When Russell Investments expressed interest in Brian Meath coming to work for the giant Seattle-based global asset manager, the young quantitative analyst thought his riposte was rather cheeky: Sure, if I can work on global equities from your London office.

Rather than regarding his reply as high-handed, the Russell Investments’ recruiter on the case told Meath that he could begin covering global equities immediately and the firm would relocate him to London in less than a year.

Score a victory for the brashness of youth.

“The firm, at the time, was contemplating starting a rotational program of ex-pats among the manager research team, and I was going to become the guinea pig for that,” he says. “So I moved from San Francisco up to Tacoma, Wash., and nine months later they followed through and transferred me to London.”

Years later, having completed his first stint at Russell Investments, Meath found himself in a meeting with OTA LLC ex