Ryan C. Pak, CPA, FRM (left: 48 years later; right: 16 years old)
Many decades have passed since I was a 16-year-old high school student in Korea, becoming a grandfather of three. Back then, I recall scribbling on a small empty space of my grandfather’s letter to my uncle; that I wanted to go to MIT and become an engineer like him. He was studying for his fiber optics engineering Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. The odds of my meeting the stated goal was akin to that of a country boy becoming President after saying that he would become one when he grows up. Although students of Korean heritage at MIT are too many to count nowadays, it was a topic appearing in major Korean newspapers back then. Two years later, our family immigrated to the U.S., and I had to attend an adult school in L.A. to finish my high school GED program while working as a box boy at a supermarket. I thought about what would be the best course of action at the time. My conclusion was to study hard and achieve incremental goals. I entered UConn at Storrs and was ranked in the top 1% my freshman year. Naturally, I looked for the most challenging program and found one. It wasn't 'MIT' but was an MIT equivalent among business schools, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania- where I subsequently received BS and MBA degrees. Later, my experience must have influenced my son Albert's college decision of Penn, where he received two undergraduate degrees and a law degree.
After 30 years since leaving academia, one day, I got to know Mr. Young G. Gong, President of Mirae Asset Securities (USA), Inc. through LinkedIn. I did not know him personally, but my encounter with him made my life exciting and perhaps changed the life of my CPA staff, who is 24-years younger than me. Mr. Gong had three titles next to his last name, CFA, CPA, and FRM. I did not know anything about FRM, although I vaguely knew about CFA my MBA friends had. After a brief search on Wikipedia re: FRM, I found Financial Risk Manager (FRM) could help my role as Risk Management Committee Chairman at Shinhan Bank America. So, I decided to study for it, but not alone. I persuaded my staff, Mr. Ju Hyeon Byun, to do it together. After we passed FRM, I suggested to him that we go for CFA as well since the FRM program and our CPA background overlap a good part of the CFA curriculum. Now, we are almost on the verge of becoming a CFA and a member of a select group holding all of CPA, FRM, and CFA. My staff spent a most demanding time in his middle age life, not to mention mine at this old age. I felt like an old man struggling in a gym to build muscles like a college football player. My staff and I became each other's pacemakers during study periods, and I probably could not have made it alone. On exam day, sitting in a vast space of a warehouse at New York pier, I found myself being the oldest man amidst thousands of aspiring young investment professionals. My positive attitude (of believing ‘every goal being incrementally achievable’) helps me continue to face and overcome incremental goals and challenges in life.
