FinPod

Meeyeon (00:00)
Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of CFI's Member Spotlight, where we get to know our global CFI community. Today, I am joined by Alex Murray, who is in the UK. Welcome, Alex.

Alex (00:13)
Thank you very much for having me, it's great to be here.

Meeyeon (00:15)
I'm so excited to talk to you today. And I'm going to open up with our, the broadest question that I always ask, which is what got you first interested in finance as a career path? Did you have a family member in the industry or did you, were you influenced by media? How did you first get your interest? Because another, the question that I'm going to ask you later, our listeners don't know this, but Alex has a super interesting academic background that is different from the standard kind of cookie cutter.

Alex (00:45)
Hmm. Yeah, I would say it's a mix of different things. So I have a family member. My mother worked for HSBC for a very long time. I had a lot of exposure to different people working in that environment. And I think I had a lot of respect for people who work working there. I was very curious. People who understood different ways, different things around the world have very analytical mindsets.

and just really, I guess, were in some ways the masters of what they were doing, some people I came into contact with, and I just found it so interesting as I grew having conversations with them. Now I ended up studying history at university, I was very interested in different matters throughout the world, and I ended up really falling on the Renaissance period, funnily enough. That was really where I got into it, and it was just the change of the middle class, working class that...

Double entry bookkeeping came from this period and just, I guess, through banking and through finance actually redefined the socioeconomic sort of ⁓ structure of this time. And I just went further along and I decided to do a masters in business. And I just found myself always coming back to where do I find, I guess, the true viewpoint of a company.

and I always found it in the data and its data understanding it creating a story out of it and I found just that that finance was the way to go and I started my graduate scheme and I was very lucky to have a mentor to talk me through and just really get me started, introduced me to CFI and it's led me to where I am now.

Meeyeon (02:28)
And just out of curiosity, from your undergraduate degree, so you did a degree in history, you studied ancient medieval and modern history. What was your favorite ⁓ course or kind of era that you studied during that time?

Alex (02:36)
Yeah.

So I'd say ⁓ Renaissance, but also if we're going back further, I feel like having grown up during the 2008 recession, studying other periods where this had happened before in various different ways. So in the ancient world, definitely the collapse of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the Republic beforehand, you could see how economic issues are very constant throughout time, throughout different periods.

So when I was studying the mercantile trade of Renaissance or the fall of things that you never thought would ever be able to collapse, think just that aspect, I really found there was a lot of power and lot of ⁓ knowledge to be had within there.

Meeyeon (03:30)
And something that I noticed about you is that you've always seemed to have like not just education going on, but you keep yourself busy. You've had like internships and part time jobs. ⁓ Given that, given that context, when you were going into your undergraduate degree, did you follow what you were just really genuinely interested in learning more about? Or did you ever have at the back of your mind like, this degree needs to really lead to a job right away?

Alex (03:59)
I think definitely with my first degree it was just pure interest. was develop skills, develop myself and I'm a firm believer and if you do what you're interested in and follow something and follow that, that everything else will follow. I think you can find what you enjoy out of a lot of different things and let it take you places and you'll work harder because of it. So when I went from that, I just decided that

I would maybe gear the skills I got from it to something maybe more employable, but I wanted to keep the core value of it's something that I enjoy and it's something I want to refine. It's something that I can, throughout my life, refine and keep working on because I feel like that's really what, if anything, drives me. I think it's really important for me.

Meeyeon (04:55)
That's very refreshing to hear because I find that generally that comes from the perspective of someone that is a bit older. I find that most people particularly without going to finance have the motivation of, you know, like I have to a job after this. I really want to work in like a big corporate office for, you know, like, KPMorgan or et cetera. ⁓ But I would say my

One of my best mentors that I've had was at a place called BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, Canada. His name is Andrew Hainsworth. So shout out to Andrew. ⁓ He, ⁓ like yourself, was always very passionate about.

about following what he was genuinely interested in. He did a degree, I forget what it was, but it was something like completely unrelated to finance, but he did his master's at Cambridge and it was something, something in the arts, I feel like. It's been a while so I forget at this point, but I remember him saying, you know, like I just really was interested. was like fascinated by it. I really liked it. And

Alex (05:54)
Right.

