Student Insight: Tara Clements, Professional Certificate for Designated Persons in a Fund Management Company

“Guest lecturers gave a deep and enriching view of the funds industry in Ireland and the evolving position of the FMC”

We speak with Tara Clements about her varied career journey across financial services and her experience of completing the Professional Certificate for Designated Persons in a Fund Management Company with IOB.

Tara shares how the programme deepened her understanding of regulatory expectations, the evolving role of fund management companies and the value of learning alongside peers from across the Irish funds industry.

Hi Tara, thank you for speaking with us. Can you tell us a little about your career journey in financial services?

Hi there, I’m a great believer in the power of the meander, much like Melíosa O’Caoimh referenced recently. I started work in asset management firms, working in investment operations and qualified as an ACCA accountant. It was an exciting time during the 1990s as the IFSC was developing and new firms were establishing here. After 12 years working in fund accounting and corporate accounting, I set up my own consultancy firm with a colleague where we worked closely with the IF industry body to develop and deliver industry short courses which we ran for 10 years.

We also provided managerial support in governance and oversight as well as staff training to over 60 firms across the Irish funds industry until the global financial crisis hit. It was then that I began lecturing full-time for a number of years. I joined the associate faculty in the IOB delivering on the professional certificate in investment funds during this time.

I joined BNY Mellon to head the European training team to support the fund accounting business line in its transformation objectives. An opportunity arose to join the central administration office which was a newly created function which gave me insight into the business aspects where I lead the performance excellence LEAN programme globally amongst other governance initiatives. After being made redundant I joined RBC Investor Services which was taken over by CACEIS in 2023, firstly as Head of Training before moving to client operations during COVID creating a new team, the investor contact centre. A variety of roles supporting the takeover, migration and integration followed. I’m currently working on special projects in our client operations function.

What do you enjoy most about your current role?

I enjoy the variety of projects and initiatives that I’ve been involved with, making the connections between departments and systems. I’m currently involved with a transfer agency project where we’re migrating our clients to a new platform over the next 12-18 months which gives me great insights into the finer details of the transfer agency business. My previous project was a regulatory reporting one so there’s always something new and different to get to grips with.

You recently completed Professional Certificate for Designated Persons in a Fund Management Company. What interested you in taking the programme?

A few of my colleagues had completed the programme and reported that they gained a better appreciation of those fund management companies that we deal with on a daily basis. As more and more of our clients are FMCs, and as more regulation is forthcoming in this space, I wanted to get to know the business from their perspective so that we approach our projects with them in mind.

Can you tell us about your experience of the programme?

I found the structure of the course and the range of lecturers to be excellent. The small cohort of 16 was perfect as we got to know one another very well and had some very insightful discussions. The progression from regulation to structures and then to the various aspects of the business and regulatory expectation meant that the programme flowed well.

It’s a challenge working and studying at night so having the discipline of completing the learner journal each week was good to have any chance of keeping up with the topics. The supporting articles and case studies provided meaningful examples of the points being covered.

Having multiple break-out sessions each lecture broke the time up, the three hours flew by and having the discussions from so many viewpoints really consolidated the learning.

I was lucky as we had a broad range of participants on the programme, from small to large FMCs, some stand-alone independent FMCs while others were proprietary FMCs. There were also some like me who worked for fund administrators or other fund-related firms which meant that we got a wide range of perspectives and opinions.

Having guest lecturers in to give their experience on particular topics or the business in general gave great insights into how industry developments came about or have impacted the business over the years.

What was your favourite aspect of the programme?

My favourite aspect was the range of lecturers covering different sections of the programme and then to supplement them with guest lecturers gave a deep and enriching view of the funds industry in Ireland and the evolving position of the FMC.

Have you had a chance to apply any learnings from the programme in your day-to-day work?

The learnings that I’ve brought to my work relate to the reporting that we issue to the FMCs that are our clients as I have a better understanding of what their requirements are and the regulatory expectation of their oversight of our firm.

How would you sum up your experience in one sentence?

I found the learning experience invaluable, particularly in understanding regulatory expectations and the FMC's evolution in Irish funds, the diverse expertise of the lecturers, the collaborative breakout room discussions that strengthened my professional network, and the ongoing access to industry events as an alumnus.

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