CONNECTION

August 2014
CONNECTION
FDM’s Monthly Consultant e-Newsletter
Blog
European Diversity Awards
Company of the Year – Finalist

Achievements
August Consultant of the
Month (Europe)
Congratulations to Joanna Tynan who
has won FDM’s Consultant of the Month
in August.
Currently placed with Virgin Money, Joanna
has constantly performed above and beyond
since she started on-site in Newcastle one
year ago.
With a background in Mathematics and
Statistics from her studies at Northumbria
University, Joanna has enjoyed the transition
into her role as a Project Support Officer
at Virgin Money. She was required to join
a team amidst a change of management
and shadowed the existing Project Support
Officer on a Telephony Project, giving her
excellent insight into the day-to-day working
of the client.
Contents
Achievements
News
Events
Monthly Quiz
Following the successful
implementation of the
project, Joanna said:
“The experience from my first
project played a massive role
in winning this award and it
truly helped me show my best
capabilities and working under
pressure.”
When nominating Joanna, the Master PMO
Manager at Virgin Money emphasised,
“In a key central coordination
role, Joanna established herself
as the Contact Programme “go
to” person demonstrating great
levels of tenacity, resilience
and enthusiasm across all of the
varied workstreams. Joanna’s
contribution to the Contact
Programme was a critical factor
in the successful delivery and
should not be under-estimated.”
Joanna will receive a £100 Amazon voucher
and be in the running for Consultant of
the Year.
Congratulations once more on an
excellent achievement!

August Consultant of the
Month (APAC)
Congratulations to Jamie Peng, winner of FDM’s Consultant of the Month in
APAC for August!
Jamie is currently placed with Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, where she has been placed for
more than a year. Before joining FDM, she received her Master’s degree in Advanced Computing
Internet Security from the University of Bristol in the UK.
When reflecting on her decision to join FDM, Jamie mentioned that she was most attracted to
the work opportunities that were made possible to her. Jamie advised,
“FDM is a great place to go for those who are not so clear about what
investment banks really want to see from graduates. If you are smart,
driven, easygoing, and just a little bit direction-less after graduation,
join FDM.”
Whilst on-site at Morgan Stanley, Jamie has been working on developing new features for core
FX Risk Management applications. Her manager has been thoroughly impressed with the high
quality of her work combined with her shrewd ability to learn new skills quickly.
Of her experience on-site, Jamie said,
“My teammates and everybody
that I have ever talked with
are very nice and helpful. Our
team has high expectations
for communication skills, code
quality, as well as the ability to
deliver on time; that expectation
pushes me to learn faster, do
better and think more.”
Congratulations and well done, Jamie!

News
FDM shortlisted as
Company of the Year
in European Diversity
Awards (UK)
We are excited to
announce that FDM
has been shortlisted
as Company of the
Year in the European
Diversity Awards 2014.
It is the first award of this scale that we have
been shortlisted for as a result of our Ex-
Forces and Women in IT initiatives combined.
Widely known as the “Oscars of Diversity”,
the awards are a fantastic accolade and we
are delighted to be shortlisted.
Judged by a 16-strong panel led by Anthony
Watson, CIO for Nike, the prestigious awards
call for excellence in areas of gender,
disability, sexual orientation, age, race,
culture and religion across Europe.
FDM welcomes
trainees on-site at
Virgin Money HQ (UK)
FDM is excited to announce that a group of
trainees on our Graduate Programme have
completed foundation training on client site.
The trainees completed their initial training
at Virgin Money’s HQ in Gosforth, Newcastle,
and have now moved to FDM’s Manchester
Academy for the remainder of their training.
Daniel Whitton, Adam Perlstrom, Arron
Crossman, Chris Crossman and Alexander
Stirk joined FDM’s technical learning
pathway, whilst Yann Mualu, Inderjit Singh
and Kyle Potterton are set to complete the
business pathway.
FDM Sales Manager, Richard Marshall,
who arranged for the initial training to be
completed on-site at Virgin Money, said: “This
is the first time we have trained Consultants
on a client’s site, and we hope to continue
doing so in the future”.
Other companies shortlisted include: Royal
Air Force, Phillips and Volvo Group.
The winner will be announced on 2nd October
at London’s National History Museum.