Meeyeon (06:05)
the topic while it was completely unrelated to what I did in work, I just wanted to kind of develop my interest and then you know, I kind of figure it out later. So he remembers, you know, starting his corporate job and he just realized, you know, like I had no, background in finance or anything kind of remotely related, but the way that he was able to always, you know, like prompt and ask the right

Alex (06:13)
Yeah.

Meeyeon (06:33)
questions and like quickly pick up on things was just so impressive. And it was, it was just as if he was he had already done all these courses for someone that was in like an undergraduate commerce program. And it was just really interesting to see the idea of like, you can say it in the future. And as like a 40 year old person to say to someone that's in their 20s, you should just follow what you really love.

Alex (06:37)
Okay, cut.

it.

Meeyeon (07:02)
and what you are what you really love and are passionate about you'll be really good at and then you continue to grow that way and things should follow naturally but it's very hard to do when you're in the moment so I want to take a minute to stop and reflect on that because a lot of our younger listeners that are maybe like ⁓ just going into undergrad or just starting and don't necessarily know what the right path is sometimes it is a little bit simpler than you think it's a hard decision to make though

Alex (07:07)
Mm.

Meeyeon (07:30)
Personally, I didn't really know what I was interested in. I just knew that it like wasn't science, wasn't into that anymore. I didn't really want to do anything necessarily in the arts. So was like, like I just do finance degree, like let's make it practical. ⁓ turns out it kind of was something that I was interested in, but always love the message that everyone should follow what you, if you are so fortunate enough to be able to.

Alex (07:30)
Hmm.

Meeyeon (07:58)
follow what you are genuinely interested in, the results will follow.

Alex (08:02)
Definitely, I also found it really interesting when you said about asking questions as well. I definitely think that's something that guided me through my path where whether it studying history or business or going into finance, was just not being afraid to ask questions but just being curious, asking why, why. And I think that taught me a lot more, I guess that mentality taught me a lot more than a lot of different things that would be quite surprising in retrospect.

Meeyeon (08:31)
And you know, okay, so you and I got connected because I was having lunch with Scott Powell, shout out to Scott, who is one of the original co-founders of CFI. But you know that Scott did his masters at Cambridge in philosophy of all things. And so speaking of being able to ask questions where, know, they're a little bit more open-ended or theoretical, he is, there's no one that is quite like Scott. I hope that you'll be able to.

Alex (08:54)
Nope.

Meeyeon (08:57)
maybe if you're in Vancouver one day you'll meet Scott in person but he is the best at just being like super curious asking really like the like I don't want to say unusual because that sounds strange but he asks like really great questions that get you to know whatever you are researching more in depth and I think that's such a huge skill is being able to ask the right questions to kind of lead to more and more discussions. But

Alex (09:16)
you

Meeyeon (09:25)
going back to kind of your career path. So you've had internships while you were at, or jobs while you were studying the whole time. And I think that is not an easy balance to strike. Are there any experiences during that kind of period of time where you were doing your undergraduate and you were doing internships and working that had a lasting impact?

Alex (09:48)
I would say ⁓ definitely at this point I was working at a fintech ⁓ called Vestrata and we were working with ⁓ essentially advising asset managers on different ⁓ on the regular to the regularity environment of the ESG and it was definitely interesting to manage because I was also an assistant manager ⁓ in retail at that the time so it's doing shift work and it's working from home.

and you have to make choices and you definitely have to be disciplined and you also have to learn the value of time, I think. Where you only have so much of an allowance to spend, it's what you're trying to get back, but also what's worth it to you to put into it. And I think that's where I had to make sacrifices because I was working, I was having to work a job I wasn't getting paid for. I had to work a job where I was and that was, other one had to fit around it.

