Last week we announced the latest recipient of the John Cummins Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement for the group of CertBALM® students who received their final results in April. Ben Reilly from HSBC was awarded the trophy outside the HSBC building in Canary Wharf on Friday. Runners-up for the trophy were Peter Lighting of NatWest Markets and Eino Hinkkanen of Nordea. Chris Blake, Co-Chair and Education Director of ALMA, commented, “This is the first person I have seen in a suit and tie since the start of lockdown! Clearly this is the key to winning the trophy! Congratulations to Ben from everyone at ALMA on a great achievement.”
On receiving the trophy, Ben Reilly was completely delighted, commenting, “It was a delightful surprise to find out I won the John Cummins Award. I already had a good knowledge of both capital supply and demand, but the CertBALM® has been my introduction to funding and liquidity. The Case Study especially brought all the elements of Asset-Liability Management together and helped me develop new skills in multi-dimensional optimisation that I am now putting into practice professionally. I am sure this will help take my career to the next level. Even compared to the ACA and CFA I found the course challenging and was happy to pass – let alone achieve the top CertBALM® mark globally.”