FinPod

Meeyeon (00:00)
Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of Member Spotlight where we feature the diverse and inspiring stories of finance professionals around the world.

Today I'm thrilled to be joined by Alexandra McLaren, a manager at EY Parthenon specializing in &A transaction diligence and business valuations. Alex's journey spans academia, entrepreneurship, support, and corporate finance. And today she's advising on complex transactions at EY Parthenon. She also holds a dual chartered accounting designation in South Africa as well as Namibia, along with CFI's FMVA.

FPWMP and so many other educational credentials. So she has a clear passion for education, which we love. Welcome Alex to the show.

Alex McLaren (00:50)
Hi there, thanks so much for having me.

Meeyeon (00:52)
I'm so excited to be talking to you today. And the one question that I always laid off with to open up our conversation is ⁓ what got you interested in finance? Not necessarily a career in finance, but I'm always curious, what got you interested in finance? Did you have a family member that worked in the industry or did you have something else that inspired you?

Alex McLaren (01:13)
Yes, so I suppose, you know, I'm going to give you your typical answer that you'd expect and that, you know, it really was one of my parents that did influence me. ⁓ But I think, you know, maybe just to give a bit of context, you know, so.

poor him. Yes, so no brothers. you know I think with my dad you know he's always just wanted to make sure you know that his goals are going to be okay and I think especially a career in finance you know you can almost pivot into pretty much anything just having that background. My dad, yes my dad himself is actually a chartered accountant. My mom also holds an MBA in finance so you know I really was actually influenced by both of my parents.

Meeyeon (01:27)
Wow.

And the thing I noticed that was really interesting about your educational background is we don't necessarily have, I don't think I've ever seen the dual degree combination between accounting and an LLB, a law degree. ⁓ Tell me a little bit more about like this degree, why you chose to pursue it. And I think that this type of education probably gives you a really unique perspective on finance generally. So tell us a little bit about, yeah, what made you pursue that degree and how it's kind of shaped your

Alex McLaren (02:08)
Thanks.

Yes,

Okay. So maybe just to give a bit of background, you know, about the BIAAC LLB degree. successful graduates at the University of Salembosch, we obtained this degree in a minimum of a minimum period of five years. So if you have to think about it, you know, studying those degrees individually, the Bachelor of Accounting and the Bachelor of Laws, you know, your Bachelor of Accounting degree is normally a three year degree, excluding your

honors and your Bachelor of Laws is four years. So you know that could take you depending on which degree you would have studied first.

between six and seven years. So we actually obtained both degrees at the same time in a period of five years. So again, I guess, you know, going back to the first question with me being influenced by my parents really. ⁓ So my dad is a chartered accountant himself. So I guess, know, kind of naturally, I just lean towards accounting.

Again, know, also my mom, she was the former mayor of Vintuc in Namibia. So I guess, you know, it also kind of gave me ⁓ a bit of inspiration to go the law degree. And then, you know, here I'm applying to Stellenbosch and you can actually combine both. So, you know, for me, it was kind of a natural choice. I think it really was the perfect degree for my type of personality. I enjoy both. I've got a wide variety of interests.

⁓ But yeah, think, you know, ultimately, I chose the BAcc path. upon obtaining my BAcc LLB, I did my honours in accounting. I do have friends that are both qualified as chartered accountants and attorneys. So that's also very interesting. But yeah, ultimately, you know, chose the accounting path. And I think it's quite a valuable degree to have, or degrees to have. You know, it really helps in just your formation of an argument, the way that you think, you know, you're

sound reasoning skills. it's definitely helped, you know, I think, you know, just in any type of career path, just having that background, just being able to, you know, read something, understand what it's telling you and yeah, going from there.

Meeyeon (04:31)
Yeah, but I thought it was really interesting, the dual degree, because I feel like a degree in law really trains you on how to think very differently than you would have prior to doing that degree. And it's a really interesting perspective when you have a job that isn't necessarily in the legal field, but has trained you to be very detail oriented in such a different way.

Alex McLaren (04:57)
Definitely. ⁓

So, I mean, I will say, you know, having that law degree, kind of does. I think, you know, maybe just for me, I don't want to speak for everyone else, but for me personally, you know, I kind of think to question things. So, you know, why is it like this? Trying to really gain that understanding of, okay, you've said this, but does it make sense? Am I understanding it? So yeah, I mean, it really does give a good foundation of really trying to grasp something instead of just accepting, you know, what someone's told you, I want to say.

