IB Woman
Issue No. 41 - June/July 2008
Sharing the passion
by Penelope Herbert
Many children have sporting or artistic hobbies they later turn in to careers. Most children, however, don’t have an abiding passion for the stock market and start a share portfolio at the age of eleven.
But since her grandfather and father were stockbrokers operating their own firm, perhaps Julia Bevan’s interest was inevitable. Her passion certainly
has endured.
“I would go to the school library in my lunch hour just to read the financial pages and check the stocks,” laughs Julia.
“My friends thought I was a bit nuts but I guess it was in my blood.
“I enjoy mental challenges so I studied economics with a major in accounting, but when I left University, Australia was in the middle of a recession, brokers were not recruiting so I became a Chartered Accountant instead of a stockbroker.”
Julia worked for PriceWaterhouse in Adelaide, Melbourne and Parramatta before taking a job as assistant to an investment manager in the insurance industry. She returned to Adelaide to start a family and, once her children were at school, took a job as Bursar of a Catholic school, which enabled her to spend time with her daughters during the school holidays. Divorcing after a 20-year marriage meant Julia had to find a stable job with good pay in order to continue to look after her daughters.
“It would have been easier to go back to Chartered Accounting than entering stockbroking because of
the remuneration structure - most j...
