I am excited to announce the recipient of the 2022 Women in Finance Scholarship! Our winner, Marcela Castro Garcia, will use the award money to pursue a MSc degree in Business Analytics, Operational Research and Risk Analysis at the University of Manchester.
FINCAD, the Capital Markets Group of Zafin, is pleased to offer the Women in Finance Scholarship, a program that provides much needed financial aid to talented women pursing graduate studies in finance. A US$20,000 award is given to one woman annually to apply towards her advanced degree. We are honored to help accelerate the winner’s successful path into a career in finance or the capital markets. At FINCAD, we believe that scholarships like these are especially important as we face an uncertain macroeconomic environment characterized by inflation and rising interest rates, which makes it financially difficult for many women to advance their degrees.
About Our Winner...
Marcela earned her undergraduate degree in Actuarial Sciences from the Universidad Anáhuac México. Just before graduation, she joined KPMG in 2018, and has held various roles focused on financial risk management. In her current position, Marcela leads projects involving the largest banks in Mexico. "This work has been a fantastic learning experience and quite rewarding,” commented Marcela.
“Since working at KPMG, I have been employed in two different segments. One was Regulatory Services, where we reviewed the regulatory compliance of institutions regarding risk management and derivatives estimations. The other area of my work has been focused on Credit Risk, where I specialize in analysis of loan risk behavior and management.”
Working in these two segments at KPMG opened Marcela’s eyes to the reality that financial institutions, particularly small and medium-sized ones, often suffer from two key challenges in risk management. “One area of weakness I’ve seen is a lack of data collection that, if done properly, could help firms improve and reduce their financial risks. The second is that there are very few people who specialize in data analysis and are trained to take fully advantage of this information,” said Marcela.
It was the identification of these two areas of opportunity that prompted Marcela to pursue her master's degree in risk analytics. “I’m hoping to take what I learn in my advanced degree program and later apply it in a financial institution in Mexico. My goal is to help firms make the best possible use of their information for improved risk management."
Marcela is looking forward to her attendance at the University of Manchester this coming Fall. “I am grateful for the incredible opportunity this scholarship has afforded me in being able to advance my knowledge in the flourishing field of risk management. If I had to give advice to other women who are interested in furthering their education and pursuing a career in Finance, I would tell them to persevere. As women, it is important for us to continually be learning and never doubt our capacity to contribute new, valuable ideas.”
Learn More
Are you, or is someone you know, interested in applying for this exciting scholarship opportunity? If so, check back with our FINCAD Women in Finance Scholarship web page in Spring 2023 for more details on applying next year. Please note that the scholarship opportunity is open to women of any citizenship with less than ten years’ professional work experience, who are studying finance in an accredited graduate-level or PhD program.