Meeyeon (05:28)
Did you ever think about being an attorney, being a lawyer?

Alex McLaren (05:32)
I did, I did and I think you know in another life I would have loved to have been a criminal prosecutor. I have an absolute passion for criminal law and I mean I did start my masters in law ⁓ specializing in criminal law. Unfortunately I did find it a little bit challenging you know having done my articles in accounting and then doing my LLM or masters in law at the same time and then not being in the same field that was slightly challenging for me. ⁓

But you know, I absolutely love the crime docs. I love watching criminal shows. I love it.

Meeyeon (06:06)
my gosh, we share something in common. I love true crime.

My best friend is a federal prosecutor. And so I've always like, we both love true crime. Well, her in a very different way, becomes her full-time job.

Alex McLaren (06:22)
Yes, I can imagine. can imagine. But you know, I also think, you know, everything happens for a reason at the same time. you know, while I do have that interest and, it's interesting for me to watch those documentaries. And I think for me, I think my biggest passion is kind of trying to understand why someone does the things that you Yes. You know.

Meeyeon (06:40)
Yeah.

Alex McLaren (06:44)
I think it's still a valuable skill to have, a valuable degree to have, just in the way that you think and the way that you rationalize. yeah, definitely in another life, I would have loved to have become an attorney, but yeah, here we are. Not this one, no.

Meeyeon (06:57)
Not this one.

Yeah, mean, for me, first, I think if you asked me when I was very young, what do you want to be when you're older, I would say I think nine times out of 10, I said lawyer, because I thought it was so interesting the way that people would debate certain opinions and that before they were all fact. And I thought, that's so interesting to be not necessarily arguing with someone, but your full-time job kind of being, you know.

Alex McLaren (07:12)
Okay.

Yes.

Meeyeon (07:27)
uncovering the truth and having all these conversations around a specific topic to prove a point. And I it was really interesting, but the nine out of 10 times was lawyer. And that one time was, oh, I wouldn't be on a trading floor because I saw it in movies and I thought it was so cool. And eventually that's where I did go, but it didn't like, it wasn't quite like it was displayed on the movies, but.

Alex McLaren (07:50)
I can

imagine, I feel like everything is a little bit more glamourised on the TV shows. mean, watch suits. I don't think it's quite like that in law.

Meeyeon (08:03)
But ⁓ your first job after you finished your degrees, or yeah, degrees, two of them, was as an academic trainee at Stella and Bosch. Can you take us through what that experience was like? And is it something that ⁓ people normally do after completing an accounting degree?

Alex McLaren (08:11)
Thank

Yes, okay, so, you know, maybe just to give a little bit of context, I assume that a lot of your listeners are US based. So in South Africa, you know, there's different ways to become a chartered accountant. Generally, what we've always been taught is, okay, after honors, you go ⁓ into ⁓ articles, which is three years in audit.

which I think everyone dreads a little bit. But then you kind of learn that there are different paths as well. So, generally in your first year, you can also do a year of academic articles. And then you've only got two years of auditing or specifically in South Africa, I want to say it's not also just necessarily auditing as an article's journey.

So yes, I learned about the academic articles in my honors year at Stellenbosch. And I was quite interested in that, just kind of teaching students, especially when you're so passionate. I was very passionate about financial accounting, particularly.

as I was actually my best subject in university. you know, just kind of teaching students about that and just, you know, instead of memorizing tables, trying to actually understand what you're doing. So yeah, I absolutely enjoyed that year. I think it was a great foundational year as well. And I mean, just also honing in on your actual, I want to say academics or yeah.

Meeyeon (09:44)
And then maybe you could take us through how you got your next role because you then moved into outsourced CFO where you worked closely with startups, but that's an incredibly different environment from academia. What were some of the biggest challenges and rewards of helping early stage businesses build financial rigor? It's not easy when they're that early stage.

Alex McLaren (10:07)
definitely not easy at all. yeah, so like I mentioned, know, typically your journey into articles into becoming a chartered accountant is going into auditing. But they are, as I mentioned, different paths, I want to say. So at Outsource CFO, ⁓

my elective in my article's journey was financial management and not auditing. So that was quite interesting. You know, I had a wide variety of exposure to valuations and I mean, yeah, like I said, or like you said, you know, working with startups. So I think one of the rewards with that particularly is

working directly with the clients. So you're actually meeting the CEO, the CFO, you're actually having conversations with them on, okay, you know, these are your management accounts, what's been happening over the last month. Let's look at the forecast. Have we looked at internal controls? So, you know, it's almost like you feel like you actually have a direct impact into that individual's business. And I think that is definitely rewarding.

