Snap Shot – James Bennett
Email; james.bennett@ubs.com
After School:
Did BCom undergrad and post grad (investment and corporate finance) at Wits University from 1990-1993
Employment History
I started at UBS in 1994 as a stock market analyst based at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Since screen trading started in 1996 all of the stock brokers such as ourselves work out of Sandton now. I have been working at UBS for 15 years and am an executive director in the South African office. I have been rated as one of the top 2 analysts in South Africa in the annual Financial Mail stockbroker survey for about the past 10 years.
Most of our South African institutional clients are based in Cape Town so I am there every couple of weeks. Our global pension and hedge fund clients are based all over the world. So I spend a large amount of time overseas several times a year in the USA, Canada, UK, Europe and sometimes Russia, Brazil, Australia and Bahamas. I usually take clients to China on a fact finding mission once a year organised by the UBS China office. I have done over 1000 flights over the past 12 years on business and holiday, so lots of traveling.
Private Life:
I married Carmen, my wife in 2002. We have 2 daughters, Rebekah aged 3 and Emily aged 4 months. We live on the Bryanston Country Club in Johannesburg, and happy for any unexpected visitors in town. My wife’s immediate family lives in Cape Town so with family and work, we are there very frequently. My wife’s extended family is Swiss so we go to Switzerland every year in the northern hemisphere summer to the village in the Alps her grandfather grew up in. My wife is also a keen traveler and we usually go overseas together a few times a year, sometimes tacked onto a business trip.
Hobbies:
Avid fly fisherman (I fly fish in South Africa, Argentina and New Zealand usually with my guy friends who are just as hooked as me)
Traveling (although sometimes the business trips can be rather tiring)
Anything stock market related
Squash and mountain biking
Interesting Travel:
Most interesting travel destinations: USA (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Orlando, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Denver, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle etc), Canada, Bahamas, Brazil, Argentina, Suriname, Seychelles, England, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Australia, New Zealand.
Regular Contact with other 89ers:
Hylton Swemmer (still best buddies and meet and chat all the time), Siegfried Werner, Malcolm Moulang (occasionally), Gary Jones and Kevin Dehning (both via e-mail).
