They’ve never met, but there are some things that George Tamer and Christina Esfehani have in common: A love for family, and the more family representation in one place, the better.
The ideal vacation for Tamer isn’t a getaway from everyone else, he explains – it’s a vacation with lots of family. No, really – his and his wife’s extended family unite once a year.
“We all rent houses on the same street on Cape Cod,” says Tamer, who has four children of his own. “There are 12 different cousins ranging from age 22 down to our youngest, who’s 13. We’ve been making the trip for a decade and will probably continue through retirement.”
Esfehani feels lucky that even today, her parents are only a bike ride away from her home in the heart of Silicon Valley. This is especially helpful when you are raising two very active young boys.
“I cherish being around everyone and being so close to people,” Esfehani says, adding that one of the hardest adjustments for her during pandemic life is not being able to entertain and cook for family and close friends.
As AdvisorEngine’s latest joiners to its leadership ranks – Tamer is our new head of sales, and Esfehani is our new head of product marketing – both exemplify how personal ties and camaraderie are essential to our company values.
Esfehani’s made it her mission to reach out to as many of her new colleagues as she could.
“I’ve had so many conversations through video, and I feel people’s energy, I feel people’s excitement,” she says. “I feel really connected. It’s amazing how many people use Slack. There’s been transformation [because of the pandemic] and for many, it’s a new way to work, but I feel people are embracing it.”
With her background in developing marketing strategy for ETFs at Franklin Templeton, Esfehani says working remotely wasn’t a big transition for her.
“It was a global role; I was on video all the time, collaborating with colleagues in London or Singapore,” she notes. “Being at home with the kids and dealing with all the distractions under lockdown was probably harder.”
There’s something familiar and something new for Tamer at AdvisorEngine as well.
Having consulted investment professionals on best business practices in his previous role at TD Ameritrade, Tamer knows the technology and client challenges advisors face. Tamer says his new role brings him much closer to the evolution in advisor technology he’s witnessed over the years.
“A rudimentary contact database with some workflows and performance reporting was cutting-edge technology 20 years ago,” he says. “Now it’s about digital onboarding, and creating sleeves of models, and models of models, automatic rebalancing, and putting that into a financial plan that’s easy to understand.
“What people care about most is, ‘Can I provide for my family?’” Tamer says. “The best way to accomplish that is having a healthy financial plan. [That’s where we come in], putting the technology and platform in place to help advisors reach as many clients as possible, effectively and efficiently.”