Um, you know, some of the challenges, you mentioned, it's not easy starting, know, um, helping a startup because there's, there's a lot of challenges. don't think being an entrepreneur specifically for me, um, just, you know, knowing what I've learned from my journey at Outsource CFO. But, you know, I think you work with this amazing individual and they've got this idea on, you know, they're going to change the world in the specific way.

But a lot of the time they don't necessarily have an accounting or a finance background. So for them, it's very new to learn about, but we've got accounting procedures that need to be in place. So, you know, let's reconcile your accounting records. Let's ⁓ have management accounts. You you need to be able to track your financial performance over the last few months. Let's draft your financial statements. You know, all of these compliance things. So for them, that's very new. And then also having to explain that in a way that's very

understandable. ⁓ You know, so that can also be a little bit challenging. But I will say, you know, also with that again, and maybe this comes from being an academic trainee where you, you know, kind of educate people. I mean, that was quite rewarding as well. You know, eventually, you know, when an entrepreneur says, yes, but why is this going up? You know, ⁓ how, or like, we, how much have I spent on this? Like, this doesn't look right. Maybe this should be a different account. So it's also when they start to pick up anomalies,

I want to say in their management accounts and then you suck yes, okay, you know, this is what I've been trying to say ⁓ So, you know eventually they actually do learn a lot and they become quite involved in the finances themselves And I think you know, that's also I mean it's challenging the beginning but it becomes quite rewarding in the end and I mean I think ultimately what you want with the entrepreneur is for them to expand and grow and You know ultimately not need you to help them

Meeyeon (13:02)
That's such a wonderful way to put it. like even I would think that a person that is, you know, I would say even if you have a business degree and not necessarily in accounting, when you're focused on starting the business, you probably do not necessarily have at the forefront of your mind, I need to get like accounting procedures and have processes that are in the back end ready to go. And you are just focused on developing the business.

Alex McLaren (13:21)
accounting.

Meeyeon (13:31)
And regardless of how ⁓ strong you are in accounting and finance, you don't necessarily have that experience to be able to say like, okay, like we need to put these types of structures and processes into place so that you can grow to the next stage of the business and be prepared to do so. But that's such a great part of someone's life even just to be a part of, because you see so much growth.

Alex McLaren (13:56)
And I think, you know, it's so rewarding to also see, you know, especially when you've been in meetings with that entrepreneur and they've told you, these are the goals and, ⁓ you know, things that they want to achieve. And then you actually see it happening and you're like, my word, you know, amazing. Like, I'm so glad that I got to be a part of this journey. Literally. that's it's it's I mean, I can't describe it. It's it's incredible. It really is incredible.

Meeyeon (14:14)
They're like manifesting it and you're seeing them do it.

So many of our listeners are early mid-stage in their career and I think that they would love to hear about how your hands-on experience with small, fast-moving clients at Outsource CFO has prepared you for the, what I assume is a more highly structured world at EY Parthenon that you're currently in.

Alex McLaren (14:47)
Yeah, so, you know, I think having that hands-on experience with entrepreneurs specifically,

is you you really get to understand how a business works because you know, you're you're chatting to your client or the entrepreneur so often, you know, at least once a month, if not, if not more. So, you know, you you really understand, you know, what's actually going on behind the scenes. You really ⁓ and because you you you actually speaking directly to them, even as a trainee, you know, it's also about learning skills on how to communicate, how to communicate what you need.

Meeyeon (14:57)
Thanks.

Alex McLaren (15:26)
⁓

in an understandable way to your audience. So I think that's really, really helped in my role now at EY Parthenon is not being afraid to actually join client meetings. Everyone's human. ⁓ So it's really just about having a conversation with the client. I sometimes it can be really intimidating. You're speaking to the higher ups of the higher ups and you sitting there as maybe an assistant manager or a grad and it's quite intimidating, but everyone's human.

I think just having that experience, understanding how the business works, I said, really understanding all of the effort that goes on behind the scenes. So I think that's really, really helped a lot. And I think also just my experience in learning how to or how different accounting systems work.

