Manuela d’Agata

Education is stepping out of the training room at INREV under the guidance of Training Manager Manuela D’Agata.

As well as the traditional training courses, Manuela now oversees new initiatives for Young Professionals such as Link & Learn and get togethers, as well as webinars. “We think about education in broad terms. It’s not just about technical training, we want to provide forums – off and online - for our members to come together to learn in more informal environments from experts and each other,” she explains.

This approach stems from Manuela’s seven years’ experience as a training specialist, including three years with Moody’s Investors Service in London and Milan. This background and her work at INREV has promoted her interest in providing education for all levels of seniority. “There are courses about the fundamentals of the industry that are suitable for more junior levels. However, we make sure that senior levels are also catered for with courses such as Risk Management, and Liquidity and Secondary Markets.” Manuela works closely with the Training and Education Committee to refresh courses and to add new ones to the programme, which has grown from an initial six courses to 15. For 2014, there will be the addition of an Advanced Net Asset Value course and one on the role of performance measurement and benchmarking.

January also sees the second run of the Investor Relations and Communication course. “This is an important aspect of the industry but is not a technical topic. However, with our members’ expertise we can build a structured course around that to provide insight and learning.” And it is this members’ expertise that Manuela continually counts on and encourages. “We are always keen to learn from members interested in becoming course leaders and trainers. We can only continue to provide such high-quality education with their support.”