Jamaican capital markets educator expands into China
A European-based capital markets education firm run by a Jamaican investment banker is expanding into Asia.
Global Capital Market Solutions (GCMS), a company which offers courses in capital market trading will this year expand its services into China at Nanjing University and Hong Kong University, and is close to reaching an agreement to open “at another elite Asian university”, says Jamaican founder Wayne Walker.
“We are spreading the diploma to different areas and (as a result) we are increasing the value for the students,” Walker told the Business Observer yesterday, speaking via telephone from the GCMS headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark.
GCMS offers a diploma in trading via a partnership with the Finance Lab, a Danish organisation which offers a variety of services aimed at improving one’s financial skills.
The diploma was first offered in Jamaica at University College of the Caribbean (UCC) in 2008, when Dr Grace Turner at UCC took a chance on Walker, when others were hesitant.
“And for that I will always be grateful,” he said in a previous interview with this newspaper.
GCMS earlier this year expanded into Norway and in Switzerland, the latter via a partnership with asset management company AlphaCapita (Switzerland) SA.
The 44-year-old entrepreneur informed the Business Observer yesterday that he and his team recently met with representatives from Sao Paulo, Brazil who are looking to launch the programme in that South American country.
“Everybody is hearing about the programme so they are after us left and right,” said Walker.
GCMS’s intensive trading courses cost from US$150 to US$500. The company boasts that its diploma course “known for its hands-on approach” has attracted a wide spectrum of attendees, ranging from students at the elite universities in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, to private traders from the United Kingdom, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Jamaica and the United States.
“It is important to note that our program is only at elite universities,” noted Walker.
“(Nanjing and Hong Kong University) are top schools in Asia; in EU we are only at well ranked schools, for example, Copenhagen Business School(Denmark), Jonkoping University(Sweden) and Norwegian Business School,” he added.
Walker argued his company’s practical approach to training gives it a competitive advantage in an industry where many institutions focus “just give a lot of theories”.
“Of course you need to know some theories; we do give you the grounding on foreign-exchange, some equity derivatives, the technical analysis etc,” said Walker. “But the value proposition is what happens at the end of the first day and the second day… it’s hands on, so people actually trade and we work with the guys so that they learn it.”
Walker said that GCMS is very carefull to manage maintaining an efficient business model — which includes the fact that the company has only three permanent staff members — while holding a solid value proposition.
“We have three people here and each of (the partnering institutions) have three to four representatives,” he said.
“We are looking to add another three to four persons but I’m trying to increase profits, not staff members,” Walker noted, at the same time emphasising that its individual class sizes will never exceed 40 persons in order to maintain a healthy teacher-to-student ratio.
GCMS says on its website that most of its trainers hold as a minimum the ACI Dealing Certificate from the Financial Markets Association in Paris. The ACI is a designation for Money Market professionals globally.
Walker was born in Jamaica but migrated to the US as a child. He lived in New York City prior to relocating to Europe.
He is a trader by profession and worked for six years at the Saxo Bank in Denmark as head of investments. He managed two teams of investment advisors in Denmark and London and advised wealthy clients.
Before setting up GCMS and after leaving Saxo to venture out on his own, Walker headed a new trader education program and traveled Europe and the Caribbean to teach bankers.
One of GCMS’s immediate targets is to hit US$1 million in annualised revenues.