So for example, I was exposed to a lot of zero. So I used to be, I say used to be because my certification has definitely expired now. So I can't claim to be anymore, but I was a certified zero advisor. So, you know, I think on one of my most recent projects now with a deal, it was a buy side.

I actually saw the accounts that the target drew and I saw, this comes from zero. know, can't we ask for zero access? I know how to navigate this accounting system. So it really comes in handy, you know, just kind of knowing how transactions are processed and where that falls into. ⁓ Same thing with, I don't know if the US has ever used draft works, but it's an accounting software where you can actually draft your financial statements or compile them. And I know that you can also ⁓

use it for management accounts as well. So I also had a client, was a valuation client at that stage ⁓ and they used draft works and I think they were presenting in one of the meetings and I saw, you know, I've got experience in this, you know, you can just send me all of these things. And I actually helped the team. was like, you know, this or these codes mean this, you know, this is how you're to navigate as to what type of account it is. So it really helps in, know, just also being able to understand the information that you've been presented with for your particular deals.

Meeyeon (17:37)
I've spoken to a lot of people over the year for the podcasts that are either in CEO type roles or have, you know, founded businesses and to see, would say if it's your full-time job to guide people through the journey that is entrepreneurship, there's so much learned from just seeing how their journeys fold out.

There's job creation is, which is an amazing part to see how someone's vision creates a whole new set of jobs for people. But it's also really disheartening to see when it's the other way around. I mean, the best part of that is being able to be a person that helps influence those outcomes and tries to take that business to where it wants to go. But I think it would be an incredible learning journey to see multiple people go through that process and see like, you know,

their successes, their big wins, and then maybe some of the missteps that they make. I think there's a ton of learning there. But I would also think that, you I love to see people be successful. I don't like watching people have a hard time. And so it wouldn't be a role that I would necessarily want to be in for a long time, because I don't think I can handle seeing a lot of people that have their dreams and then decide, God, like, it's not working out. But it's probably a great, great experience to have.

but when you decided that you wanted to have another role, ⁓ what motivated you to move into transaction due diligence and business valuations?

Alex McLaren (19:09)
So quite an interesting story actually. ⁓

So yes, I mean, I've spent most of my life in South Africa and I actually moved back to Ventuk in Namibia last year. So interestingly, I actually thought I was being hired for internal auditing. And when I literally arrived on day one to EY, HR told me, I got a whole induction and the HR was like, yes, we have started a new division for you specifically, you know, on strategy and transactions. And then I learned because, I mean, there's lots of subdivisions in strategy

in transactions at EY. So there's transaction diligence, there's VME, which is valuations, modeling and economics. There's strategy and execution. You know, the list goes on. So I learned that I was going to be part of the transaction diligence team in Cape Town. And we actually quite a hybrid team. So we do do, you know, transaction diligence and valuations. So that's actually how I pivoted into this role, literally by chance. It is literally my dream job.

Meeyeon (20:07)
Wow.

Alex McLaren (20:12)
It really is my dream job. I think I really do think everything happens for a reason. Everything kind of works out the way it should. So I landed in my dream job.

Meeyeon (20:21)
Okay, so this is your dream job. Now have

to tell me more about it. What do you do day to day? What are the projects like? And what do you find most interesting about being an MNA in valuations?

Alex McLaren (20:32)
Yeah, no, so really just by chance I'm doing my dream job. ⁓

Always thought it would be more on the law side that I would do this, but I think it's more drafting contracts, I want to say. Well, not that I have experience in that side, but I would just imagine that. But yeah, mean, day to day, you know, each project is very different. And it also depends, you know, are you on a due diligence project or are you on a valuation? So I think what's quite interesting is, you know, kind of seeing how the two kind of work together, because typically you'd start off with your due diligence report, whether it's a buyer side or a sell side.

And then typically, you know, those inputs within your report will feed into the valuation. So it's very interesting being on both sides of that, actually. And I mean, every project's different, every industry is different. So you're constantly learning something new every day. And I think that's the beauty of the job, because if you're not learning something new, you're not in the right job, I don't think. So yeah.

Meeyeon (21:30)
think a lot of our listeners would actually be really interested in this type of career. ⁓ And so I'm going to try and break it down for them a little bit further. So can you talk, walk us through the process of, you know, how you'd get a client and what the kind of, you know, journey is an overused word, but what the life cycle of that client is with you at ENY Parthenon.

