Page 19 - CCFA Journal - Second Issue

人物专访 Interview
Yicent: 回顾过往的 20 多年，您的足迹遍布学术研究、大学教
书、对冲基金投资和技术创新。您能跟我们分享创建学术研究
和商业，像风险实验室、西格玛分析和管理和最近的 GGSJ 数据
管理和技术中心，您的初心和愿景是什么？
Seco 教授: 所有这些都源自我的本心。我很乐意谈谈这些。也
许我应该从西格玛开始。西格玛是我 1999 年，也就是 20 年前
成立的。它的成立有两方面动因。一方面是我和商业合作伙伴
David 在大学时期进行的一些研究。那时，他领导着 Redford，
一家加拿大的经纪公司。该研究旨在探讨另类投资对加拿大养
老金的好处。那是我被邀请去做研究。我完成了，并且学到了
很多有关加拿大退休金、计划系统和另类投资的知识。然后，
我的合作伙伴认为有机会帮助加拿大退休金业务。那是个好主
意。我们做了。大家都知道安大略省教师退休金计划（OTPP），
20 多年来，它一直是我们的重要合作伙伴。OTPP 一直是 MMF
非常重要的合作伙伴，而且 MMF 的毕业生，我有个数字，不
是很确切的，也许有 30 个，非常多的学生在那工作。因此，我
们很高兴地说，MMF 培养了 OTPP 的资深人士，例如 Audrey
Gaspar 和 Stephen McLennan。我们为他们感到骄傲，他们是
OTPP 非常资深的人士。正如我提到的那样，从外部来看，它们
对西格玛分析和管理的贡献也很大，例如管理帐户模型为 OTPP
提供的另类投资组合。在 2006 年，当 OTPP 与西格玛分析和管
理一起做的时候，全世界的人都希望这能实现。所以，回到我
刚才说的。这与增加价值有关，你给予的价值是什么。然后，
你可以确定自己要做的事是对的。接着讲你刚刚提到的 GGSJ，
是同一回事。MMF 有一个非常棒的开始，它已经有 20 多年历
史了。我在世界上遇到的一切，无论是生物技术还是社会设计，
都能触类旁通。技术创新的需求始终存在于各个领域。学生需
要找工作，公司也需要雇用合适的人。因此，在不创建另一个
大学学位的情况下，也不花费太多精力在大学冗长和复杂的流
程，可行的办法是创建一家公司，作为大学的延伸，帮助学生
找到工作，帮助公司找到合适的受过培训的人。学习曲线虽然
很短，但仍然满足了当今的需求，像制药行业的大数据。我们
有这个能力，可以做到这一点。看一下 Covid-19。Covid-19 的
挑战之一是获取健康数据。数据是一个巨大的挑战。这表明，
在任何地方都需要具有专业对口的人，包括在健康领域中将长
期需要处理数据培训的人。所以，我们来做。一切都与增加价
值有关。我认为我们对如何全面实现目标抱有很好的愿景。
CCFA JOURNAL OF FINANCE
加中金融
Yicent: Now, to connect dots in the past 20 plus years, your
footprints have spanned over academic research, university teaching,
hedge fund investment, and technology innovation. Can you share
with us some of your original initiatives and visions of founding these
academic research and businesses such as RiskLab, Sigma Analysis
& Management and recently GGSJ Centre of Digital Management
and Technology?
Professor Seco: All of these are very close to my heart. I’d love to
talk about these. Maybe I should start with Sigma. Sigma is the
company I created in 1999, which was more than 20 years ago. It was
created as a reaction to two things. On one hand is some research in
the university that was given to my business partner, David. At that
point he was leading Redford, which is one of the brokerage firms in
Canada. The research was to explore how alternative investment
would be good for Canadian pensions. That was the research that I
was asked to deliver. I did that and learned a lot about the Canadian
pension plan systems and alternative investments. Then my partner
thought there were opportunities to help the Canadian pension plan
business. That’s a good idea. We did that. And everybody knows that
the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan (OTPP) has been a great partner
of ours for over 20 years. OTPP has been a very great partner of MMF
and the MMF graduates. We have, I don’t know the number, 30
maybe, a very big number of students employed there. So, we are
happy to say that MMF shaped OTPP’s very senior people, for
example, Audrey Gaspar and Stephen McLennan. We are extremely
proud of them and they are very senior people at OTPP. As I
mentioned, from the outside, their contributions to Sigma Analysis &
Management are large too, such as the alternative portfolio of OTPP
by the managing account model. Everybody through the world
wanted to implement it as OTPP and Sigma Analysis & Management
did together in 2006. So, I go back to what I talked about earlier. It is
all about the value added, what is the value that you give. Then you
can be sure that what you are going to do is the right thing to do. Now
moving forward, as you said about GGSJ, it is about the same thing.
MMF is a great initiative, and it has been there for more than 20 years.
Given everything happening in the world it occurs to me that there
must a way to do the same thing in other areas, whether it is biotech
or social design, you name it. The need for technology innovation is
always there across the spectrum. The need for students to get jobs is
there, and the need for companies to hire the right people is also there.
So, without creating another university degree, without getting too
involved in the internal university process which is very long and
complicated, the idea was to create a company which is an extension
of the university and will help students to get jobs and companies to
hire properly trained people. That learning curve is short, but it still
sets what are needed in these days, say big data in the pharma
industry. We have it. We can deliver with that. Look at Covid-19.
One of the challenges of Covid-19 is getting health data. The data is
a big challenge. That shows that people that have the right skill set
are needed everywhere, including in the health space that will be
dealing with data training for a long time. So, let’s do that. It is all
about the value added. I think we have a very good vision about how
to do that across the board.
DECEMBER 2020
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