Lauri Lind, Head of equities desk, Estonia

Lauri Lind who received the Hansa Badge award 2006, manages the stock market department dealing with transactions in securities at Hansabank.

What is your educational background?
I graduated from high school in the US and Estonia and went on to study at Concordia University.

How did you end up at Hansabank?
Since I had to pay tuition, I started working right away, as well. I remember sending my resume to the bank for two positions at the same time. At the job interview they asked me which position I would prefer. By description, I chose a broker’s position where I had to deal with Latvian and Lithuanian shares. It seemed like an interesting position – communicating with clients etc. I started from scratch at the bank: they threw me into the water just like I described before, gave me a bunch of client phone numbers and told me to start talking. I built the Latvian and Lithuanian share business in a few years. I was 21 years old when I became the head of a department at Hansapank. There have been a few years where there’s been 100-percent growth. When earlier we covered the Baltic region only, we’re now covering the whole world except Asia and Africa.

Tell us a bit more about your job. What do you do more specifically?
I run the stock market department, the activities of which include two directions. The first direction concentrates on trading securities. Our main focus lies in the Baltic region and Eastern Europe. The other direction is related to capital markets where we help businesses raise additional capital or holders sell their existing stocks.

Why do you think you were awarded the Hansa Badge?
Mainly for the innovations that we have carried out at Hansabank Markets during the past years. In addition, the new business directions have earned the bank a lot of money and it has proved profitable, as well.

What have you brought along that is new?
First and foremost, I try to maintain the kind of a working environment that has always been there at Hansabank Markets: a team that gets along well and supports each other. I also help people climb the career ladder. I attempt to understand what it is that people want to do and take it into account that what they want is continuously changing.


It has taught me that anything is possible, even when you are initially told that something cannot be done or is impossible. The question is rather how much time it will take.
It surprised me, as well, how much one person can do if they only want to. Sure, it’s a large organization, yet everything starts with the people. If you have the will and initiative, you can do anything. If they start by saying “no”, you have to figure the issue out so that they will then say “yes”!