Eva Gartner
Country of origin: Slovenia
MSc course: Financial Mathematics
Graduation year: 2013
Finding the formula for success
How one Bayes graduate forged a pioneering career in crypto
“My education at Bayes changed my way of thinking. It helped me to think how to approach solving business problems from a holistic perspective and be methodological. I’ve been able to apply that in all my roles, and this really helped me accelerate my career progression.”
This is how Eva Gartner summarises her time on the MSc Financial Mathematics in 2012-13, when Bayes was known as Cass Business School.
When she was searching for a postgraduate programme, Eva knew that she wanted an applied masters, which combined theory with practical application.
“My undergraduate degree was also in Financial Mathematics – but it was more theoretically focused and less into financial applications. With Bayes, or Cass as it then was, you’re learning business cases from professors that had practical experience. You get the opportunity to obtain both the in-depth theory and the insight of how this is applied in the real world.”
The MSc Financial Mathematics is for those interested in learning more about financial markets and some of the mathematical techniques which are applied, such as stochastic modelling. Students focus on the tools used to develop pricing models, and learn about different financial securities and how they are used in risk management or asset management.
Applying the learning
“Even though I graduated some years ago, I still remember the amazing professors I had. Like Professor Laura Ballotta, who was then the course leader. She explained everything in so much detail and taught us how to apply our learning to different market environments,” says Eva.
“I especially liked the Stochastic Modelling module. When I read the curriculum, I thought it would be incredibly difficult and I couldn’t see how it would be applied in practice. In reality, it was probably the most valuable module on the course, because it really teaches you how to transfer the learning into practice.”
“There is a lot of group learning on the course, which puts you together with randomly selected groups of people. These are complex project which you could not complete on your own – you need to find a way to work with people who might have very different approaches.”
Accelerated career progression
“It prepares you very well for working with external people, which is my role right now. I meet so many different people with different working styles, cultures, and backgrounds – you have to quickly adapt in order to make things work. So, it was a very useful experience.”
“In my early career, I was very much focused on financial advisory – such as restructuring and Mergers & Acquisition deals. I worked on a very broad range of projects across different industries and areas. There weren’t many templates to follow on how to do things, so that’s where the learning on my Masters really came into its own – thinking through problems and how to solve them. My career advanced very quickly as a result.”
Crypto pioneer
After working in financial advisory, Eva made the move into the crypto blockchain space, and joined Bitstamp, the longest-standing global crypto exchange, which has its headquarters in Luxembourg.
“When I joined in 2017, it was still very early days for crypto. My father is a very traditional banker – he helped establish the first stock exchange in Yugoslavia, as it then was, in 1989 – he was very sceptical of my move into crypto. It was still perceived as something that might disappear quickly. I saw it differently.”
“To me, crypto was like merging two great worlds of finance and mathematics together.”
“Because Bitcoin is the first asset in the crypto space, it really uses some very beautiful mathematical formulas behind it, in order to work as it does. It is a financial instrument or asset that brings some additional value to the world. I was very attracted to learn more about it.”
“When I joined Bitstamp, the company was small and I was ‘employee number 37’. My first role was Head of Business Intelligence. In that role I needed to build all the data intelligence for the company – doing all the analytics, supporting twelve internal teams, and supporting the management team in key decision making.”
“The financial accounting system was so complex for crypto that our finance team was reporting approximately six months behind. If my analytics team couldn’t produce day-to-day results, we would have no idea where the company was going. It was a pretty demanding role trying to build a sophisticated analytical database to resolve these issues, and a very steep learning curve.”
“At the same time, I also built an internal market intelligence team. They were more focused on what the competitors were doing, what was happening with the market, and what would be key strategic moves for us to pursue.”
Eva took on more senior and complex roles at Bitstamp, helping to develop company strategy, and offered hands on support when the founders decided to exit the organisation in 2018.
Today Eva is Global Head of Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Development, overseeing strategic partnerships, strategic investments and acquisitions, as well as leading tokenization efforts within the Bitstamp Group, and is a member of the Executive Team.
“I’d always looked at all the inorganic opportunities as they came in to see how they might benefit the company. Then in 2021, it finally became an official role and we decided to take a more proactive approach to corporate development, utilising the many external connections I had built.”
“The first year in my role, I closed many strategic partnerships in addition to my role as Head of Corporate Development, hence my role further expanded to Global Head of Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Development. I also became part of the global Executive team at Bitstamp.”
The company has grown to over 400 employees operating in a global environment, which takes Eva all over the world.
“It’s definitely been an interesting journey from the beginning to where we are today.”
London was the only choice
Reflecting on her decision to study at Bayes, being in an international environment was one of the things that first attracted Eva.
“London offers a unique experience which is hard to find anywhere else in the UK or the EU. It’s a fully international city – people are from everywhere and it’s hard to say who the ‘typical’ Londoner is. The city offers so many opportunities and I met many interesting people from all over the world. I have very good memories - I built some great relationships and I am still in touch with many of them.”
“It’s a very high-quality school with amazing academics, who bring great experience from practice and good connections from industry. You will always feel at home – it’s a very nice environment and you won’t feel lost like you might in a bigger school. I also appreciated the support from the Careers team, who helped with my CV and cover letters.”
Crypto’s future
“I’m really excited about the future of the blockchain and crypto industry. It’s getting more mature, and more complex instruments are coming into play. I’m already drawing parallels between what I studied on my Masters and what’s happening in practice. It’s exciting to know I will be able to apply my knowledge to an even wider area.”