And then it was learning in my own time as well because I was post my work and I was just trying to post my degree and I wanted to just find my path. And I think definitely it taught me the lesson that you have to value your time and spend it wisely, but also and just really know what within that means the most long term.

Meeyeon (11:07)
And when you went to Fitzgerald and you were in that ESG group, did you already have some sort of personal passion and interest in ESG generally? Or was it something that you had this opportunity, came across your desk, you took it and then it eventually kind of sparked an interest for you?

Alex (11:24)
I'd say I came into, ⁓ I learned about the ESG space while I was at uni. ⁓ Typically, socially conscious, everyone's always quite up to date with current events. And I just found it really interesting just when I was studying impact investing. It was using this structure to actually create positive impacts. And whenever I'd speak to someone about it or I'd talk to someone about it, I'd just think,

I always thought this is such a nice way to use this skill, the skill of understanding finance and I thought this is a way that you can actually have a wider impact in such an unsurprising way. And ⁓ I did my dissertation at university on ⁓ ESG investing with a focus of three case studies of different banks based in different continents around the world and basically just tried to get

an all-encompassing judgment on how sustainable it was long time, whether they were upholding the tenets of ESG and whether it was, and looking at capital markets emissions. I really just, I wanted to figure out first of all, is it actually possible to have the impact that we want? And I think ⁓ second of all, where could it improve? And it was definitely a new topic, which I really liked. It meant I had to learn a lot.

but it's just so happened it led to me getting an internship in this space and definitely learning a lot at the time.

Meeyeon (13:02)
And then after Vistra, tell me how you got your first full time role at Digia.

Alex (13:11)
Yes, so this was actually through a connection. ⁓ a family friend was the UK head at the time and basically I got that, I got...

I got given an interview and luckily because I'm fluent in Spanish and it's a Spanish company, digging a group, it meant that they would have someone on my level that could speak with the head office and work a bit more independently and I was actually lucky enough to get taught by people who may not have been able to teach me otherwise because they only spoke Spanish. So it meant that I was given a much, he saw the opportunity to give me a much wider network.

within the company. So he took me in. had to do two days to prepare ⁓ a presentation on how the company could improve the SG and how that could in turn help the company, was a bit of by fire, but pressure makes diamonds. So it worked in the end. ⁓ yeah, it's been a great experience learning there. And it actually got me in touch with my first ever mentor, my

Meeyeon (14:04)
It was like no pressure.

Alex (14:18)
my manager, the project finance manager of the company. ⁓ He taught me how to read financial statements, how to excel pretty much almost from the ground up and ⁓ he advised me to go and learn from CFI as well.

Meeyeon (14:35)
So did your manager take CFI courses in his career? I wonder, do know when he took the course? We've been around for 10 years. I wonder if he started taking it when, ⁓ do you roughly know kind of like what year he took our courses?

Alex (14:40)
Yes, he did the FMVA course as well. Yeah. Yeah. Like a passing the baton. Yeah.

It may have been five years ago. He was quite young. Yeah, maybe about five years ago or something. Yeah. Back, think he was still, he was working in Paris at time, I believe.

Meeyeon (14:57)
wow, okay, yeah.

So when you started your full-time role, what would you say that ⁓ what surprised you most about working in a finance role compared to what you kind of expected going into it?

Alex (15:18)
I'd say I was really interested with how commercially minded you had to be. Because when someone thinks of finance, think of P &L, cashflow, they think of just numbers on the screen and they think about what numbers are, but not always what they mean. And I think that's where my understanding of it really changed, where I was in strategy meetings and I was using the data to actually

I could tell a story of how the company was doing. I was giving, and I just, surprised myself on ⁓ my understanding of it, but I really think it was just how valuable it can be in affecting decision making and not just telling people the state or reporting. I think it's, I think it's definitely in some ways in a transitionary place where it's less of a reporting tool now and more of an actual strategic impact or like decision making.

process which I found really interesting, definitely.

Meeyeon (16:19)
Okay, just curious, how many other languages do you speak?

Alex (16:22)
⁓ I speak English, Spanish and French, but less French, more through ⁓ understanding Spanish.

