Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

I love what RiskMetrics Group represents to financial market participants. We symbolize transparency, shareholder rights, and corporate governance.

RiskMetrics Group allows me to be myself at work. For example, my desk has nerf footballs, golf equipment, and a Jade plant. I always feel welcome to be at home while at work.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

I sell our Governance and Research services to Hedge Funds. About half of my days are out of the office meeting with clients and prospects. When I am in the office I spend time prospecting for new accounts and working with the various business teams on strategies to grow our company.

What is your favorite RMG experience?

A number of us have a tradition of going to opening day at Yankee Stadium. We take a boat from Wall Street up to the Bronx in the morning and we spend the day together.

Explain your career progression with RMG?

I spent my first year as an Account Manager for our Proxy Voting Service. After that I spent 1 year selling our Class Action Service followed by 2 years as a Jr. Sales Rep. For the past 3 years I have been selling all of our Governance & Research Services to Hedge Funds.

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

At RiskMetrics Group there is always room to grow. We are encouraged to develop new approaches and new ideas with each project.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

I led the “bespoke” team within our FR&A group – producing custom research that helps our clients mitigate risk.

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

Working for RiskMetrics Group is a great learning experience for me in the business world. I enjoy learning about securities fraud, global markets and servicing clients worldwide. The most enjoyment is working with my key clients to provide excellent customer services and efficient solutions to their problems or questions.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

I’m a Securities Class Action Services (SCAS) Analyst. I work on the Operations team. A typical work day for me includes: filing claims on behalf of our clients, doing ad-hoc research on upcoming litigations, contacting claim administrators, and answering client inquires.

What led you to RMG?

I originally worked for the Investor Research Responsibility Center (IRRC) as an Account Manager, which was acquired by RiskMetrics Group in 2006.

What makes you unique?

I am a team player and self-starter who enjoy coming up with ideas that help my team progress as a whole. I also work well under pressure and make sure myself and team meet our deadlines. I have a great personality, I always try to say hello to everyone no matter who it may because I believe the little things go a long way.

What is your favorite RMG experience?

Being randomly chosen and selected to go to Wall Street (New York City) to ring the opening bell, and Proxy Palooza (summer picnic).

I also like the diversity; I believe this is a great benefit to have employees from all across the world and learning from each other.

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

There’re three reasons (without placing any priorities or preferences among them) why I enjoy working for RMG.

Firstly, it’s the people that I work with that makes RMG so unique, different, and exciting place to work for. When you’re surrounded by a group of people who talk, act, and live like one big family, it takes so little for newcomers to become part of it – this has certainly been the case for me.

Secondly, it’s the nature of work that I get to engage myself as a research analyst. The amount of preparation required to produce a piece of work allows me to learn and identify broader governance issues – this intellectual revelation is indeed one of the most exciting elements of my job.

Thirdly, it’s the quality of time that I get to spend with my family - I mean, blood-related family. Except for the peak period during the main AGM season, overtime is rarely necessary and this gives me sufficient time to spend quality time with my family.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

Research analyst (ISS Governance Services) based in Melbourne, Australia

In brief, my role as a research analyst involves:

• Being informed and up-to-date on corporate governance issues and trends in two markets – Korea and Australia – through newspapers, journals, academic papers, etc.
• Producing research reports for AGMs and EGMs
• Engaging in any other research projects
• Attending meetings or conferences, and maintaining contacts with various individuals and organizations with the aim of creating higher-quality research reports.

What led you to RMG?

I was attracted to ISS Governance Services part of RMG because I saw corporate governance as an emerging discipline. Also, having studied both business and law, I saw corporate governance as an area in which my academic aspirations could be satisfied.

What makes you unique?

I’m Korean-Canadian-soon to be Australian. I completed my primary education in Korea; secondary and undergraduate study in Canada; and graduate studies in Australia. Being exposed to and exploring different paths of life and cultures have been an exciting journey for me. In a way, I think my life reflects a growing trend in corporate governance – convergence. As I struggled to put together cultural differences of east and west, the fundamental principles underlying corporate governance are increasingly sought to be unified.

