New Group Forms for Young Finance Professionals
YPG is a spinoff of Risk Management Association
The Los Angeles chapter of the Risk Management Association (RMA) has established the Young Professionals Group (YPG), a separate networking organization for its younger members in lending, finance and accounting.
“RMA tended to be mostly credit people,” said James Delaney, co-president of the Los Angeles chapter. “We founded the Young Professionals earlier this year to expand RMA and give opportunities to some of our younger professionals.”
According to Raj Sedeora, a relationship manager with Wells Fargo and a founding member of the YPG, young is “loosely defined as people working less than ten years in finance.”
Sedeora said that the group is still establishing its identity and its structure.
“We don’t have officers of YPG yet,” he said. “We formed a committee of four people and we have weekly meetings, but we’re still forming.”
The YPG has already held two events but plans to meet monthly and hold events bi-monthly. Since their first meeting, they have accumulated 25 members.
“We had our first meeting in January with 70 people throughout Southern California from small community banks to larger institutions like CIT and Wells Fargo,” said Sedeora.
He said that initially the group’s events will include presentations on banking, lending and accounting. Eventually, it plans to also hold social events to further differentiate it from the RMA, which will continue to have some membership crossover, according to Sedeora.
“Our membership fee is only $25 per month, which gives you limited benefits in RMA,” said Sedeora. “But if you want to be a full-fledged member of RMA, there are separate dues.”
The RMA, an association of credit, risk management and finance professionals, was founded in Philadelphia in 1914 to help commercial bankers make better lending decisions through the exchange of credit information. —Darryl James
