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International banking knows no borders. At least that’s the case for Vladivostok native, Lev Mozolev, who is now based in Lisbon, Portugal, where he works for BNP Paribas CIB. That’s 11 times zones, a 20-degree temperature difference and almost 10,000 kilometres from home!

As a child prodigy in Russia, Lev attended a school for gifted youth and participated in federal business competitions. So it makes sense that he ended up where he is today – at the eighth largest bank in the world, which operates in 77 countries.

A BBA graduate of  Class of 2015, Lev applies a practical mindset to solving business problems. He’s been doing this since 2016 in the corporate and institutional banking sector, working his way up from market specialist of corporate actions to team leader of IPB asset servicing. He’s reached these consecutive milestones by being professional (in the global and narrow sense), persistent and proactive.

We’re very pleased he made time for us in his busy schedule to answer questions about his trajectory, his day-to-day and how best to attain success in banking. His profile can be found in our new edition of EU Alumni Stories, coming out this fall.

Tell us about your path at BNP Paribas.

I joined BNP in March of 2016 as a financial market specialist for corporate actions. A year later, I became the senior market specialist in the same department, and then joined the prime brokerage asset servicing team as an analyst of corporate actions, income and tax activity. Currently, I’m the team leader.

What does your day-to-day look like?

My day-to-day responsibilities include a lot of task managing and dealing with human resources. I usually provide help, support and do lots of project escalations in management. I need to make sure our operational activities are also secured and that all team members are doing what they need to be doing in response to my feedback. Also, another important task is to bring new operational ideas for businesses that are seeking synergies or improvements.

How easy or hard is it to keep up with market changes? Are changes happening faster?

Market changes and uncertainties should be detected immediately, even though this can be difficult, because they can potentially impact many aspects of the organization, including legislation, control, HR management, system adaptation, etc. It’s also important to anticipate the impact of these changes, and it can be very time-consuming to respond to these shifts and unpredictabilities.

Do you have any advice for the current EU students who want to go into the banking world?

The accounting classes at EU have proven to be quite useful at my job! They give you essential finance skills that are key when you start an entry level position. My advice is to try and become an expert in a particular area. Also, be sociable and create a network inside the organization.

If you could invite three people to your house for dinner (dead or alive), who would it be and why?

I would probably invite Hermann Hesse, for his alternative and intelligent view of the world; Alexander Nevzorov, for his knowledge of how media works and its influence on peoples’ thinking; and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, for his insights into big business.

At EU Business School we help future business leaders like Lev Mozolev to acquire and .

This article first appeared on EU Business School's blog: