In 1988, I left the protection of working as an academic to start a career in asset consulting with Towers Perrin (WTW). Actuarial consulting firms had been providing investment advice to their clients for decades but it was only in the 1980s that they began establishing asset consulting divisions. After six years including several years leading asset consulting in the Asian region, I moved into funds management.

The years I spent at Towers Perrin were extremely interesting. I got to work on numerous interesting assignments (particu...