What is your favorite RMG experience?

Having joined RMG as a full-time employee only recently in April 2008, I’ll have my first fun day event in Melbourne and I’m really looking forward to it. In my experience with RMG so far, the most memorable events had been with Korean research analysts and interns after covering the Korean main season from Melbourne in Feb-March in 2008. Together, we made sure to spoil ourselves with great food, outdoor activities, followed by a group photo in Eureka tower (tallest residential building in the southern hemisphere) where all of us stood on the glass floor – something that Australian team did as their fun day activity in 2007.

Explain your career progression with RMG?

I joined RMG as a Korean research intern in Jan 2008 and subsequently became a full-timer in April 2008.

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

I work at RMG because it’s a really great group of people and a wonderful company to work for. Everyone is very down to earth and a pleasure to work with. This company gives me a great work and home life balance.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

I am the Accounts Payable Coordinator. I have a great deal of interaction with numerous employees since I handle all the expense reports for US and Canada.
I process all invoices for payment for the Risk side of the business on a daily basis as well.

What led you to RMG?

After interviewing with RMG, I knew I wanted to work here because of the culture of the company. It is a very comfortable atmosphere and the company seemed to be going in a good direction, which proved to be right. After being here 5 years I know I made the right choice by accepting my position within the company. I love working for RMG and I know the future will bring many more challenges in my career.

What is your favorite RMG experience?

I would have to say that one of my favorite RMG experiences would have to be a department outing we had at Johnny Utah’s and seeing all my co-workers ride the mechanical bull. It was very amusing!

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

I think the main reason I’ve worked here so long is because of the people who work here. There are a lot of very intelligent, motivated individuals across the company. I like the relaxed atmosphere; people are trusted to get on with their work and not policed to do it. Everyone is encouraged to speak up if they have ideas – mutual respect is hugely important at the company.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

I currently work in the marketing team so I spend a lot of my day working with the sales team. Our main marketing project at the moment is the annual client conference taking place in a few months. Tasks involved vary from choosing menus for lunch to working with research, business and sales to develop the agenda. There are a lot of people from different areas of the business and different locations of the company involved in producing the event and so it’s a good chance to work with people outside of the team.

What led you to RMG?

I started at RMG as a temp on a 2 month contract which got extended by a few months and then I was persuaded to take a permanent position. 9 years later I’m still here! It was an office of just 7 people when I took the permanent position but we all got on really well and what really swayed it for me was the fact that the company was growing so quickly. It was an exciting and unique time – a lot of people had left behind their corporate backgrounds to join this new company - and everyone working here was excited about what the future held. Now we’re a public company with over 100 employees in London and 1000 worldwide, it’s pretty amazing when I think back on the one room office we were in when I started.

What is your favorite RMG experience?

I loved the first offsite I attended in upstate New York not long after I started with the company. It was my first trip to the US and to NYC and it was great to see the NY office and meet all of the people who I’d been speaking to on the phone and email for so many months. The offsite itself was great fun, as well as learning loads about the business and what other people did. It was very social and I realized that there were a lot of nice, fun people working for the company. Joint first would be when we attended the Oktoberfest in Munich a few years ago. That was a lot of fun.

Explain your career progression with RMG?

I started as a temp as the new London office team didn’t have any admin support. My days varied from working out how to use the franking machine to reception work, purchase ledger and VAT returns to responding to client queries from the various marketing mailshots that were going on. It was a new company and we were trying to get our name and brand out in the market. As the office grew my role developed into more of an office manager one and part of my responsibilities were to manage the relocation of the London office to larger premises. After that I had the opportunity to either stay with the office management work, get more involved with the company accounts and become part of that team or concentrate wholly on marketing. As I had always enjoyed my involvement with marketing initiatives I chose the latter. I’ve been part of the marketing team for the last 6 years and during that time I’ve been involved in writing marketing plans for the EMEA region, worked on the new corporate website, advertising campaigns, produced sales brochures and worked on many internal conferences and trade shows. Recently, I’ve been offered the opportunity to move to a role with the sales team and so I’m looking forward to the change and the chance to get more involved with the business.