Alex McLaren (21:53)
Perfect, yes. So I think, know, typically, maybe let's start off with a due diligence. ⁓ So that would normally be, you know, whether it's specific shareholders within a company, maybe they want to exit the business. So they are looking to do a sell side due diligence, or it's, you know, one company looking to acquire another one. So that would be a buy side. So, you know, typically we'd have ⁓ clients approach us to say, you know, can you ⁓

do this for us, we need a buyer side or a sell side due diligence done for us. These are the areas that we want to focus on. And I think it's also again about having that introductory meeting with the client, really trying to understand what their business is and what they do, because your scope of work is not necessarily going to be the same for every single client. So typically we'd have a look at, you know, your company background. ⁓

and then the transaction perimeter. So what I mean by transaction perimeter is sometimes you've got, let's say a holding company and they've got all of these subsidiaries and sometimes you need to actually do a due diligence on all of those companies.

And sometimes that could be a consolidated view. Sometimes it's an individual view. Yes. So it can, it can be a lot of work. So really trying to understand, you know, what it is that the, or what industry the business is actually in, because that will also inform kind of where your focus areas are, I want to say.

But yeah, so typically you'd have, you know, your background of the company, just giving an overview of, know, where it is that this company is currently operating in and what life cycle they're in, what's your transaction parameters or what companies are involved. And then really doing a deep dive into your income statement. So, you know, what drives the revenue, what drives the cost of sales, what are your main operating expenses?

Okay, so then we do, you know, a deep dive into your income statement. So looking at what drives your revenue, your cost of sales. So how that influences your gross profit and your gross profit margin, you know, looking at what are your operating expenses and kind of how does that fluctuate and what drives those factors. So ultimately, you know, you want to have your EBITDA and you want to have a look at normalized EBITDA as well. So basically over your historic period, you want to see, you know, what are those strange one-off ⁓

transactions that don't really occur every single year because you'd want to have a normalized view over your historic period. And then, you know, also doing a deep dive into your balance sheet. So having a look at material items on your balance sheet, looking at your cash flow statement, also the quality of information that you get as well. Sometimes, you know, it's very difficult. I mean, so sometimes you work with very difficult information to reconcile back to your financial statements, for example, that have been audited. So, you know, just also having a look at

what's the quality you know, how many systems does this business use actually and does everything reconcile back to each other. I reconciliations are a big part of transaction diligence. And then, know, also having a look at evaluation. So that's also quite interesting. So it really is, you know, again, looking at the drivers of the business because that's going to inform your assumptions for your forecast period. ⁓

So yeah, it's quite interesting, know, and learning something new every day. mean, looking at your beta that you're going to use in your cost of equity calculation. So yeah, I mean, literally learning something new every single day. So I hope that kind of answers your question on kind of breaking it down and the step by step.

Meeyeon (25:25)
It does. it's like,

just listening to you and like watching you explain, can tell that you love what you do and you are so passionate about it, which is why you have, this is a very recent promotion to celebrate. You went from assistant manager to manager. So congratulations, Alex. What would you say has been, ⁓ as you transition from assistant manager to manager, what do you think was your most meaningful moment of growth?

Alex McLaren (25:42)
Thank you, thank you.

So I think, you know, something that's definitely helped me grow is...

I think a lot of the time when we're starting off with our careers, you you almost think that you need to do everything, right? And I think something that's been quite a big learning, it's not a learning curve per se, but just something that I've learned along the way is, you know, there really is no I in team. I mean, you're not going to cross that finish line with your project if it's not for the team that you're working in. So, you know, just learning. ⁓

you know, to accept different perspectives, you know, learning to, and also just learning, you know, that you might not know everything, you know, you're learning from other very experienced individuals within your team. ⁓ So that's definitely been something that's, you know, helped me grow a lot. ⁓ I think, you know, just taking every single day as a new challenge and really being open to, you know, learning how things work, because I think transaction diligence and valuations, it's very new to everyone starting off.

Especially, we've got a lot of team members coming in from audit. So it's a very different way of thinking about things and the way that you analyze information and you know, also kind of having to accept that, you know, there might not be a source for all of your assumptions that you're going to use. Sometimes it really is just judgment.

And it's, you know, how do you get to that judgment? So it really comes with experience. And that's the, I mean, the only way that you're going to learn that is really, you know, being open to learning from the higher ups above you.

