S4 Ep5 Meet Emma Quinn, President of Cboe Australia

Meet Emma Quinn, the recently appointed President of Australia's newest and most innovatve stock exchange, CBOE Australia.

  • Emma Quinn

    I've done trades, hundreds of millions of dollars in a transaction.

    Camilla Love

    Is that exciting?

    Emma Quinn

    It's exciting. No matter what. And daunting? It is exciting and daunting.

    Camilla Love

    Welcome, everyone, back to another episode of Shares Not Shoes, an insider's guide to careers in finance. I'm your host, Camilla Love, founder of F3, Future Females in Finance. Shares Not Shoes is a podcast whereby I interview some of my favourite people all with one thing in common, they work in finance. We lift the lid on who they are, how they came into a career in finance, and arm you with some knowledge about why a career in finance could be a good fit for you. I will promise that all my guests will share some amazing personal stories. We'll be open and honest and will inspire you. So, let's go.

    I knew I loved this person as soon as I met her. No nonsense, straight to the point, knows her stuff. Normally, I'd say knows her shit, but knows her stuff. Pragmatic, driven, and has grit. But yet, she is warm, friendly, welcoming, acts with integrity and honesty, and has a huge heart. She's my girl. So when I heard that she had nailed this huge new role as President of Australia's newest and most innovative stock exchange, CBOE Australia, I was totally not surprised. So I had to nab her as one of my special guests this season because you know we're doing this CEO program. And this is the bonus episode. So welcome to Shares Not Shoe's Emma Quinn.

    Emma Quinn

    Wow, you're going to make me cry. Don't cry.

    Camilla Love

    I've never had a cryer on my program yet.

    Emma Quinn

    That is so sweet. Thank you.

    Camilla Love

    Well, I'm glad you said yes. And I'm very happy to say no to. And I'm so proud and excited for you for your new role. Thank you. This is super, super exciting. But we'll get into that in a second. And you do know that you've had your ex colleague, Jen Driskill, CEO of AllianceBernstein Australia, on this podcast. So that's big shoes to fill, right?

    Emma Quinn

    Very much so, because she is awesome.

    Camilla Love

    No pressure. She is awesome, but no pressure. So let's start from the top. Emma, tell me a little bit about what you do and why you do it and who you are as a person.

    Emma Quinn

    Well, I'll start with the last question first because it explains a lot. So I'm half Texan, half English. I was born in Australia. I'm a vegetarian non drinker, so I'm the party person of the trading desk in the past. Great. Obviously, that person goes straight into trading. I am a mother of three children. I've got two daughters, 17 and 14, and a son, and have been married to a police officer who turned up at my doorstep one day for almost 22, 23 years. You'll kill me.

    Camilla Love

    If I don't say that. Can I ask why did he turn up at your doorstep?

    Emma Quinn

    That's a story for maybe over a drink, but let's just say in my backyard, like in friends, I had an ugly naked man.

    Camilla Love

    As.

    Emma Quinn

    A neighbour. And so I called the police and the police.

    Camilla Love

    And bonus.

    Emma Quinn

    Exactly. He turned up to work one day and went home with a wife. That's how I describe it. I think he did okay. And then my role here, I started as a CEO at Seabow. I've been a trader for prior to this, for close to 23 years, both A&P and Alliance Bernstein, and decided to take a new challenge. As you say, the most innovative exchange, I hope in the world, but definitely in Australia.

    Camilla Love

    Definitely in Australia. So I'll give you that. And you were at AB for a very long time. And I have also been in my role for a long time as well. What makes you stay?

    Emma Quinn

    I think for me it was that I was given so many different challenges over my time there. If I had just stayed as a trader of Australia and New Zealand, which is what I started out as, I don't think I would have stayed. I think for me, it was that I was given different opportunities over that period of time. And they weren't opportunities that I necessarily asked for. It was that people had singled me out for. And over that time, I say I had different careers at AB. I probably had five or six different roles over that period of time. And that's what made me stay. I had that end, the people. In the end, I was able to be the master of my own destiny, and I built diverse, talented teams, and I stayed because of them. I stayed because of people like your previous interviewee, people like that, highly talented people that I got to work with every day.