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

RiskMetrics Group is the company where I can truly develop myself. It’s all about people in RMG, where initiative of anyone is highly appreciated and supported. It is really a big family where you can count on your teammates and where you can talk to your manager barefooted.

Besides constantly being challenged in the actual working process I really enjoy developer lunches on Wednesdays (it feels like you go to a developer conference for an hour), office parties, and playing sports with coworkers after/between hours (if you count Nintendo Wii in the kitchen as a sport :).

What is your role and what makes up your day?

My role at RMG is a Software Developer. But my job is not only about software. I work on a portfolio risk management web application which implies a deep understanding of finance world. Every day is filled up with interaction with other developers and business analysts. There is simply no time to get bored!

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

I work here because it is a great place to work! I enjoy the work environment, the friendly co-workers, and challenging tasks I am given. Also my wife and I wanted to stay in Oklahoma, so RMG is a good place for me.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

I work for the vote execution department. We are given several workloads throughout the day which we have to complete. In addition to this we get cases throughout the day which we need to complete.

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

RiskMetrics performs in invaluable service to the financial community and has an organizational style that resonates deeply with the way I like getting things done. Serendipitously, I happen to have skills and experience that the company seems to find useful and I am able to help out my colleagues every so often. I love it here.

I appreciate that the information RiskMetrics provides to the industry has a positive impact on critical financial and economic decisions. I like that in order to provide this information we have to crack remarkably difficult mathematical and computational challenges. I love that we’ve formed a team of individually talented people who, as we work together, are able to do together way more than we could achieve individually. I feel privileged to be one of these people and am motivated every day to not only do my part but to help bring all this talent together to make the world a safer and more informed place for individual and institutional investors.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

I manage the New York developers of our Risk platform. This means I spend most of my day collaborating with the technical and project managers to develop applications and software services that our clients in the Risk business use to report on the market risk of their portfolios and other important financial statistics essential to the running of various financial and asset management businesses.

But perhaps more importantly, I help the developers working for me who are doing the real work of building these applications and services. I listen to their technology proposals, vet their software designs, explain financial product modeling, help them work out their people problems, and help them manage their projects.

What makes you unique?

In high school, I was captain of the math team and that year we went undefeated in the state. We even had cheerleaders, though none of them would date us (we asked).

Explain your career progression with RMG?

Credit Development – Retail Development – Application Development – Development Product Management – Platform Development

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

First, the potential, I work at RiskMetrics not because of what we have now but because of what we will have in the future.

Second, the people that I work with, who will eventually make the potential come true, including ME. Without them, I wouldn’t be at RMG any more.

Finally, my family, I love since I believe they also love me working at RMG!

What is your role and what makes up your day?

My Role is the mixture of RiskBusiness team as an account manager and Sales team as a country manager of Korea. Yes, there are lots of different things I do covering from pre-sales and after-sales process, however it is actually not bounded to my role/title and I can do almost what I’d like to do! It’s RiskMetrics and it’s me who decide what I do.

What led you to RMG?

It was almost an accident but turned out to be a perfect one!
Three years ago, I ran into an opportunity which looked quite interesting, so applied, went through intensive interview process, passed luckily and I came all the way down from Korea to Singapore with my family to join RiskMetrics. However, it wasn’t that hard to decide since I believed that RiskMetrics would be such a perfect place to balance my work and my personal life. AND, I still believe it is and will be.

What is your favorite RMG experience?

