Andreea Petreanu

Tell us a bit about your background

I was born and raised in Romania and I came to the UK to continue my education. I obtained a Master degree in Risk Management from CASS Business School and later an MBA from University of Cambridge. I have spent my entire career in Risk Management and have been fortunate to work for some of the biggest investment banks in the world including Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, HSBC and Bank of America.

What do you do at Mizuho?

With a team of six people, I manage credit risk for the Mizuho EMEA securities business. What this means in practice is that we ensure that Mizuho has the adequate framework for client selection, policies, procedures and limits to control the amount of credit risk we are willing to take when we enter a transaction. It is also our role to ensure that business is conducted within the proposed framework. To achieve this, my team is in constant dialogue with other parts of the bank like Sales, Trading and Treasury as well as our clients.

What is one of the best lessons you have learned at Mizuho or in your industry?

The environment around us is continuously changing and as such, we have to continually change ourselves to stay in tune. Without change, our progress cannot happen. So to progress, we need to embrace change, to keep an open mind, to question old habits and most importantly to always ask ourselves: can this be done in a better way?

What inspires you?

Learning inspires me. I believe that there is something to learn from everything that happens to us. There is something to learn from every conversation, every story we hear, every place we visit. And the more we listen, the more we pay attention to what happens around us, the more we learn.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

With a full time job and two children, my “free” time is quite limited, so I like to read when I have a bit of spare time. My kindle is a trusted companion to my phone, I never go anywhere without these two. I am part of a book club and I enjoy discussing with friends their impressions on the books we read. I also love attending performing and visual art exhibitions and I am grateful for the countless opportunities that the London art scene has to offer.