Meeyeon (16:30)
I always find that like, so obviously I'm based in North America. And while I do speak English, Korean and Chinese, I used to speak Spanish like fairly decently because my childhood best friend is Mexican, but it just goes away so fast. But it's a huge benefit to be able to speak another language fluently.

Alex (16:49)
Definitely, it's helped as well whenever I'm... I've gone... My brother's currently set up a company in Spain so I helped him do the financial model for that. So I had to go actually go over and prepare because he had an investor meetings with like to do crowdfunding. So being able to actually present a financial model in another language. I don't know if I would have been able to do otherwise in that case.

Meeyeon (16:59)
that's so fun.

Alex (17:16)
Definitely, was a benefit for me. And also just to be able to help my brother, something like that, that was amazing.

Meeyeon (17:24)
Yeah, and you know what I find is that sometimes ⁓ the power of language is something that I never really thought about until I using it in like a workplace. I find that the more it's not necessarily that the more fluent you are in a language, but the more you understand the language and the culture, it actually really does shape your thinking. So I find that if I'm thinking and working in English,

Alex (17:42)
Okay.

Meeyeon (17:51)
There are things that I would have never thought about or been able to necessarily communicate just by working in Korean. If I was working in the same project, same company.

Alex (17:56)
Mm.

I agree with that. think definitely working in Spanish company, I've appreciated directness in a lot of different ways. I definitely think there's a corporate culture change where, for example, ⁓ definitely some managers I've had, I've had no problem telling, cutting straight to the chase on why I was wrong on something or why. But for me, that was where I did some of my best learning. it was... ⁓

Meeyeon (18:22)
you

Alex (18:27)
I definitely think it does give you another perspective, which is really useful.

Meeyeon (18:32)
And tell me what is your day-to-day like in your current role? What are the things that you like the most? yeah, what do you find yourself doing in your day-to-day role as a financial analyst today?

Alex (18:43)
So in my day-to-day role, involves liaising a lot with accounting to get, whenever we have our next monthly closings, to get data to put into our financial models. So this is operational model. I'm making sure I'm measuring the performance of lot of different projects we have. This is both solar and electric vehicle charging, and these are hubs around the world. for me, it's like making sense of a web of all these different...

performing entities, that's something I really enjoy. We also do site screenings. our company invests a lot in real estate for the purposes of developing and looking at site and really looking at the qualitative and quantitative facts of it. So foot traffic versus what amenities are nearby. think keeping...

a commercial hat whilst also using financial knowledge. For me, that's such an interesting part of my role. It's also a part where everything's always new because there's, it's learning more different parts about different parts of the country. I always have to check out and understand different things and you start to piece together and think, I've seen something like this before. And it definitely informs strategic thinking when I'm in the room.

with the head of the UK or the finance director and we're discussing all these different aspects of a potential investment and I'm able to give my input on it, which I really enjoy.

Meeyeon (20:18)
That sounds like a lot of fun. so with your on the job training, did you have like a training program that you joined when you were at the company? I know that a lot of companies have graduate intake programs where you kind of form a class, so to speak, which is a little bit of an extension of university. You make friends, you learn all the skills that you're kind of going to be expected to use as you start your new role. Did you have that at DINYA?

Alex (20:45)
Not particularly, no. was somewhat of a... I was involved with different departments, so it would have been finance, would have been a bit of marketing, it would have been ⁓ strategy and sustainability. and I helped ⁓ a lot of the different managers within that space, but I quickly found myself gravitating towards the finance side of things and strategy. So eventually I told...

the finance manager that I just, wanted to learn pretty much everything I could from him. So he sort of took me from the basics and with the consent of the UK director just taught me data management at first, just taught me how to manage an Excel, how to update it without any of the financial knowledge and just took it step by step with that and really just enriched me then with learning more about ⁓ actual accounting standards, accounting ⁓

just a learning financial statements. And I think from there, it was very much a step by step, but it was, it was less of, it was more of a UC, I had to seize the opportunity, but they gave me the opportunity to focus in wherever. But I'd say with my company, as it was more of a startup in the UK, it really, it really meant that there was less boundaries for you to work within. So if I wanted to help in marketing, I, put my hand up. If I wanted to help with strategy, it was.

