CV
Marija Beleska
Date of Birth: October 1984
Address: Ohrid: Bul Turisticka 4-A-10, Macedonia
Mobile No.: [login to view URL]
Education and Qualifications:
March 2007 Holder of three Certificates issued by the Securities Institute in London on Financial Regulation, Securities and Derivatives respectively. As a consequence, holder of the “Approved Persons” status issued by the Financial Services Authority in London that enables me to work with clients of all professional levels in the financial services industry in the UK.
2002 – 2004 University of Reading
BSc International Securities Investment and Banking.
Degree class: 1st class Honours
May 2005 exams: Spreadsheet Modelling for Finance 100%; Computational Finance (VBA Programming) 95%, Derivative Securities: 95%, Portfolio Management: 90%, Money and Banking: 90%.
May 2004 exams: Business Finance (double credits) 92%; Mathematics for Economists 98%; Microeconomics 79%; Macroeconomics: 73%; Econometrics: 70%
May 2003: Quantitative Techniques 93%; Financial Accounting 89%; Management 63%, Securities and Markets 87%; Economics: 85%
2000 – 2002 International Baccalaureate at Anatolia College, Thessaloniki, Greece.
3 High Level subjects: economics (7 out of 7), mathematics (7), physics (7).
Graduated from Anatolia among the top three students and was awarded a prize at the Anatolia commencement ceremony.
1998 – 2000 St. Clement Ohridski High School, Ohrid, Macedonia.
14 subjects: all grade A, including mathematics, physics and computers
Work experience:
October 2008
- Early December
2008 Ad Hoc Financial Consultant for Equal Finance Group, Germany:
- Creating Excel-based quantitative analysis models for purchases of portfolios of mortgages / purchases of companies in Germany and Holland
- Validation of financial models and write-up of accompanying documentation
June 2006
– July 2008 Quantitative analysis in portfolio arbitrage at ABN AMRO Bank N.V. London (now part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group).
Roles:
- Developing cashflow models for valuation of portfolios of near-prime and non-conforming residential mortgages under a securitisation takeout premise in the principal finance sphere. The ultimate goal of the models is to identify an arbitrage potential between risk-based pricing of mortgages by lenders and value attributed to a portfolio by capital market investors.
- Since recently, responsible for buy-and-hold valuation and monitoring of a newly acquired portfolio of non-performing UK residential mortgages.
- Providing portfolio valuations for potential acquisitions of portfolios of residential mortgages across Europe.
- Analysing the risk profile, lenders’ underwriting criteria and pricing of individual residential mortgages to retail clients and recommending inclusion/exclusion within a particular acquisition pool.
- Quantitative analysis of portfolios and excel-based pool tape consistency checks of the mortgages at the initial stages of discussions with clients, which eliminate potential small-scale errors that would otherwise fail the due-diligence process at the next more crucial phase nearing portfolio acquisition.
- Data analysis to facilitate the formulation of underlying assumptions on prepayments, arrears and defaults in the valuation models.
- Providing active support during the securitisation take out execution and liaising with Rating Agencies in the WAFF-WALS / Expected Loss analysis of the securitisation pool tape.
- Liaison with Product Control and Accounting on a regular basis in order to reconcile monthly portfolio valuations
- Since recently, also covering the Swap desk where duties involve booking and monitoring of swaps, as well as providing pricing on plain vanilla interest rate and basis swaps and caps in order to hedge the interest rate risk exposure on the underlying mortgage portfolio.
- Developing good day-to-day working relationships with clients who provide indicative mortgage pools.
October 2005
– May 2006: Graduate Analyst at Ohrid Bank Ohrid, Macedonia.
The position involved one-month rotations around different departments of the bank to get a broader understanding of the day-to-day banking operations. During the process I visited the domestic and foreign payments departments dealing with retail and corporate clients and I also spent an extensive period in the credit department where I familiarised myself with the bank’s underwriting policy and procedures and met some of the bank’s clients. My most recent rotation was at the planning and analysis department, where I helped analyse the term and currency structure of the bank’s assets and liabilities as well as analyse the structure and credit quality of the bank’s loan portfolio and the changes in its off-balance-sheet exposures.