Meeyeon (27:29)
And I can tell that you are a huge advocate of education and that you genuinely love learning, which doesn't surprise me because I find that everyone that finds CFI, it's not something that, for example, is in your traditional lineup. I go to a good school, a complete, ⁓ you know, an undergraduate bachelor's or master's degree, and then I go work. ⁓

that whether you have a certification like a CA that you need to maintain or you need to pass the bar there things like CFI for example our programs are completely optional they are out there for people who are curious about careers and finance or want to you know further their professional education on their own time for those people to find and so it doesn't surprise me that you found CFI ⁓ but I'm curious

You did not just one, you did the FMVA which is very challenging. You also did the FPWMP. So kind of two very different perspectives. The ⁓ FMVA, which I think is quite in your wheelhouse because it is financial modeling evaluations very, very much in line with what you do for work. FPWMP, more complimentary, it's more wealth management focused. so you have those two designations from us. You also have your CA that you have to maintain.

What motivated you to pursue additional education? I feel like you have, everyone has limited time in their day, but feel like you're so busy.

Alex McLaren (29:05)
Yeah, no, I think firstly, CPD is a thing, so continuous professional development, but I also think being curious about how you can do things better, what other perspectives are out there. So that's what I absolutely loved about both courses is just learning how to communicate, learning how to present financial information in a more understandable way. I think also something that you learn ⁓

along the way is, you you are the preparer of things, you know, like as an assistant manager and manager level.

But you know, how does that translate to someone actually reviewing your work? Are you presenting your workings in an understandable manner? And I think that's also something that's really helped with the FMVA specifically. ⁓ You know, it's just being able to present your work in an understandable and readable manner. So it's actually easy for someone to follow what you've done and to actually understand what you've done and where things come from. I think it's definitely about being curious, I want to say, most importantly.

But I think again, you know, just willing or just being willing to, you know, learn something new, see how you can improve and be more efficient in what you do every day. So I think that's definitely a motivating factor, especially because as you mentioned, we all have such limited time in the day. So, you you want to be as fast as possible.

Meeyeon (30:27)
My next question was going to be ⁓ my curiosity was how did you find that the CFI FMVA, maybe a specific course, supported and helped your development in areas like valuations, financial modeling, or client communication? You've already answered that. I find that FMVA is most helpful for them in one kind of very specific way. Some people come in with the idea that I need to really practice my financial modeling. That's what I want to get better at.

Alex McLaren (30:43)
you

Meeyeon (30:56)
and they walk away with that. ⁓ But I love hearing that you found that it helped you with the idea of like how do I present my analysis.

Alex McLaren (31:04)
Yes, it was really, really helpful in that. And I also want to mention, you know, specifically all of the Excel shortcuts.

also helped a lot. you know, I've been in an environment where, you know, especially at Varsity, you you obviously study Excel, so it's called Information Systems. So, you know, you do learn a lot of Excel, but you know, in one of my previous roles, we used a lot of Google Sheets. And then coming back into Excel from Google Sheets is slightly different. So, you know, it was really, really helpful for me specifically just to kind of have a refresher on all of those Excel shortcuts and just a faster way again on just how to do things.

Meeyeon (31:40)
So Duncan, Jeff, and Tim are going to be absolutely thrilled to hear that. Every time someone says like, I discovered all the Excel shortcuts and it has made my productivity just go through the roof, Duncan is just, he's so happy.

Alex McLaren (31:54)
No, it really does help. I mean, I'll definitely say, you know, it's all about practice because it's one thing knowing about the shortcut. But I think actually, I mean, it is going to be slower in the beginning because it's slightly new to you. You're always used to doing things a certain way. But I mean, after you actually become familiar with what you're doing, it's so fast. It really does make a difference. It really does.

Meeyeon (32:17)
I want to do a little bit of reflection here. Looking back, what would you say is the moment that you're most proud of in your career so far and something that has really affirmed for you, yes, I'm exactly where I should be because I know that this is your dream job, which is basically, yes, I am where I should be.

Alex McLaren (32:36)
It's such a tough question. ⁓ So I think, definitely I feel like every year has been a highlight in its own way. mean, there's definitely been challenges over the years. I mean, we all experienced COVID and that was particularly challenging, I think for everyone.

Meeyeon (32:52)
yeah,

that was new to say the least.

