When Fenny Jie and her husband found out their first child was going to be a boy, they drew inspiration for his name from an unlikely place.
“My husband was a big fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger growing up,” she said. “He manifested success through ambition, work ethic and adaptability—he was really an inspiration for my husband. So, when we found out we were having a boy, we collectively said, ‘We're going to name him Arnold.’”
The appreciation for opportunity, hard work and adaptability has been baked into Jie’s personality since she was a child—influencing not only her son’s name, but also her education and career.
A family seeking opportunity
Jie gets much of that work ethic from her parents, who immigrated to the United States from Indonesia when she was just 18 months old.
In 1987, Jie’s father was one of the lucky few who received a green card to the United States that year. Although the Jies knew they won the literal and figurative lottery, it was still a significant gamble for the family, who had a relatively comfortable life and were surrounded by friends and family in their home country.
Jie’s sister, Hanna Pascual, explained that their father was worried his daughters would lack opportunity in Indonesia. “He had to decide, ‘Do I move my very young family to a place where we don’t know anybody?’”
Ultimately, the answer was yes. He, his wife and two daughters journeyed more than 9,000 miles to Houston. Upon arriving in the U.S., Jie’s parents had two suitcases, one silver bar, $200 in cash and spoke little English. It was either adapt to a new life, mentality and language or waste the opportunity to live the American dream. Her father took a job as a dishwasher, determined to get his foot in the door of the restaurant industry, while her mother started a catering business out of their garage.
Fast forward nine years and the family used their savings to acquire their first restaurant—and it became a focus of all of their lives.
“My sister and I began working at the restaurant, and that took up a lot of high school. It taught me work ethic, family values and what it means to be an entrepreneur,” Jie said. “My father had the entrepreneurial spirit. And with my mom as his teammate, they really propelled our family forward.”
For Jie, those years helped solidify her ambitious nature. “I took those values that I learned from the restaurant through school and into my career,” she said.
Ambition in action
Despite staying busy at the restaurant, she carved out time to excel at school and in sports. She also volunteered at a museum and took a retail job to see what it was like working for someone other than her parents.
“She wanted to try everything, and whatever she did, she applied herself wholeheartedly,” Pascual recalled.
After high school, Jie attended the University of Texas’ School of Business. In four-and-a-half years, she finished her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and secured a position with PricewaterhouseCoopers, a large accounting firm, as a financial auditor.
“I learned so much in that role as a financial auditor,” she said. “I wouldn't be where I am in my career today without that experience of being in the weeds with the data and having to find ‘to the penny’ where things were. I recognized how valuable it was to have good attention to detail to be diligent and to be solutions oriented.”
After her time as a financial auditor, Jie joined BOK Financial® in Tulsa as a private wealth associate. She was just three years into her career when she decided to study for the CFA exam and move into finance. It was an ambitious choice for a 24-year-old, but Jie welcomed the challenge.
“The CFA exam is a three-part process, and each part takes about a year of studying and preparation,” she said. “But I have to admit I enjoyed it because it was a learning experience. It was great to be able to apply the concepts I was learning in the CFA curriculum to my job.”
Today, Jie is managing director of private wealth investments for BOK Financial, leading a team of investment managers who work with private wealth clients across the country. She loves being able to make an impact for everyone her work touches: her team members, her clients and the firm.
“My role is multidimensional and that is really rewarding,” she said. “I have the opportunity to lead and support a team, work on projects related to process improvement and meet with clients. There is never a dull moment, and I am so grateful for these opportunities and for the different ways I can contribute.”
Patrick Coughlin, investment manager team lead at BOK Financial, has worked with Jie for about five years and credits her with seeing his potential.
“I’m indebted to Fenny in particular,” he said. “She took a chance on me when I didn’t have direct trading experience. She really recognizes people’s willingness to work hard and their potential to do more.”
Working hard to help others
Although Jie has come a long way since her restaurant days, the lessons from those years still shape her life today. She enjoys the opportunity to leverage her ambition in service and support of others.
Coughlin said Jie’s supportiveness is exactly what their team needs to really thrive.
“We’re like a lean, mean fighting machine. And that’s all because of her stewardship and leadership,” he said. “She kind of embodies the ‘teach a man to fish, you’ll feed him the rest of his life’ thing. And she certainly has taught me how to fish.”
Continuing the tradition
Now that Jie is a mom, she wants to demonstrate the power of hard work, adaptability and gratitude to her two children, so they grow up with an appreciation of these traits like she did.
She says she’ll do that in ways both big and small. For example, by excelling at being a working mom—and by making sure her son knows all about his namesake, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In fact, Jie wrote a letter to Schwarzenegger in hopes of getting an inspiring reply she could show to her son when he’s older.
“I wrote, ‘We named our son after you because we really admire your work ethic and ambition, and we hope our son ends up with the same level of ambition.’” And did he write back with his own words of wisdom? “Nope, he did not respond,” she said, laughing.
. © 2024 BOKF, NA.