Paul Wan

Because a coach changed my career before I understood what coaching was. As a junior analyst on the sell side, my firm paired me with a professional coach, and the difference it made to how I worked and carried myself is still with me twenty years on — it's where I learned what a good coach actually does, and what a mentee actually needs. Later, as a senior, I was coached again on the softer skills that decide who gets the seat, and throughout my career I coached analysts and associates myself and found I looked forward to it more than most of the job. Then life reshaped the reason. Surviving a serious illness, and coming through other hard seasons, changed why I work: I came out with a strong pull to give back, and with a conviction from my own recovery — that the people best placed to help you through this industry are the ones who have lived it, and almost none of the professionals I met had. Becoming a father to a young son sealed it; staying connected to the next generation now matters to me more than any title did. I coach because I enjoy it, and because I've sat on both sides of the table.