Definitely up to me, but that also helped me get ⁓ a wide range of understanding of different parts of business as well.

Meeyeon (22:22)
So don't know about you, but for me, when I started my first role as investment banking analyst, I was hired off, ⁓ off cycles. So I had to wait six months before we had that nice like investment banking analyst training program, make friends, like spend a whole week together, doing all sorts of Excel modeling and learning everything that you need. like the first six months was extremely painful for me. And the only way I was learning was by making, ⁓ like, not like huge mistakes, but

Alex (22:36)
Yeah.

room.

Meeyeon (22:51)
Basically, at one point, remember my associate was like, it's great. Like you're learning new things. Cause I don't think I've really ever seen you make the same mistake twice. I'm like, yeah, cause I'm like busy making so many new ones. Right. But I remember when I joined CFI, a number of years ago now, I kind of, the big thing that excited me about our company was it was at that point in time, you know, we're talking like 2019, it was something that I just thought, man, I wish I had this, you know, when

Alex (23:01)
Yes.

Meeyeon (23:20)
started because it would have been so much less painful for me. ⁓ But I find that people are so much more resourceful these days because there's so many new things and tools out there that allow people to learn on their own time, kind of at their own pace, even though, as you've said, know, time is very limited. ⁓ When you found CFI, though, and you took the FMBA, ⁓ can you share with me how that experience was like for you? What did you find that you kind of

Alex (23:21)
Really.

Yeah.

Meeyeon (23:48)
⁓ What did you find changed in your day-to-day in your workflow before versus after you took the program?

Alex (23:55)
I'd definitely say ⁓ the standards I held myself to. just the checking and just when I was starting going on a model it was thinking about the outputs, I was thinking about the high level outputs that I was going for before and then working my way back. Whereas before I might just focus on assumptions and then build it out.

Alex (24:20)
because where I'm where there's so many different levers and what I do, including sensitivity analysis was a game changer as well, where I could actually really show some value in terms of

I would recognise immediately what levers needed to be used and I could bring that straight into a board meeting and using conditional formatting again, which I learnt from CFI. I think that was definitely a big higher level game changer that I got in the end of my career.

Meeyeon (24:49)
And you're responsible for helping put together RFPs, right? Yeah, and sensitivity would certainly help there. I just remember also to go back to that, ⁓ one of my friends was worked, she was on the, I think it was called, we called them P3. There's a different name for it now, but it's public-private partnerships. And the bank would put in an RFP for every kind of major one that came about.

Alex (24:53)
Yes.

Meeyeon (25:15)
And the big thing was sensitivity analysis. And I just remember being so impressed the first time I saw their analysis and the way that it was put together in a pitch book. I think it must have been, you know, like out of university for like three months. And previously I was working in a, in a buy side shop. So, you know, at a NASA manager, we're not putting together presentations. Generally we are more kind of like reviewing assets, looking at what we want to invest in and whatnot.

but we're not actually putting together large presentations because we're not pitching to anyone. But I just remember being so impressed by how, just like how polished and put together everything looked. I just remember being blown away thinking, I can't believe this came out of an Excel presentation. But then having that all be presented in like three different scenarios and then being able to answer all the questions that come up on like, okay, for scenario A, you like, these were your assumptions, but like what let...

Alex (25:57)
Thank you.

Meeyeon (26:10)
what led you to choose these and how do you think it'll impact X. I thought it was always so impressive. I'm curious, do you think you're going to pursue another kind of designation X like the, I don't know what the UK equivalent is. I think it's still CPA. Do you have an idea of doing that or CFA?

Alex (26:16)
Yeah.

