Professor Tanja Tippet’s winding road to AIFMRM

Adjunct Associate Professor Tanja Tippet likes to say she fell into finance. Her preference would have been to study fashion, but her skill with numbers meant she was urged to study mathematics. Upon graduation, she spent years away from it but discovered she loved maths all along. So, she came back to it. And now she’s still here, at AIFMRM, teaching and doing her PhD – along with many other things! We spoke to her today.

How many Adjunct Associate Professors at AIFMRM have worked in a clothing factory

before? According to her colleagues, only one – and that’s her. But Tanja had always known she wanted to study fashion. Yet her skills with numbers meant she was urged to follow a financial or scientific path.

“There were many arguments at home! But eventually, I said to my parents, OK, fine: I’m going to do the shortest degree I can find, and one I think I will pass.”

It’s not the usual way one enrols for a BSc in Applied Mathematics, but that’s how Tanja did it. And, of course, she passed, and then, for ten years, she left mathematics behind.

“I went to work as a computer programmer briefly,” Tanja says. “But it was not good for my soul!” She returned to her interest in fashion and decided to do a diploma in industrial engineering. That was how, for two years, she ended up working in the clothing factory, surrounded by metres of fabric and patterns, an environment she loved.

Then she went to the UK with a friend for a few years of travel and work. Looking back, she says, “It was the best thing I ever did. I just grew up, you know. I became my own person.” She worked almost everywhere: on farms, looking after the elderly, minding the young, cleaning corporate offices at night. She toured Eastern and Western Europe, Egypt and Turkey. It was during this time that Tanja discovered that she missed mathematics. Why? “It strips everything away. I love what it allows you to do, to solve problems.”

She’d had a sense of this when working at the clothing factory. She’d been optimising processes but reached a place where she felt her knowledge was lacking. So, while in the UK, she phoned her old mathematics professor, who said he’d been waiting to hear from her for ten years.

Just like that, Tanja found herself back in Stellenbosch, doing her honours and then masters in – what? Mathematics. A job almost led her away from her studies once again, but after graduating, she stayed put in the field, first working at Nedbank and then at Old Mutual Investment Group.

While she enjoyed her work here, she did notice: “Much of the time, I was the only woman in the room. And once I became more senior and built my own team of investment professionals, I realised how challenging it was to build truly diverse teams. In 2015, I heard of AIFMRM and thought,” Yes!” This is the place where I can change the landscape of the industry. Here, we can find suitable students and endeavour to produce suitable graduates, get women interested in finance, and make a space for them.”

Now, Tanja plans and hosts AIFMRM’s Women in Finance event each year. The evening sees hundreds of students listen to the stories of women working in the financial sector and it is one of Tanja’s favourite events on the calendar. “It is such an inspirational evening!”

When she’s not teaching or changing the financial industry, Tanja’s doing her PhD. “Here I am, and once again, I am the most mature student in the class,” she jokes. “A common theme in my life!”

Being an older student does come with its benefits. One of these is that she has shared an office with her supervisor, Professor Tom McWalter, for the last seven years. They are colleagues and good friends.

“I feel so lucky to have found AIFMRM,” says Tanja. “I am grateful for so many like-minded colleagues and a positive environment. I find it a very empowering place – for staff and students alike. I love engaging with students and seeing their transformation. All these things – they’re why I’m here.”