Alex McLaren (32:54)
Yeah, definitely a very hard time, I'd say for everyone. But, you know, I'm proud of the way, or I'm proud of my journey, I want to say. You know, so I want to say, yes, it might have taken me slightly longer, instead of, you know, having pursued the BACC degree straight, instead of BACC LLB which is slightly longer. You know,

having that law background, it helps a lot. mean, just being able to understand tax and read tax legislation, for example, has helped immensely. So I think, you I want to say every year has been a highlight. I don't really look back on a year to say, ⁓ no, you know, that didn't work out or this could have gone slightly better. I really do believe in, you know, everything happens for a reason.

But I think, yeah, the time when I had my, you know, this is exactly where I'm supposed to be. I think I had it twice. So definitely in my third year of BACC I'll be, I think that's when I finally realized how do I study and, you know, the way I study, how does that translate to passing or not? So that was definitely, you know, one of my aha moments. And I realized this is the degree for me.

But then I think, know, again, starting off at EY Parthenon last year and, you know, really having, getting that understanding of, you know, just what goes into a due diligence report. I had had exposure to valuations and I guess, you know, every company has got a different way of doing valuations. But again, you know, having a deeper understanding of that. And I thought, you know.

this is where I meant to be. know, it wasn't, I always imagined myself doing this in law, I think I mentioned, but it wasn't supposed to be in law, yeah. ⁓

Meeyeon (34:42)
And if you could, I don't know if you're going to have a piece of advice to give your younger self, because I feel like you're so level-headed and positive, ⁓ but if you were to give a piece of advice to your younger self when you were just starting out, just graduating the BACC and the LLB what would it have been?

Alex McLaren (35:00)
So I think maybe a piece of advice that I would have given myself, and maybe this is something I wish I kind of did way back when, is not being afraid to take risks. I mean, if something interests you, I'd really say, I mean, even if it's, so for example, I've got a, I really do have a wide variety of interests and I almost studied chemistry instead of B. ⁓

So, you know, doing just learning about something that interests you, mean, taking this, you know, a few minutes of your day, just like learning about, you know, tech or chemistry, like I say, you know, just anything really. So, you know, that I think that's the piece of advice I would have wanted to give myself. Yeah, I'd say maybe looking back now, you know, I kind of wish I.

I want to say, you I've lost my maths, but obviously we work with maths every single day in finance. But, you know, kind of having like your deeper understanding of maths, like for example, calculus, I've forgotten how to do calculus. I can't remember. But, you know, just kind of.

Meeyeon (36:00)
my God, so why?

Alex McLaren (36:01)
It's been a years now. But I mean, you know, maybe just keeping up like up with that because I used to love calculus and trigonometry. But I mean, now it would take me a week probably to refresh on that at least at least. And that's probably the basics. So, yeah, I mean, you know, I think just keeping up with things that interest you and not being so focused on, my gosh, I have to do this and I have to do that. And this is the path. I mean, we all have our own journey, I think, at the end of the day.

And again, everything works out the way it should.

Meeyeon (36:34)
And now I'm going to ask you a couple of fun questions. I always call it rapid fire question round just so that people get to know you a little bit better. ⁓ Okay, so what is a song that will instantly put you in a good mood?

Alex McLaren (36:50)
Okay. I'm so terrible at this because you know, I don't, I mean, I do know song names, but it's not necessarily like a particular song. I think, you know, it's just.

Meeyeon (36:59)
⁓ favorite band, favorite

artist, musician.

Alex McLaren (37:02)
No, this is definitely a tough question. I would say, you know, anything with a beat. really want to say anything with a beat, something that you can dance along to, because I really think, you know, the way you start your day is the way that sets the tone for your day and the way it's going to end. So, I mean, sometimes I actually used to do like dance. I used to be a ballerina a few years ago. A long time ago. Yes. So, I mean, you know, not not like a

Meeyeon (37:24)
goodness, fun fact, I love that.

Alex McLaren (37:31)
pre my ballerina or anything but I used to do ballet but I mean I used to actually start off the morning with dance classes and I actually saw the difference you know I was in a very good mood throughout the day you know just starting your day off you know dancing and yeah it really makes a difference actually I should do that again.

Meeyeon (37:51)
And today what would

you say is, what is your go-to, let's say after a long hard week, what is your go-to comfort meal? What's your favorite type of food?

