“Having accepted continuous professional and personal development as normal in adapting to the variety of perceived and unperceived changes and challenges, gaining the CAIA designation was a natural next step for me after completing the CFA and the CIPM programs.”
Tatjana undertook this journey motivated by the global developments in capital markets and the pension funds industry, as well as the opportunity provided by the CAIA Stackable Credentials Program, and thus gained a broad understanding of the nature of alternative investments.
Moreover, the knowledge she gained of the manager selection process afforded her better insight into how asset management organizations and processes are being evaluated independently. “This part of the CAIA curriculum is a useful tool for everyone involved in the asset management industry; it enables managers to see through the lens of independent external evaluators and detect areas that need improvement,” she said.
Working in the pension fund industry, within an investment universe highly focused on traditional classes of instruments, Tatjana looks forward to future regulatory changes towards broadening the range of permitted pension fund investments. If implemented, these changes should lead to an increased inclusion of alternatives in the pension funds’ portfolios. Having gone through the rigorous process of becoming a CAIA Charterholder, Tatjana feels more than prepared for these much-needed developments.
About Tatjana Bojkovska
Tatjana Bojkovska is Head of the Investment Department at Sava Pension Company, one of the three pension companies within the three-pillar fully funded pension system in the Republic of North Macedonia. Looking for a new challenge inside the company, Tatjana made the move from risk management to investment management in July 2020. By then, she had already worked in the pension fund industry for 8 years, serving as a Risk Manager and Head of the Risk Management Department. Her career started in an audit company, and prior to joining Sava Pension Company, she had spent three years in the Macedonian banking sector, in positions related to controlling and risk management.
As the First-in-Country CAIA Charterholder, Tatjana recognized the need for raising awareness of alternative investments and their broader inclusion in the portfolios of institutional investors in South Eastern Europe. Therefore, she called attention to the need for CAIA Association to consider ways to increase the relatively small number of CAIA Charterholders, not only in this region, but also in other similar regions. She argued that an increased understanding of alternatives can lead to better asset allocation by long-term investors in regions new to this type of investments, which would be useful for these countries, considering the long-term challenges they face. The leadership of CAIA Association took her concern very seriously and decided to launch a First-in-Country Membership benefit that allows for a one-year Membership fee waiver of the first CAIA Charterholder from any country worldwide.