    Camilla Love

    And talk to me about... Because a life of a trader is something that people assume a lot about. Tell me actually what it is really like.

    Emma Quinn

    I'd say there's definitely a distinction between being a buy side trader and a sell side trader. When I first went into trading, I thought I wanted to be a sell side trader and quickly and I fell into buy side trading. And then I realised that was actually meant to be. That was where I was meant to be. I'm not a salesperson, I'm comfortable with it, but I'm not. I couldn't sell something that I didn't necessarily believe in. And on the buy side, I did. There's no sales part of that. You got to tell your opinion, with which I'm pretty good at doing and share that. And then people would either take that or they didn't. Whereas on the sell side, I felt like there's more pressure to tow the company line on research and things like that. So from my perspective, buy side trading is different. For me, it was really about being part of the investment process. It was really being part of that investment team. And so from a day to day perspective, it's taking the orders from portfolio managers of how they want to do and what they want to do and working with them on how they want to achieve that outcome.

    Emma Quinn

    And it's large. I've done trades, hundreds of millions of dollars in a transaction.

    Camilla Love

    Is that exciting?

    Emma Quinn

    It's exciting. No matter what anyone told you, it is exciting and daunting. But that adrenaline rush that you get from doing that and seeing it work out and seeing what sometimes weeks, months worth of analysis achieves and how that affects the the end portfolio is always really interesting, which was another thing that always excited me about buy side trading is because you can see that decision a month, two months, a year in portfolio performance.

    Camilla Love

    Yeah, because the turnover in the portfolio might actually be minimal, really. And so that your execution of the trade from your portfolio manager, you're right, can come out two years in a trade down the track. And the value that you can provide as a trader is critical. So then you ran... So prior to this current role, you ran Asia Pack trading. And the team there, talk to me a little bit about that.

    Emma Quinn

    I actually was, so I was global co head of trading. I was actually responsible for Asia and Europe. So I always laughed that my co head had five markets and I got the others. 20,000. Five fun markets like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Pakistan, exciting markets.

    Camilla Love

    But tricky markets.

    Emma Quinn

    Very tricky. Nothing's ever straightforward. I did that. And then obviously with Mifit and things like that in Europe, all of the regulatory rules in Europe, that was always an exciting place to learn. And that's where I think I have my love of market structure and things that are really helping me in this current role. And so I've always manage teams that were not really next to me because we had traders in London, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and Sydney.

    Camilla Love

    We all live in the virtual world these days, and we do have members of our team everywhere. How did you manage that even before this period?

    Emma Quinn

    It takes a lot of time. And I think as a manager, you need to spend the time. But I was a very good trader and I loved the trading part, but I had to at some point just step back and say, What am I actually being paid for? And I'm not being paid to trade BHP. I'm being paid to actually manage this global team and build a strategy for how best to use our client's commission dollars. And so from my perspective, it was about stepping back. And so I spent a lot of time originally, it used to be one on ones on the phone. I moved to Hong Kong for five years because that was the best place to be there to restructure the trading post GFC. Then when I left, there's a lot of negative things that came out of COVID, and it was a very sad incident. But from my perspective, it helped level the playing field in terms of being able to use Zoom and being the person who wasn't necessarily in the room when decisions were being made because I chose to live in Sydney.

    Camilla Love

    So then as a leader, as a team leader, because you need to get the best out of your team members, right? How do you go about doing that? Is there any tips that you.

    Emma Quinn

    Can give? I think when I reflect back on leadership, and I said this when I left AB, the most important thing is authenticity. I think what I didn't realise I was doing, and I n through all of my career, I've done this, and it wasn't until later on, I worked out that I was supposed to be playing a political game, is that I actually am just this is me. And so with my team, anybody who works with me, I'm honest, I'm authentic. I come to work just as me. I don't play games, I don't do the politics. I've never done politics. It's too hard. Yeah, I just don't have enough time in my day to think that strategically about it. And so, yeah, I worked out probably, I don't know, maybe 10 years ago that when someone said to me, You actually said that to me. We had a new global cohead come in. And I was actually on maternity leave and he called me to introduce himself and just said, Have you got half an hour to tell me what you think? And so I was on maternity leave. I had half an hour.

    Emma Quinn

    So I told him what I thought. And it wasn't until later someone said to me, You didn't tell him that. And I said, Yes, I did. He asked me what I thought, so I told him what I thought. That actually, with him, brought me into his inner circle because he actually found somebody who was actually going to tell him what they thought rather than what he wanted to hear. As a leader, now I appreciate those people who tell me, I don't want to know down to some nitty gritty details, but for the most part, tell me if I'm asking you what you think, I actually genuinely want to hear it. And so I didn't realise I was doing it because that's just me. But eventually, you work out that that's just part of your style and how important authenticity is. And if you lose authenticity, at least for me, if I think someone's not authentic, that's when they tend to lose me.

    Camilla Love

    And a lot of people think about it as career risk telling somebody the truth, particularly a person who is there as a leader and manager. And most people are yes people. They tell you what you want to hear. It's difficult to weed those people out, right?

    Emma Quinn

    Yeah. And I think it's a balance, like I said, I don't want to be hearing every little, tiny little complaint, and you certainly don't want to be seen to be the person who whines about everything. But if you can come to a leader and say, Look, I've noticed this, or these teams are working in this way, and I just don't think it's effective. But maybe if we move the meeting to include these three people, it might be more effective. If you come with a solution as well as talking about what the issue is, that's really helpful to anybody who's managing. And so I gravitate to those people. Look at 8B, I was there for 21 years. I knew the people like that. Here, I'm learning who those people are.

    Camilla Love

    Yeah, it's We talk about authenticity here a lot because it is the buzzword at the moment. But it's something that I've struggled with, particularly in my early part of my career. But now, I found my voice and found who I am. And so therefore, it's much easier to be a little bit more authentic. But it's difficult when you're starting out.

    Emma Quinn

    I think it's the texting in me that just didn't know that you weren't supposed to. You weren't supposed to not say what you thought.

    Camilla Love

    Shout out to all those Texans out there because it is a beautiful state. It is a beautiful state.

    Emma Quinn

    It's a wonderful state.

    Camilla Love

    So let's step back a little bit and talk about, did you always know it was going to be finance, or did you fall into it? How did you how? I told you I.

    Emma Quinn

    Was going to surprise you because I don't think you know this. I went as... I don't know if I've told you this story. The first day after my HSE exam, I went to work. I worked as a receptionist at a building company. I saved up all my money. Six months later, I went on a one way ticket to the US to go to New York to be an actress.

    Camilla Love

    Oh, get out.

    Emma Quinn

    Yes, I did.

    Camilla Love

    Seriously? Yes, seriously. Did you land any roles?

    Emma Quinn

    No, that's why I'm here. I will say, self awareness is something that I think I'm pretty good at because within about three months I realised that maybe maybe I am talented, maybe I'm not, but I'm really not set for the poverty line. And myself, I just.

    Camilla Love

    Do not. Maybe it was the eye of the beholder. They didn't realise the talent that they had in front of you.

    Emma Quinn

    I could.

    Camilla Love

    Get a role in. Nicole Kidman? Yeah.

    Emma Quinn

    Kate Blanchett? Exactly. I could get a role in. No, I was serious. I was only going to do stage. It wasn't about the money, it was about stage. Got it. About the performance. And so then I realised pretty quickly that that wasn't for me, that I could get stardom in a year and it could be 10 years, and it could be never. And I'm not a good waitress. I'm a terrible waitress. It was probably this career wasn't meant to be. And I thought about, I was in the States, obviously had some time, and I traveled around, met some wonderful people, spent some time with some of my cousins. And then I just realised that if it really was a passion of mine, that I should study something and have something behind me. And if I really wanted to continue with acting, I would and I could do it. And if my time was to come to be a star, it would come. But I really needed an education behind me. And so I came after a year of staying with my aunt and uncle for a while in the terrible place of Greenwich, Connecticut, in a very nice house.

    Camilla Love

    Very nice house.

    Emma Quinn

    I then decided to come back to Sydney to study. But then realised that this could take up the whole podcast, how I got into finance, so I'll try and cut it down. I then realised that my HSC results when you study things like drama don't really give you... And it was the first year that it was ever an HSC subject. It doesn't really give you the best scores to get into university that I needed to do something else. And so I actually had a really good mentor who actually owned the building company that I'd worked for before I left to go to the US. She had gone to university and she had suggested some courses and I couldn't get into that. So I ended up going to do... I did open learning and I did about six courses through there. I got high distinctions in law and accounting. And then finally went to UTS, I think, at the age of 20 and said, Please take me in. And they said, Yes, you're a mature age student. Mature age.

    Camilla Love

    Student at 20.

    Emma Quinn

    At 20, I was, yeah. Now I look back, I'm like, Yeah, I know, crazy. And so they took me in as a mature age student. So I ended up, I was doing accounting and then just realised that accounting... I thought I wanted to be a production accountant. I thought I could get my acting part.

    Camilla Love

    The.

    Emma Quinn

    Juggle. Yeah, the juggle and still be part of the film world or the acting world, but from an accounting perspective. And then I changed to finance and I did two submajors in law at UTS. And in the end, I did that at night. But I think from my perspective, it was more that I hadn't really studied economics or anything like that going through high school because I'd focused on the arts. When I got interested in economics and things like that at uni, that's when I decided I wanted to be in finance.

    Camilla Love

    Did you utilize your arts outlet at all?

    Emma Quinn

    No. Really? Nothing. I used to do a lot of dancing. My kids now tell me, Please don't dance.

    Camilla Love

    You're embarrassing me, mum.

    Emma Quinn

    Exactly. I don't do any of that anymore. Bummer. I know.

    Camilla Love

    You should get out there just for a bit of fun.

    Emma Quinn

    Yeah. No, I've lost my touch, I feel. I think they're probably right, the kids. I try and hide them.

    Camilla Love

    So jumping to today, so you've gone from global head of trading to CEO of CBO here in Australia. That's a big jump. How did you make that decision? What attracted you to the role? What are you most excited about in doing the role? I just want to hear all about it.

    Emma Quinn

    What made me think about the role? I was actually approached to consider the role. Originally, I had said, I just don't think the typical female, I don't think that's for me. I've always.

    Camilla Love

    Thought that. Did you call yourself out?

    Emma Quinn

    I did. I went. I went on leave. A lso, the person who approached me called me out on it, too. When I eventually called back and said, Look, actually, I think yeah, maybe I'll consider it. He said, I had a speech ready to tell you why you should be considerate. I really took me some time to say, Actually, no, I'm going to call myself out. And if I am going to leave AB in a role and a firm that I've been with and loved the people for a long time. It has to be the right role. And I'd obviously been approached about other roles previously, and this one I just said, This is my time. This is the right role for me. This is the right firm for me. Every time I met somebody from Sibo, I told the story. Once I got here, I kept waiting for somebody to come in that I went, I really don't think I could work with that person, or they've given me something where I've gone. This is just not the right thing. There's something not right with the culture of this firm. But every time I met somebody, I just really liked the people.

    Emma Quinn

    They were very genuine. We talked a lot about diversity. They were very open about where they feel that they can do better better in that respect. And then just the opportunities in the Australian market. There's so much that CBO does overseas that will work in Australia. And so I really am really excited about the opportunities that we'll have. We've just gone through my first day as CEO, I was CEO or co CEO with Vik, who was the CEO prior to me. We did a big tech migration, probably the biggest financial markets changes in Australia's history that went off pretty much without a hitch.

    Camilla Love

    And a shout out to the team because they.

    Emma Quinn

    Did it. They did. Wonderful job. They did. It was 18 months of hard work. And it just shows the power of CBO in terms of this wasn't five people sitting around in a room doing it. You're talking about hundreds and hundreds of engineers working 24 hours around the clock where they're handing over work to get this done. And the power of that, the new system and what we can bring to Australia is just really exciting. So knowing that that was coming, knowing that the migration would be successful, or hoping it would be, and having faith in that, it gave me the want to come here.

    Camilla Love

    The big nudge.

    Emma Quinn

    Yes, it was.

    Camilla Love

    Great. They've got the right person, right? So I'm super excited for you. And you said you're only week three, so the seats not warm yet. And you're learning a lot, which I am excited for you.

    Emma Quinn

    I thought I was going to learn a lot, but I forgot how much I enjoy just learning something new and how tired that makes you.

    Camilla Love

    But also how extends your brain and how extends the people that you're with because they're all different.

    Emma Quinn

    And the skill set. I think that, and I'm sure you do this too, where you think about, I don't really have that skill set. And then you actually look when you actually break down what your skill set is, you realise what you like and what you're good at and what you don't.

    Camilla Love

    So are you good with change? Because this is big change.

    Emma Quinn

    Normally, no, I don't like change. I like to play have my very much a routine person. So it was a big jump to do it. But once I made the decision, I actually felt really it was weird because I felt really at peace with making the decision. Every day, I walk in here, I'm excited about the opportunity. So no, not usually good with change, but in this instance, it's been great.

    Camilla Love

    And I've asked this to all the CEOs that I've interviewed. And maybe your answer will be different because of the situation and timing of where you are today. Is there anything particular that keeps you up at night right now that you are thinking about, whether it be bringing new product down or whether it be feeling comfortable in who you are in the new role, whatever, what keeps you up at night?

    Emma Quinn

    Not much because I try and I've been sleeping like a baby at those times. I said, When you send your children off to their first day of kindergarten, that first week, and they come home as a five year old and they sleep, that's when me and my children have been putting me to bed the last three weeks. Look, I think it's about this. There is so much opportunity in Australia for CBO. What keeps me up at night is what do we want to attack for?

    Camilla Love

    Your priorities. Yeah.

    Emma Quinn

    Where do we want to go? And what does that look like? And what does that roadmap look like? And so that's really what... It's not so much keeping me up at night, but when I'm on my walks and those things, that's what's.

    Camilla Love

    Going through my head.

    Emma Quinn

    The cogs were... Yeah. That's definitely going through my head.

    Camilla Love

    And because priorities is difficult because there are so many opportunities, and you can probably only do two or three in a certain period of time. And then making sure those three are the right three, or at least if one's wrong, you can flip and pivot and change. That's a lot of worrying.

    Emma Quinn

    It is. But it's one of the great things about CBO is that you have the... It may be a team of 75 in Australia, and some of those are working on regional roles as well. But you also have the global... There's a workforce of another 4,000 in other places, and nothing that we've done or plan to do in Australia really isn't something that CBO hasn't done somewhere else. So I get it. I get some comfort in the protection from a global having a global business.

    Camilla Love

    And the reputation of CBO globally is amazing. So it is good to have them here and bring the technology, as you say, the skill set, the product set, and to really shake up the industry down here.

    Emma Quinn

    And to be able to offer people things that they deserve to be offered. We have one of the largest superannuation markets in the world. People deserve diversity in offerings and things that they may want to invest in. And so being able to help, whether it be brokers or asset managers, facilitate that is exciting and what Australia deserves.

    Camilla Love

    Totally.

    Emma Quinn

    So I.

    Camilla Love

    Always ask this question, too, on every single one of my podcast, because everyone has a different answer. And I always take something away, which is looking back on your career, is there a moment where there's been a sliding doors or something that you've really learned and taken away and it's changed you as a leader or as a team member?

    Emma Quinn

    So many. But I'd say probably one of the most defining was when I was at AB and they asked me if I would take on fixed income. Now, I'd been an equity trader my whole life. I knew nothing about trading fixed income. And I remember that was one instance where I didn't say to them, Are you sure? I just went, Okay, sure. I'll run with it. All of the trading had been centralised in New York, and they said, We want to start. They'd hired an APAC team and they said, We want to start trading in APAC hours. Can you help out with that? And I said, A trade is a trade. I'm happy to do that. And so I set that up and I ended up being an equity trader and then running Asian fixed income as well. E ventually, I did all of Asian trading. For me, that was probably a defining moment in terms of it pushed me to do something completely out of my comfort zone and actually focus on what are my skill sets, what am I good at, and really hone in on those. And so I think that then gave me the courage to then do other things because I look back on that and say, even in taking this job, I look back and say, well, I didn't know anything about fixed income trading, and I ended up hiring some really talented traders who knew everything about fixed income trading, and I could help them with all of the systems and market structure and where, you know, making things more efficient.

    Emma Quinn

    But I didn't necessarily have to know how to trade those individual instruments or be the expert in that. And I think that helped me to learn about how to build good and great teams. And that you don't have to... I always was one of those people I had to know the minutiae of how everything was done and say I could sit in one of my team members seats. Now I'm comfortable that I'm there to be expert. I don't need to be the expert. I need to know enough, but I don't need to know it in detail.

    Camilla Love

    And you need to be able to know enough to ask the right questions. That's my view. And as you move up the ladder and now in your new role, that's exactly right where you can't have and be all over the detail in every second of every day. But you need to have confidence in the team members and their strengths.

    Emma Quinn

    And you need to be asking, like you said, enough questions that you can get comfort in yourself that they're the right person and that you can trust that what they're saying and what they're doing, you can't know their whole role inside out.

    Camilla Love

    And be there when mistakes happen, because inevitably mistakes do happen. And you need to be a supportive leader who gives them that framework to be able to come forward.

    Emma Quinn

    That is particularly important, I found, in trading. There's humans involved. Errors are always going to happen. A head trader's worst nightmare is worth nightmares if someone hide something from you. And so setting up an environment where people are not afraid to tell you that they've made a mistake, or even better, you find out they're willing to come to you and say, Look, I think this could potentially be an issue, and you can help them work through it. And sometimes you can solve it before it actually is an issue. Great.

    Camilla Love

    The confidence in the team. Wow, that's amazing. Tell me about the most valuable piece of advice that you've ever been given, and why did it resonate?

    Emma Quinn

    I think it was a saying once. When I was on my holiday in the US, I read a book, and it's not for everybody, and I'm not even sure it's in print anymore. It was by a woman called Dawn Steele, who was the first woman ever to run a motion picture, a major US motion picture company. I read her book when I was in the US, and it inspired me in terms of she said, Don't try and teach a pig to sing, you waste your time and annoy the pig. I've taken that through because a lot of the time, you do things that sometimes you're just not going to change. You're not going to change people. You need to pick your battles. I tend to pick battles around things that are important to me, which is usually, they're usually ethically related, is where I pick my battles. And then sometimes it doesn't have to always be your way. People may get to the same spot, but it doesn't have to be in the way that you do it. And so for me, I've always taken that with me. And then sometimes you've got to pick your battles and let people have their own path.

    Emma Quinn

    And they may not get there as fast as you and they may not get there in the same way as you, but they'll get there in the end and you just support them through that.

    Camilla Love

    It's one of my favourite sayings, pick your battle, win the war. Two choose it wisely. Let people feel like they're having their say, doing it their way, whatever it is. But get to the overall end point together. And we're all e're all winning, the business is winning, the team is winning. Everybody has their ego and humility intact. And it's important.

    Emma Quinn

    And that's how people learn. They have to be able to do that.

    Camilla Love

    But I love the pig analogy that's awesome. It is, right. Okay, so towards the end of our episodes, we do this quickfire round. Do you know about this?

    Emma Quinn

    I know a little bit, but I have not prepared.

    Camilla Love

    Okay. So you have to say whatever first comes to your mind for the next question.

    Emma Quinn

    I'm in a potato in my mind. That's okay.

    Camilla Love

    They're swearing aloud. Okay. So you're ready? What is the most important money lesson you've ever learned?

    Emma Quinn

    That it won't make you happy, but it does give you choices.

    Camilla Love

    That's a good one. That is a good one. One piece of advice I'd tell my 20 year old self as a mature student.

    Emma Quinn

    As a mature two years old student at UTS, I would tell her don't sweat the small stuff, everything will be fine. I spent too long worrying about the future instead of just embracing and having fun.

    Camilla Love

    That's a good one. I think I'm doing that right now in my 40s, let alone my 20s. What movie do you absolutely love that's embarrassing to admit?

    Emma Quinn

    It's a BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. I can watch that over and over.

    Camilla Love

    With.

    Emma Quinn

    Mr. Darcy? With Mr. Darcy coming out of the water. I am there. I see Pemberley.

    Camilla Love

    That is hilarious.

    Emma Quinn

    That is my...

    Camilla Love

    You're romantic at heart.

    Emma Quinn

    I am.

    Camilla Love

    Do you read the books as well or just the BBC?

    Emma Quinn

    I read them. I'm very particular about which production. I do read Pride and Prejudice at least once a year.

    Camilla Love

    Wow.

    Emma Quinn

    I like Elizabeth, too. She tells him off.

    Camilla Love

    Totally. I can see her in you.

    Emma Quinn

    I see me in Pemberley more.

    Camilla Love

    Yeah, sure. Okay. What's your biggest, hariest personal goal?

    Emma Quinn

    I don't really set myself goals. I just try and be consistent with things. For me, personal goal at work is to listen more. I'm a good talker. It's really hard. It's really hard.

    Camilla Love

    That's why I do a podcast because I talk.

    Emma Quinn

    I know on a personal level, look, my personal goal is to just continue. I think especially when you take on a new role like I am. I thought about this and talked to people, particularly people like Jen, who I speak to a lot, around, When I take on this new role, what are some of the things that I want to achieve? And part of it is that I need to keep me happy and healthy. And so things around my personal goal is to keep up the things that I know make me a better mother, wife, employee, CEO, is making sure that I keep up my exercise, make sure I keep up the things that are important to me. So my biggest, probably here is personal goal is to make sure that I don't let work consume me as much as I say on my walks. I'm thinking about things is just to make sure that having more of a focus on myself and my personal health as well, because if I don't have that, I'm no good to anybody.

    Camilla Love

    Absolutely. I say that a lot. I say that a lot to a number of people. If I wasn't doing this job, I'd be a?

    Emma Quinn

    Actress.

    Camilla Love

    I thought you might answer that. On my bucket list is?

    Emma Quinn

    There's a lot. I want to go with family to Greece, Italy. My children are into history. I want to do all of that.

    Camilla Love

    Greek and Roman mythology and all the ruins and stuff.

    Emma Quinn

    And I want to do it at a point where they remember it because they spent a lot of time traveling when they were young when we lived in Hong Kong, and they tell me that they don't remember a thing about it. I wasted a lot of time and money.

    Camilla Love

    On trips. It was good for you.

    Emma Quinn

    It was. I should have gone without them.

    Camilla Love

    I say exactly the same thing because I'd really love to go to Egypt, but I think it needs to be at a point where the kids.

    Emma Quinn

    Appreciate it. Absolutely. And they can fit it into their learning and reading.

    Camilla Love

    Tell me something that no one else knows about you.

    Emma Quinn

    Like I said, I'm an oversharer. There's very little that no one... Nothing? Nothing. No. Everybody, I can't.

    Camilla Love

    No. Favourite colour?