I’m actually quite disappointed and depressed while writing my profile because I can’t join one of my favorite parts of RiskMetrics, which is the BBQ with Singapore team! I’m the fire expert there and it was always ME who sets the fire to FEED my colleagues in the BBQ. Hence bit also worried that they might get starved without this fire expert in coming BBQ this weekend. Maybe eat more because they can have my share without me?

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

I enjoy the type of work I do and the people I work with. I work on different issues every day and the nature of my job requires me to learn new things.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

I am in the Application Management tools team, my main tasks are, keep our monitoring checks up to date, release new software and create tools for our operations team. Solving problems makes me happy.

What led you to RMG?

I was referred by a friend, who’s now a colleague.

What makes you unique?

I speak three languages Arabic, French and English and a dialect.

What is your favorite RMG experience?

Explain your career progression with RMG?

Started working for RMG in September 04 in Noble OK as an intern fixing RM3 bugs, then I got hired full time in the application management team in May 05. I did releases for a while then tier1 application support and now tier2 application support and tools team.

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

The culture makes RiskMetrics a great place to work. Although we’ve grown significantly since I joined in 2004, the culture remains the same. People who work here genuinely love what they do and feel like they make a difference. HR specifically is seen as a partner to the business rather than a support function so I feel like we make a difference and have an impact to the organization.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

I’m a HR Generalist based in the London office. A day can vary from interviewing, co-ordinating benefits, arranging internship programs or working with the Global HR team on global projects.

What led you to RMG?

I was interviewed by quite a few people during the hiring process and it was evident that the people who work here are passionate about what they do. I was drawn to the flat structure of the organization and the hard working and challenging environment. I wasn’t happy being part of a HR team that meant I didn’t get exposure to all aspects of HR and RiskMetrics offered the opportunity to be involved in every aspect of HR.

What is your favorite RMG experience?

We recently held our first ‘Bring your Child to Work Day’ in the London office. It was great to meet the children of the people who work here and potential future employees!

Besides that, fun days are always great, I never would have tried circus training if it wasn’t for RiskMetrics!

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

I work at RiskMetrics Group because of the company’s unique culture that embraces people as individuals and fosters growth.

Working at RMG affords me the opportunity to continuously learn and become an expert on corporate governance solutions.

I enjoy working with people who have a lot of enthusiasm for what they do and I enjoy being surrounded by intellectual minds.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

Account Management- Corporate Governance. My day comprises of overall management of client accounts, problem solving, relationships building, client education and ensuring that we are providing services that enable our clients to meet their fiduciary responsibilities.

What led you to RMG?

Having worked with Market Data, it was an exciting opportunity for me to move into the Corporate Governance world which is a unique but fast growing component of the financial industry.

What makes you unique?

I believe what makes me unique is that I work well with all levels of people and I have the ability to function effectively even in the most challenging situations while staying calm and professional.

What is your favorite RMG experience?

Fun Day event – gives us the opportunity to mingle with colleagues and have fun as a team!

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

Why do I like working at Riskmetrics Group? It’s because of three things: PEOPLE, FLEXIBILITY, and the WORK ENVIRONMENT… in that order! Working at Riskmetrics Group allows me interact with hugely smart and talented individuals that constantly challenge and bring out the best in me. I also like the flexibility of my job and the way that the company lets me shape my job to fit my interests and skills. Lastly, Riskmetrics Group also gives me the opportunity to be a part of a work environment that is friendly, supportive, competitive and very diverse.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

My main responsibility as a sector lead of the Manila team is to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of proxy research for US companies in the consumer retail sector. Since I enjoy analyzing and working on difficult companies, successfully delivering a quality report and knowing that such report will help shareholders manage risk and drive value make my day.

What is your favorite RMG experience?

My most unforgettable experience was back in 2006 when I spent the whole 2006 Proxy Season in Rockville, Maryland. From meeting our US teammates to communicating directly to clients and corporate issuers, the experience gave me a better understanding of the whole research process and allowed me to look at my role in the organization in a different light. Coming from a tropical country, seeing and touching the snow for the very first time was the culminating experience!

