Jenny Josling’s a woman who thrives on challenge: making a name for herself in the traditionally male-dominated world of financial services, combining motherhood and her role as the managing director of Orbis Investments, and the immense task of bridging the knowledge gap between investment firms and everyday investors; she takes it all in her stride.
Growing up in the small country town of Griffith, Josling learned from her parents how to save money at a very young age, which prompted her desire to work in the financial services industry.
“I’ve always been fascinated by finance, it was the one thing I always wanted to do,” Josling says.
“It struck me as a bit of man’s world when I first came into it and maybe I saw that as a challenge.”
As a self-described communicator, this challenge was especially evident to Josling in the gap between those who managed money, and the end investors who were trying to grow their savings.
“I just felt there was a big gap in the world with people managing money up here and people investing down here,” she says.
“I’m a communicator, so I felt like I was someone who could come into the middle of that and add my own piece of value.
“I’m fascinated by the markets and creating returns and then translating that into something for mums and dads.”
The key, she believes, is breaking investing down into bite-sized pieces which the industry can then use to communicate with and educate investors.
Financial services is notorious for its jargon and people who have worked in this sector for any length of time become immune to this, she says, adding that the industry often doesn’t realise people on the outside have very little or no understanding of its jargon and complicated language.
“Every day I have conversations with people about their super funds and I hear so many misunderstandings about simple financial terms and people not even knowing what they’re invested in,” she says.
“There’s a whole lot of basic misunderstanding going on out there, and I think it would be great to be able to teach people that you have to think long-term as there’s no quick money in finance.
“I would love to give investors an understanding of how to make long-term returns out of good investing.”
Orbis manages money in the global stock markets for a range of investors around the world. In Australia, Jenny Josling is responsible for the management of around $7 billion in client money.
Written by Elizabeth Somerville, Content and Community Manager, evolution media group.