So we have a couple, there's

ACA, ACCA, ⁓ CIMA as well as C-I-M-A. I'd consider the CIMA because it's like Chartered Management Accounting. But I think I'd definitely consider it. But I think at the moment I'm more pursuing the more commercial financial analyst sort of career path. So where, so FP &A, which I'm actually currently doing the CFI.

FPAP course at the moment to help just keep on improving my knowledge. But I definitely think that's more the route I'm really interested in at the moment, just helping form strategic insights but also really criticise and get underneath what's going on in a company because there's so much oversight that can take place. And again, I love asking questions. I love

finding out patterns within things. I love really just getting to the bottom of it and that's the skill I want to continue using going forward.

Meeyeon (27:38)
Yeah, and I bet that you probably ask like, for someone that has done either like an undergraduate and or master's degree in business related fields, whether it is general commerce or accounting, finance, we tend to have ⁓ similar mindsets from all that education. So we end up kind of focusing on the numbers and asking ⁓

fairly predictable questions or more technical ones. But I find that whenever somebody comes from an arts background or science background, they ask different questions that the commerce students would have never asked. And when they ask, they're always like, that's like so interesting. I would have never thought of that. And so I think that you probably have a great skill in asking questions that are opening up discussions that other people have ⁓ maybe never thought of. ⁓

Alex (28:11)
you.

Meeyeon (28:28)
I also wonder though, so without giving my age away, we are from, I'm significantly older. ⁓ What types of tools do you use at work? I think they're probably very different than what I use. So like when I was in capital markets, typically one, I think some things never change. I use a lot of Bloomberg, Excel, something called Faxed, which is for formatting presentations and doing data analysis.

Alex (28:46)
Yeah.

Meeyeon (28:54)
But ⁓ when I was early in my career, we didn't have any of these new tools like chat, GPT, Claude Gemini, all of these things at work. ⁓ Basically, if you wanted to write anything, you were writing it on your own. If you wanted to review something, you had to review it very thoroughly before passing it off to your associate. ⁓ What types of tools do you use today? What do you think is really helpful? What are some skills that you are kind of developing outside of traditional finance and Excel?

Alex (29:03)
Yeah.

in.

So definitely ⁓ I use chat GBT to definitely to spitball. I'd say is the best way I could describe it. ⁓ What's the listener? Yeah, there's a doesn't to work out. Don't have to wait at all on a response or just straight away. Yeah, I just it really helps me think about helps me think about certain things, break things down. So I always use that as something to chat to if I ever need to just a quick. ⁓

Meeyeon (29:31)
So like your best coworker, right? Like always there, always wants to listen, always curious.

Alex (29:51)
just to check something. But I, at the moment, have been using ⁓ Power Query quite often. It's like, that's just, that's really been like the next step where I've just formulating data and where I've actually, where because a lot of what my work involves is mapping ⁓ revenue, mapping margins across a country with different assets.

Meeyeon (30:00)
wow.

Alex (30:19)
formulating that in such a way where it's easily understandable and then can be put into a dashboard where I can use Power BI. That's really been the next step where I can not only do the work I need to do for myself, do the modeling, do a DCF, ⁓ or anything like that, but really have the actual output clear, but also interactive where maybe someone high level can say, okay,

What's our utilization in this part of the country by this type of charger? Whereas before you'd have to go through a big Excel model. And for me that's fine because I understand it. But where you have someone who just wants it straight in front of them, I think it's really been having to cater to that. And just ERP tools, think, or like sort of management and some like...

Accounting tools I've used Microsoft and the vision for a lot of just like I guess it's similar to like a warehouse tool where if I if there's on operations it's managing Helping with a logistical management a lot of the time that's been Something I'm less used to but definitely something that has been really interesting to learn as I've gotten on

Meeyeon (31:34)
Just in our conversation so far, just feel like ⁓ I'm so excited to see where you take your career in the next year, two, three, five years, because you just seem like you have such a positive, optimistic outlook, and you are just so genuinely curious and passionate about what you do. Where do you think you see yourself in five years' time?

