong Kong, sell-side firms might be a better choice.

Albert’s visit was welcome after I had met him for the first time on January 8 during the Hong Kong Wealth and Asset Management Career Trek.

He showed great passion for helping young students and investing in us, and he gladly accepted our invitation to meet with us again on campus two months after we first met.

Albert is an experienced veteran in financial services. He has worked for banks both in the United States and Hong Kong in a variety of functions, including investment banking, corporate banking, real estate financing, and asset management. After retiring from Citibank, he took up even more responsibilities, both in the corporate world and in higher education.

He is CEO of a Hong Kong’s Langham Hospitality Investments Limited and serves on the boards of six other companies while contributing a large amount of his time at several universities in Hong Kong.

‘Mentor and Good Friend’

As a member of WashU’s Board of Trustees and the executive fellow in Asia of Washington University, he has always hoped to dedicate more of his time and efforts to help students at Washington University with his knowledge and global network. His generosity and dedication are recognized by the school by naming a classroom, the Ip Classroom, in Simon Hall after him.

I feel connected with him because he understands our positions and the challenges we are facing as students. “He is a great mentor and a good friend. It’s truly been a pleasure talking to him,” one student said after the meeting. “He is very sincere and humble, and really puts himself in our shoes.”

Albert is also enthusiastic about building more connections between alumni in Asia/Greater China and students on campus. As one of the fastest growing markets in the world, Greater China region is attractive to many students at Olin, and we need alumni who are very successful in that region to help lead the way.

Being a council member and adjunct professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which has one of the best business school in Asia, Albert knows what it takes to make a great business school. He believes having an excellent career office holds great significance for Olin. He also wishes to help the school have a global presence by helping students seek a career in Hong Kong.

Giving back is really a big part of Albert’s life.

“I can help six or seven students at a time, and spend about 10 hours a week,” he said, laughing. “I just need to spend my Fridays or maybe weekends with students instead of my family.”

I feel very grateful people like Albert are making Olin such a tightly-knit community and for his willingness to share his success with the schools and students.

Pictured above: Albert Ip, WashU trustee member and executive fellow in Asia; Greg Hutchings, Weston Career Center; Roger Shi, Mack Yang, Wendy Cai, Ethan Xu, Sarah Liu.