I became a portfolio manager for the German real estate and infrastructure group of Generali when I joined the indirect investment team during the middle of the financial crisis. From speaking to senior professionals, whom I knew from internships, I was able to land a job at an institutional real estate investor.

My main responsibility is to represent the interests of different Generali insurance companies in a portfolio of European and global investments with different investment styles, totalling approximately Ä1 billion. This involves developing strategies to deal with the effects of the financial crisis on the portfolio, forecasting fund performance and working toward reflecting the lessons learned in future investments.

Looking at an industry with such tremendous growth and investments during the past few years, it seemed to be logical