    Emma Quinn

    No, I'm a red. I love red. I wear black a lot, but my favourite colour is red. No. Everyone knows. I don't tend to hide. Okay, great. I don't get embarrassed by much.

    Camilla Love

    Okay, next question. If I was a superhero, I'd be?

    Emma Quinn

    Again, my children are very much into it and say this could get me in trouble because if I choose the wrong superhero set, I'm in trouble. But black widow, I'm quite a fan of.

    Camilla Love

    Great.

    Emma Quinn

    Black Widow.

    Camilla Love

    She's.

    Emma Quinn

    Strong. Yeah, exactly. And I think she's on the right, whatever that... I don't know.

    Camilla Love

    Marvel versus...

    Emma Quinn

    Yeah, so I'm in trouble for Black Widow.

    Camilla Love

    Dc? Yeah, got it. Okay, my biggest investment mistake?

    Emma Quinn

    I've got a rule, I don't know what you... I have a rule that I never chose baby names while I was pregnant, but I actually made the decision to buy a house while I was pregnant, which I still try to work out. It turned out to be not a huge financial mistake, but it was definitely one where I went. When I looked back, I go, Why did I buy a house there that ended up increasing my commute and just made my life a little bit harder as a working mother.

    Camilla Love

    Most people do that and then go, Yeah, I'm going to renovate too and try and get.

    Emma Quinn

    It before the baby comes out. I did that one too. My husband's now a builder, and so he was responsible for that. That was so interesting.

    Camilla Love

    Okay. So you outsource the problem. And did you deliver on time as a question?

    Emma Quinn

    I moved into the house with a 10 week old baby, and he still questions why I got upset because I was washing dishes on the back deck in a bucket.

    Camilla Love

    Oh, my God. With a baby?

    Emma Quinn

    Yeah, with a baby. Yeah. I think I had every reason to be.

    Camilla Love

    That's an investment mistake in time, let alone the.

    Emma Quinn

    House as well. Exactly.

    Camilla Love

    Okay, last question. Describe in three words why a career in finance is awesome.

    Emma Quinn

    The people investing in others, I'd say.

    Camilla Love

    Yeah. I think that's a really great... And particularly as a leader of teams, you're only as good a leader as you have followers.

    Emma Quinn

    Absolutely.

    Camilla Love

    I think that's a really great way to end it. I love that you're an oversharer. I love that you're an actress. I love that you describe yourself as the text of an art because you just like, this is how it worlds.

    Emma Quinn

    I.

    Camilla Love

    Love that you talked about authenticity because I think it's really important. And we always, and we talk about it a lot here, and taking risks and backing yourself, even though... So it was great to hear your story about I'm taking on fixed income trading and I'll yes, but yet when you get asked to put yourself forward for the CEO role here, it's like, can I do it? But you proved it, definitely. And so Emma, so excited and thank you very much for your time with me on Shares Not Chews. And good luck. And I look forward to seeing and watching you grow and watching CBO here in Australia flourish under your leadership.

    Emma Quinn

    Thank you. And thank you for being one of the... I think one of the things that's changed so much in the industry is how much female support females. When I first started, it was very much I did it the hard way, you do it the hard way, but you're such an inspiration in everything that you do. You put your money and time into the industry for women. So thank you. I look forward to seeing.

    Camilla Love

    Where you.

    Emma Quinn

    End.

    Camilla Love

    Up. Yeah, watch this space.

    Emma Quinn

    You.

    Camilla Love

    Inspire me a lot. So I'll see how we go in the next little while. I look forward to seeing you soon.

    Emma Quinn

    Yes, definitely. See you. Bye.

    Camilla Love

    The information that is in this podcast, we.

    Speaker 3

    Always talk about finance in this podcast, but it's not financial advice.

    Camilla Love

    It's actually really.

    Speaker 3

    Careers advice. If you really want financial advice, I recommend that you speak to a financial planner or a broker and work out your own personal circumstances with that. But this is all about careers advice and how finance would be a fabulous career for you.