Colin Bekemeyer Interview

What originally pulled you toward finance instead of other paths you could’ve taken?

It was two things. First, I wasn’t pulled to finance at the beginning as much as I was pulled to Japan. I wanted to do something connected to Japan. Second, I started in management consulting. I didn’t really understand finance yet, but I liked business strategy, how companies make profits and make decisions, so consulting made sense. It wasn’t until business school, after I’d already been working a few years, that I started learning about finance and investment banking. I was almost 30 and honestly behind my peers. But the idea that capital flows and money decisions are what really move the world, that grabbed me.

What drew you to Japan from such an early age?

It was kind of a historical accident. I got interested in it, started taking Japanese language, and it clicked. Then I went over and worked there for a summer. I found the culture and the experience so interesting that I wanted to keep doing something connected to Japan.

What convinced you to stay in investing long term instead of another area of finance?

I started in investment banking and I did find it interesting, but it’s transactional. You’re doing deals. When I was doing it, it was during the internet bubble and I was in telecom, so the whole environment was kind of crazy. It felt like everything was about getting rich fast, and the personalities were intense. I moved toward investing because I liked the longer-term view.

I also liked an investing style where you don’t just buy shares and sit there. We take a meaningful position, talk with management a lot, talk with other investors, and try to influence decisions that can improve the business and raise the stock price. That part is interesting to me because it’s strategic. It’s like combining investing with some elements of consulting.

When you say “engagement,” what kinds of things do you actually talk with management about?

We’ll look at a company’s business mix and ask whether they’re wasting capital or time. For example, if they have one business segment that’s capital-intensive, low return, and they’re not even a top competitor in it, we might push them to sell or exit that segment and focus on the parts where they’re strong.

I’m going to Japan the week after Thanksgiving to meet CEOs of three companies, and each conversation is different. One company is very profitable, but they keep accumulating cash they can’t reinvest fast enough, which drives their return on equity down. They should change their capital policy, things like dividends or buybacks. Another company has valuable real estate and assets tied up in a stadium and a team, and there may be a way to unlock capital by selling assets while still operating the core business.

How do you think AI will affect the investment management industry?

I think it’s going to change the industry in a major way. AI can probably do a lot of what analysts do today, especially the document-heavy work: reading filings, summarizing, finding patterns, running comparisons, and generating screens.

Where humans still matter is judgment and real-world influence. In my strategy, a lot of value comes from engaging with management and changing what they do, and AI can’t really do that. AI will also reshape a lot of the non-investing parts of the business, like operations and back office, and it’ll make marketing processes more efficient.

A good example is RFPs, requests for proposals. Big institutions send managers long questionnaires, sometimes 100 questions, to decide who to interview. AI can fill a lot of that in from a knowledge base, which saves a ton of time.

What do you wish you understood earlier about choosing a field that can hold your interest for decades?

I think the key is to follow what you’re genuinely interested in. For me, that was Japan, and then investing became interesting too. I also learned what I didn’t want long term: being constantly under the gun with presentations, deliverables, and nonstop client demands. That’s a big part of consulting and investment banking.

My current niche works for me because it’s long-term work where you can still have impact, even though it’s still stressful because you have to deliver returns.

What experiences outside of work ended up shaping your career decisions the most?

My interest in Japan started as purely personal, and then it became professional. Also, having a family changes how you value time. It forced me to get more efficient and cut out nonessential things because you just have less time. More broadly, it made me think about work-life balance and what tradeoffs I was willing to make.

What’s the number one piece of advice you’d give a high school or college student trying to decide what to do and how to be successful?

Do something you actually enjoy, because if you’re not excited by it, you won’t stay motivated and it’ll feel miserable. Try different things early. Use internships to test what you like. Then be honest with yourself afterward. Sit back and really evaluate: did I like the work, the content, the pace, the environment? Was I excited?

And one more thing: find mentors. When you’re young, relationships matter. In an internship, identify someone experienced that you want to learn from and be proactive. Ask them to lunch. Tell them you want to learn from them. Those relationships are how you learn faster, hear about opportunities, and see how careers actually unfold. It’s not a cynical “networking” thing. It’s how information and growth happen.