167 | Zack Kembar | From Student Works Painting to VP at Goldman Sachs…The Key Success Factors That Helped Me Along The Way

In today’s show, Chris interviews Zack Kembar, Managing Director, Burke Norris Investments.

As a student, Zack was admittedly laidback, disorganized, and thoroughly enjoying his time at Western University. However, all this changed with Student Works.

As a Student Works manager, Zack ended up managing a team of 20 driven individuals. He shares how Student Works taught him some great lessons in organization, persistence, and time management. 

When Zack graduated, the country was going through a recession which made it difficult for him to find the right job. So, Zack decided to change tracks and travel abroad - with the view to get into investment banking. And incredibly enough, he managed to get hired at Goldman Sachs in spite of having no business degree and zero prior experience. So how did Zack manage this feat?

Zack regales listeners with his amazing story.

When Zack discovered the investment banking niche that he was truly interested in, he went all out and devoted himself completely to learning new skill-sets. 

Listeners will learn how Zack had to resort to some aggressive networking to find employment as a junior-level Goldman Sachs employee in Tokyo. He even stayed for a year with a local family so that he could learn Japanese. Eventually, he rose to the position of VP, Equity Derivatives.

After Goldman Sachs, Zack worked as a Managing Director with Deutsche Bank in NY, followed by  BNP Paribas in Tokyo and Capstone Investment Advisors in Singapore . Currently, he is the managing director at Burke Norris Investments - a Toronto based Family Office.  

Zack talks quite a bit about the importance of honing your sales skills. Good sales skills can help you in all walks of life. And having a full sales pipeline can help you pivot, and avoid failure when the going gets tough. Particularly, in this segment, we share how dogged determinedness is the key to success in sales.

Other topics discussed in today’s show include ethics in investment banking, how to survive an economic crisis, and the importance of communication in an organization.

Enjoy! 

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