Alex McLaren (37:59)
⁓ My favorite favorite type of food. Okay. So generally I prefer desserts as an actual meal as opposed to the meal I Would rather have the dessert, you know, I mean, but I think Excuse me, ⁓ My absolute favorite favorite dessert is ⁓ peppermint crisp. I don't know if you've ever had that before ⁓

Meeyeon (38:06)
I love that!

What's your favorite dessert?

Alex McLaren (38:27)
what? Yeah, it's delicious. I'll send you the recipe. It's amazing. So you've got your crackers. It is quite simple. really is. So you know, you've got your crackers at the bottom. You know, it's cream and caramel that kind of whipped together and then you've got, do you have peppermint crisp chocolate? Have you you had that before? It's yes. So then you put that on top as well. It's delicious.

Meeyeon (38:31)
Ooh, if it's simple, I'll make it.

Yes.

Ooh, my gosh. My favorite is a tiramisu. I love tiramisu's.

Alex McLaren (38:55)
Oh,

that is also so good. I mean, I feel like with any dessert you could win, right? But I mean, if I had to pick a meal, if I had to pick a meal, would probably be like spaghetti bolognese. I die for that.

Meeyeon (39:00)
happening right now. It is dessert, right?

I'm a huge Italian food nut. My favorite place to travel is Italy. My favorite food to eat is Italian, ⁓ but also I love carbs. And so it ends up being all pasta.

Alex McLaren (39:20)
Cubs for the win. Cubs

for the win, literally.

Meeyeon (39:26)
And if you could pick one skill that you could instantly master overnight that's not work related, what would it be?

Alex McLaren (39:33)
feel like you've got very tough questions yet to answer. ⁓ wow, okay. One skill that's not work related. Tough to think about that.

One skill. I really...

Meeyeon (39:46)
Is it a hard question?

I think I should make my rapid fire ones more like easy, like tea or coffee. Master the skill. I remember someone asked me this and I was like, oh, this is such a weird question. It's so hard. But eventually I settled on, I would like to learn any language. that's the, if I could master that overnight, like I could somehow have a knack for languages and pick up Chinese, French, Portuguese.

like all of these things with minimal effort, that would be amazing. And I would instantly increase my employability.

Alex McLaren (40:20)
I feel like maybe a question for you then just going on that what languages can you speak?

Meeyeon (40:25)
I can speak ⁓ in naturally English, low-hanging fruit, Korean, and a little bit of Chinese, and then I could understand ⁓ minimal Japanese and Spanish.

But all those, like really apart from English and Korean, everything else is like the stage that I'm in and those languages are so bad because I never practice them.

Alex McLaren (40:45)
I you, I get you. I mean, I used to be able to understand German very, well, but not having been around it for a few years, it's very basic for me now. But I guess, know, a skill that I'd really love to learn with minimal effort, I say coding. I just see that being, I okay, I know we said no work, but I just do see that becoming very relevant in our roles today.

And maybe not knowing how to code because I mean, you know, we've got co-Pilot and chat GPT to write us a code, but I think being able to understand the code would be quite helpful. ⁓

Meeyeon (41:19)
I think that's the most important

thing, right? Because you're basically saying that we have all of these technologies that help us understand it, but you're only as smart as the operator, right? So if you really know it, then yeah. OK.

Alex McLaren (41:31)
Yeah.

Exactly. I also think, you know, just kind of knowing where to

change certain inputs, you know, so I think understanding the code is quite important. But yeah, I think that's something I'd really like to see.

Meeyeon (41:42)
Yeah, okay, so that's...

But that is also an extension of understanding languages. Just not, right? So we agree, we would love to be able to pick up languages, whether they are, you know, like spoken languages or coded languages, computer languages.

Alex McLaren (41:49)
It is, it is.

100%. 100%.

Meeyeon (42:07)
Alex, thank you so much for joining me here today. I absolutely loved hearing about your insights about your career journey. And I think that all of our listeners that are tuning in today have taken away a lot. And especially if they're interested in careers that are kind of related to what they study in FMVA, I think you've given them such great insights. And I can't wait for this to be published and for everyone to listen. So thank you so much for joining me here today. And thank you everyone for listening.

Alex McLaren (42:37)
Thank you so so much for having me. Yeah, it's almost half past seven at night this side of the world, but yeah, thank you so so much for having me. was an absolute pleasure. Enjoyed the conversation a lot.