Alex (31:55)
Five years. Hopefully I'm making the decisions that I want to impact right now. I'd say, hopefully I maintain the same outlook and I'm just in somewhere where I actually feel like I'm making a difference. ⁓ But I still have more to learn and I will still have more to learn. think just as long as I'm in a place where I can keep on growing and I can be proud of, that's really where I want to be.

Meeyeon (32:23)
And if there are listeners who are a couple of years behind you, and let's say they're just finishing up school right now, would you have any little nuggets of wisdom or general advice that you would give someone that is hoping to one day kind of be in your position?

Alex (32:42)
⁓ yeah, I'd say just, I'd say build a solid foundation, learn the fundamentals and learn them well, because there's nothing more useful that I've had is when I can go back to the basics of something. You never know when you've been in an Excel model for God knows how long and you just, you're getting, you know, you're just, you're so focused. Yeah. Tunnel vision. it's just, remember, just ground yourself in, in the truths that you have. It's the fundamentals and.

Meeyeon (33:01)
Close your eyes and use the dotted line.

Alex (33:09)
just with data management, with accounting fundamentals, finance best practices, and just really just get to the point where it's instinct and just where you really feel comfortable with it. And I think no matter how overwhelming things can be, just trust yourself with that. And then I think, yeah, if you do that, think whoever you are will do amazing.

Meeyeon (33:30)
And then now I just have a fun rapid fire question round so that people can get to know Alex, you a little bit more personally. These are completely unrelated to finance our work. yeah, kind of just whatever first comes to mind. What show are you currently watching right now, whether it's on Netflix or Paramount or whatever platform? What are some shows that you're watching and that you're enjoying?

Alex (33:57)
⁓ Night of the Seven Kingdoms, that's number one. It's a hate basic HBO based on Game of Thrones. I've been watching Succession. I've never watched it. Yeah, I've been, yeah, I've heard it's really good and I've just started it. So yeah, really into that. And I'm watching Medici on, I think it's on Netflix right now. It's all about the Medici family in Florence.

Meeyeon (34:07)
⁓ that's very, that one's so good.

my gosh. Okay, I'm so excited for you to finish succession because I just remember hanging on the edge of my seat for every new episode. So good.

Alex (34:26)
Yeah,

my parents told me about it. I've told them that they're not allowed to spoil it at all. I'm binging it as quickly as I can.

Meeyeon (34:35)
My brother got me into it and I remember, I think it had been out for quite some time before I watched it, but he was like, I just can't believe you of all people haven't watched that, but it was so good. And what type of, who's your favourite musician?

Alex (34:39)
in

Ooh, musician right now, okay. Ed Sheeran has to come to mind. feel like long standing, long standing, I absolutely love him. I play guitar and sing as well. So I'd say he's, yeah, he's definitely one that's inspired me. I'd say, yeah.

Meeyeon (34:55)
That was my last one for it.

⁓ my goodness!

Okay, do you have some

sort of social platform or something that you share?

Alex (35:10)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just on my Instagram, I have a SoundCloud as well. ⁓

Meeyeon (35:14)
you have so many

fun interests.

Alex (35:17)
Yeah, well

it's just I feel like outside of work you need to have that creative outlet and for me it really helps if I'm because I'm living in London I can go to a gig afterwards or an open mic and it's just I feel like it's creativity wherever you can find it wherever gets your brain flowing and sometimes it comes back around and actually helps me think more freely in my work I think.

Meeyeon (35:43)
And ⁓ if you could live in any part of the world today with no restrictions, where would you go?

Alex (35:53)
⁓ Right now, if I could go anywhere, I'd to see the Himalayas, I'd want to see Nepal. I'd want to go up there, go up and see, just go mountaineering or something. It'd have to be that, yeah.

Meeyeon (36:07)
Well, ⁓ I can't think of a better note to close out our podcast on that has been so much fun. ⁓ Thank you so much, Alex, for taking the time to join me here today on our podcast. For those of you listening, I hope that you have enjoyed this episode. I know that there are many inspirational points that Alex has touched on. And until next time, I will see you all later. Okay, yay! my

Alex (36:29)
Thank you.