Explain your career progression with RMG?

I have been working for ISS/RMG for the past five years doing proxy research. In the course of my stay with the company, I’ve moved from doing CGQ and basic PAS research to more complex research proposals such as Executive Compensation and Mergers & Acquisitions. Last year, I took part in the policy formulation for the 2008 Proxy Season. Just this June, I was tasked to lead the Consumer Retail team in Manila.

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

I work at RMG because it has a lot of the things I’ve always wanted in a company. I love to read so working for a research company is a great place to put into use what I’m good at. I wasn’t really aware of what Corporate Governance was when I started out but now, it’s becoming interesting especially since I’m encountering the topic more and more as I progress through my graduate studies.

I like how we have a “casual” office environment – no strict dress codes, a lot of fun activities (fun day, proxy season kick-off party) – but of course, we still get a lot of work done.

I like how my teammates are of the same age group as I am so it’s easy to converse and interact with them. We like the same things, basically grew up with the same interests, so we never run out of things to share with each other.

Last but not least, I like how RMG is about the People and making sure that everybody’s always having FUN.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

As a team lead, my day always starts with checking my email for updates/feedback from my superiors in Rockville, Maryland about the various projects that the team is working on. I sort out and read such emails and later on hold a meeting with the rest of the team to keep them up to date on the progress of our work.

My team handles Voting Analytics and I distribute to the analysts the companies that need to be profiled for the day. Afterwards, I review and deploy the companies that were profiled during the previous day so that the data that were gathered will be reflected in the Governance Analytics product. This I do for the US, International, and Canada markets.

Profiling for my team’s new work, the Executive Compensation Peer Benchmarking project, occupies the rest of my day.

The last thing I do for the day is send an email to my superiors regarding queries/clarifications on any of our projects.

What is your favorite RMG experience?

My favorite is the Fun Day event because it’s an activity where I get to do something really different with my friends (like this year, I get to explore an underground river in Palawan – one of the nominees for the new Seven Wonders of the World) - and it’s paid for by the company! It’s like getting paid to have fun. =)

Explain your career progression with RMG?

I was hired in 2003 as a Research Analyst then I was promoted in 2006 to Senior Research Analyst. I became a Team Lead on January 2008.

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

I would have a hard time working anywhere else at this point. I worked for different types of organizations in the past, but I have never felt that people were valued the way they are at RiskMetrics Group. While feeling valued is a nice side-effect of this culture, the true benefit is the effect is has on the way people do their jobs. There is a sense of ownership that motivates people to exceed expectations, and that makes everyones’ jobs easier and more satisfying.

Another way RMG has ruined me for all other companies is the caliber of people here. This organization does a great job of mostly finding the type of people they seek. And when I say caliber, it is not in a “top schools” or “top companies” way, but rather a diverse collection of bright and interesting people who know how to work as a part of a team.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

As a member of the marketing team, I work on many of the marketing initiatives on the risk side of the business. While I am involved with many general marketing activities such as campaigns and collateral content, my specialties within the group are market research and proposal writing. For me, working at the intersection of our products and the markets into which we sell them is an exiting place to be and allows me a broad view of the risk side of our business.

What makes you unique?

I love to travel and have been lucky enough to live in Europe and Asia. I spent two insanely fun years in the rice-paddy countryside of Japan teaching English to Japanese 9 and 10 year olds.

I have 3 children. Not many employers would help make work / family balance manageable the way RMG has.

Why do you work at RiskMetrics Group? What do you enjoy the most?

It’s because of the people I meet internally and externally, and everyday challenges. From an easy day to a difficult day, I learn something new from someone within the company everyday. My colleagues are my most valuable assets, which makes me believe I have the potential to go further.

What is your role and what makes up your day?

My role varies from account management, operations and GPD; answering client queries, introduce new services, vote and process ballots on behalf of them. I spend the busiest days during Japan proxy season. Big Tsunami comes and I get them through with a help of teams in every locations.