McCombs Alumni Network News

A unique combination of undergraduate drama, BBA and MPA degrees lends an aura of yin and yang to Mae Shen Tan’s successful accounting career.  As vice president with the Private Bank in JPMorgan’s Singapore office, it’s evident in how she processes recent dramatic events in the financial sector.

“My MPA enables me to delve quickly into how market-to-market accounting impacts investments in private equity funds, and my drama background helps me break down complex issues into a kind of bite-sized show-and-tell,” Tan explains.

There were inklings of the benefits of both an artistic and practical side during her MPA internship with a Big 4 firm. She was outsourced to Regency Productions, known for blockbuster movies like Pretty Woman and Free Willy. Besides learning about film production from a cost management perspective, the job also had its glamorous moments—like rubbing shoulders with ER star George Clooney and the actors from the hit sitcom Friends in the Warner Bros. cafeteria.

Her distinctive mix of talents also gave her a surprising leg up in her full-time job search. “As a foreign student, finding work in the U.S. can be somewhat elusive due to visa requirements,” she explains.  She credits the fact that recruiters were intrigued to meet an international student with a drama degree as influential in landing her first job at JPMorgan.

After a time, though, her she gave in to a longtime desire to pursue a career in sound engineering. She left JPMorgan, returned to Singapore and began dubbing Japanese cartoons into English. One, Mistin/Kasumin, was syndicated to the U.S. through the Fox Kids Channel.  And more than her voice had a nice ring to it. “I also composed a ringtone Samsung used for the launch of a new mobile phone,” Tan says.

Eventually, she found that she missed the social interaction and intellectual stimulation that accounting offered.  “But it was nice to be able to prove to the naysayers that one can earn a living doing something as fun as voiceovers for cartoons,” she admits.

JPMorgan enthusiastically welcomed Shen back, and today she manages portfolios and advises clients on their investments across asset classes (fixed income, equities, alternative investments and currencies). She sums it up: “In other words, on a good day, I help make very wealthy individuals wealthier.”

But she hasn’t completely traded productions for portfolios.  She sits on the advisory board for Zebra Crossing, which promotes artistic and cultural endeavors worldwide. “This year they are staging Victor/Victoria in Singapore—let me know if any McCombs alumni are coming this way and would like tickets!”