Yashi Hall managing life, risks and rewards
Published:Thursday | August 3, 2023 | 6:59 PMKesihanna McKenzie - Sunday Gleaner Writer
If there was one word that epitomises Yashi Hall, it would be agile. She has displayed this attribute in life, education and even her career.
A passionate heart, with the purest soul is the true characterisation of Hall, who is the vice-president and head of risk management at the Sygnus Group. Educated in both Jamaica and the United Kingdom, Hall shared that she experienced the best of both worlds being an undergraduate of The University of the West Indies and having done her master’s degree at the University of Cambridge, which exposed her to a different way of life.
When asked if her career passion was to always to be in finance, Hall indicated that finance chose her from early out as her father was the one who connected her to Citibank, which opened the door to a career in finance. Hall, however, believed that if this career chose her, she would respect it by putting her best foot forward and giving her career the best she had within, which helped her to climb through the ranks over the years. “It [finance] wasn’t a passion, but having landed in it [I’m] glad I’ve been in it and, I’ve learnt a lot over the last 28 years from being in this space,” said Hall.
What she does have a passion for is risk management. Hall told The Sunday Gleaner that she became the vice-president at Sygnus and the head of risk management based on her career development at Citibank. After leaving Citbank, she went to work at FirstCaribbean, where she met Berisford Grey, who taught her investment banking. After some time, she reflected and decided that it was time to do what she was developing a deep passion for and was afforded the opportunity to build out the risk unit at Sygnus upon returning to Jamaica, which she shared became a part of her career path.
JOURNEY TO DUBAI
She reflected on the time spent with her family in Dubai, where she lived for five years before returning home. It is an experience she describes as one of the most rewarding in her life. Her husband was offered an exceptional opportunity to build an alumina refinery there and that gave Hall the chance to be more present with herself and her family. She described Dubai as the place where she grew into herself as she had the time to not think about climbing the corporate ladder but rather to find herself on the deepest level while spending quality time with her family.
“I get a little bit of goosebumps because I think I grew up in Dubai,” said Hall. “It was the first time I was able to not have a nine to five and I never nine to five, nine to nine, and I have three kids. So there was never ever any real down time to think about what is it that you want? What is it that you need? What is it, you know? So I actually had that time and I had that time in this most amazing space called Dubai.”
Hall described Dubai as “gorgeous” and shared that the culture she experienced was somewhat like Jamaica, as she described it as a “melting pot” and met different types of people and tasted different types of food. Dubai was the place where her eldest daughter completed her master’s degree at Heriot-Watt University and her son, whom she shared is autistic, was given a proper diagnosis to to aid in understanding his educational challenges.
“My son being born autistic has been one of the most challenging and beautiful situations in my life,” said Hall.”He’s a big part of who I am today because I see him for who he is, not what he can do for me or what he can do for others or, you know, whatever skills. I see him and not his autism, not his particular way of doing things. I see him.”
Dubai gave Hall memories with her family, and a fortified infrastructure and it was the place she felt the safest, but it still was not home. Hall shared that the one thing she took from Dubai and wished Jamaica would become is “safe”. “You don’t realise how much that takes off your shoulder, [feeling safe], in just terms of living,” she shared.
“It’s something that we talk about a lot and that we have to really, really do our best to [address], because this place could be paradise if we could [address crime], because the feeling [of safety], it’s an intrinsic feeling. I don’t even know if I can have words for you in terms of how it feels to take the shackle of feeling safe off. It’s beyond words.”
MOTIVATION
A typical day for Hall is getting up at 5 a.m., exercising and listening to a positive or motivational podcast. She enjoys getting to work early so she can plan her day ahead by writing down her daily goals and structuring her day. Hall is one to work beyond working hours but she tries for the most part to have a work-life balance so she can spend quality time with her family, especially her 17-year-old son.
“What I’ve learnt is you’re never gonna have, as a working mom, the situation where you’re doing a bang-up job, parenting your children and a bang-up job at work,” said Hall. “It’s just never gonna happen. What you gonna have to do is have a kind of balance, like a diversified portfolio. So some days you’re gonna have to give more to the work [and] to the job, and some days you’re gonna have to give more to your family. It just is what it is and you and your experience and your intuition and your gut kind of help you keep that portfolio managed.”
Hobbies are important to life. Hall enjoys dancing and reading. She is currently reading The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael Singer, which is teaching her to be less bothered by the difficulties presented in life and handling what you can.
Another life lesson she has learnt and shares during our interview is the importance of gratitude. “There is so much to be grateful for in life,” said Hall. “[And] it makes such a difference in how you see life, how you see others, in your mood. It can bring you out, so I would say if we could all start looking at the things that we could be grateful for. Practise it a little bit more and you would be surprised of the other things that will multiply out of your gratitude, practise because you just start to see it, and when you start to see it, you start to feel it, and it’s a rinse and repeat.”
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story stated that Yashi Hall built out the risk unit at FirstCaribbean. Hall built out the risk unit at Sygnus. Also, her husband was given the opportunity to build an alumina refinery in Dubai, not an oil refinery. We regret the error.