April 2004
– July 2004: Sales assistant at Paul Costelloe, House of Fraser, Reading.
Roles: serving customers and maintenance. Also showed initiative in helping the manager run the department by doing extra administrative work, assisting in shop floor design, liaising with special customers and participating in job training. As a result, gained trust and was given responsibility to run the department during my manager’s holidays even though being most recently employed of all staff.
Summer 2003: Summer intern at Ohrid Bank AD Ohrid Macedonia.
Duties included assisting with the administration of letters of credit, interacting with l/c clients, as well as assisting with inter-bank messaging using the SWIFT system for international money transfers.
Prizes and scholarships:
• May 1999: Won the third prize in the National Mathematics Competition in Macedonia.
• June 2000: Came first in a country-wide Maths and English contest and won a two year full scholarship to study at Anatolia College Thessaloniki, Greece.
• July 2002: Won a tuition scholarship to study at the ISMA Centre, University of Reading. The scholarship was given to overseas International Baccalaureate graduates and was one out of two scholarships awarded world-wide.
• July 2003: Won the first prize for top results in the Financial Accounting exam at University, awarded by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
• October 2003: Won the Stephen Cooke Memorial Fund Award for exceptional academic performance and personal promise. Both were demonstrated by top exam results and a three panel interview with Simon Culhane, the Securities Institute’s CEO, a senior broker and Brian Scott Quinn, the president of the ISMA Centre, University of Reading.
• October 2004: Won the Stephen Cooke Memorial Fund Award again, for the first time in ISMA Centre history. Award was presented by the Lord Mayor of London.
• December 2004: Won the University-wide Edge and Ravencroft award for best academic performance in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department for my first and second year of studies.
Skills profile:
Communication and selling skills:
During my work as a sales assistant, as I had to sell an expensive brand to a small number of customers, I learned how to create and maintain strong customer relationships, listen to customers’ needs and gain their trust. As a result, on two occasions I was rewarded for selling a bulk of items to a single customer. I was also part of the team with highest early summer sales among all Paul Costelloe departments in the UK.
Enthusiasm and responsibility:
I am very hard working and especially enjoy intellectually stimulating situations, where I can apply my knowledge and reasoning. My academic success awarded with three scholarships proves that I welcome responsibility and I am well organised and effective under pressure.
Adaptability
Having been successful in three different countries with distinct customs and educational systems proves that I’m a highly adaptable person with excellent interpersonal skills who does not know of geographical boundaries and is ready to take on any challenge.
IT skills
Proficient in Microsoft Excel (Spreadsheet Modelling and VBA Programming), and also comfortable working with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Microsoft Front Page web design and Bloomberg.
Interests and Past Commitments:
• Small World Café member (2002-2005, University of Reading, meetings once a week): networked with international students and helped them adapt at University, shared my personal experiences, helped organise cultural evenings, prepared presentations on life in Britain.
• Member of social events Hall Committee (2000-2002, Anatolia Hall, Greece): helped organise Christmas and Easter parties as well as charity events. Also set up a resident team to visit disabled children at a nearby hospital. Task carried great responsibility and resulted in improved leadership skills.
• Member of Creative Writing society (2000-2001, Anatolia IB Greece, once a week): developed creative as well as language skills and had two poems published in Anatolia’s yearly magazine.
• President of the maths society (1998 – 2000, St Clement Ohridski secondary school, Macedonia, once a week): co-ordinated student preparations for regional and national competitions, managed subscriptions to maths magazines and arranged sponsorship by visiting firms and the local government.
• Newspaper editor (1998-2000, St Clement Ohridski, twice-yearly school magazine): initiated and edited a column expressing student opinions on teaching styles and the educational system in general. Task was challenging as it enabled students to express whether they were happy with teachers, which sometimes led to conflict.
• Ongoing interest in singing, dancing, playing the piano and guitar
References available on request.