FDM Germany awarded Seal of Approval (DE)
FDM was rated as an “Open Company” by Kununu, the largest employer
rating platform in the German-speaking part of Europe. FDM was
awarded this seal of approval due to its authenticity, openness to
feedback with regard to its own qualities as an employer, and readiness
to communicate on equal terms with its employees.
Kununu awards companies that demonstrate authenticity as employers and an openness to
employee feedback. The rating is assigned based on the following criteria:
✓ Employees are actively encouraged to rate the company on Kununu
✓ The company engages with the users who provide the ratings
✓ The company provides insight into its activities and working environment
FDM is proud to demonstrate this transparency to continually and proactively develop through
feedback from outside as well as inside the company.
FDM sponsors UCLan prize giving (UK)
FDM was delighted to sponsor the University of Central Lancashire’s graduation ceremony
prize giving for the second time. The ceremony was held at the Guild Hall in Preston on the 15th
July. Jennifer Standish went along to congratulate two outstanding students on their fantastic
achievements during their MSc Business Management degree with two £50 Amazon gift vouchers
and a bag of FDM goodies.
The FDM prizes were awarded to Ambreena
Punekar for her outstanding contribution to
the course and Lea Houben for her outstanding
academic performance, achieving the highest
dissertation mark. Jennifer Standish said of
the event: “It was great to get involved on the
day as it is a fantastic way to build upon our
relationship with the university. We will be
attending more workshops there throughout
the year and we also have the careers fair
booked in for November”.

FDM fantasy football league (Global)
It is not too late to think tactics, formations, sheepskins and clipboards
in a bid to top the FDM Fantasy Football table!
This will be the sixth year the FDM league has been running. We have
had record participation year-on-year and it would be great to see even more of you joining
in, particularly in the US following your recent success in the World Cup proving you have
mastered this beautiful game!
Instructions:
1. Sign up
2. Select your team
3. Register with the FDM league using the FDM code: 1125896-269883
Please note: in order to make sure nobody enters multiple teams you must have your first and
second name registered. If you use a nickname you will be removed from the league.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Fantasy Football Facilitator, Paul Ames
at paul.ames@fdmgroup.com
Good luck!
Manchester Academy vs Sky Sports (UK)
FDMers in our Manchester Academy have recently been training hard on the pitch in the weekly
seven-aside football match that takes place every Monday evening. The lads recently competed
in a friendly football tournament against
FDM’s client, Sky Sports. The tournament,
held on 19th August in Leeds, saw eight
FDMers from the Manchester Academy –
four internal staff and four trainees – play
against the Sky Sports team comprising a
mixture of Sky Sports employees and FDM
Consultants placed there. The final score
was 10-7.
Well done to all who competed!

FDM Consultant at LV guest blogs for Mendix (UK)
We heard about a fantastic blog written by Savan Vyas, Scrum Master and Mendix
Business engineer at LV=Insurance. The post is the first in a two-part series about how to
deliver a production-ready app. Check it out here.
Events
Wolves of Wall Street
take to the soccer
field (US)
This year in the New York office, FDMers
gathered to create a soccer team — the
Wolves of Wall Street — including five internal
staff, one trainee, and three former FDM Consultants who have now taken on permanent roles
with clients. Though their season kicked off on an unusually cold and rainy night in April, they pulled
through to ultimately qualify for the knock-out playoff tournament where they won their first game.
In the semifinals they put up an impressively tough fight, maintaining a 3-3 tie until the last five
minutes of the game. Though they lost 3-4, they plan to come back even stronger next season!
Matt Jones - Goal keeper - Brick Wall
Paul Gates - Maestro of the Midfield
Tom Monagle - Super Striker
Luis Amaro - Defensive Bully
Fabian Valencia - Midfield Monster
Dimitri Morgan - D-money
FDM welcomes trainees to Glasgow (UK)
FDM is excited to welcome the first class
of trainees to the new Glasgow Academy.
Daniel Watson, Philip Swiatczak, Mohammad
Abdulhadi, Daniel Baird, Happiness Kabatesi
Hayton, and ex-member of the Armed
Forces Rhys Fraser, are all training on FDM’s
technical learning pathway. We would like to
wish a warm welcome to our new trainees
and good luck with the rest of your training!

Monthly Stammtisch (DE)
Thanks to all who attended August’s get-together at O-Ton in Frankfurt! With over 30 FDMers
present, trainees, Consultants and staff had a great evening catching up and we had the
pleasure of welcoming a couple of English colleagues too. Next month’s meet up will take place
at O’Reilly’s on 24th September.
Monthly quiz
What’s a QBracelet?
A) A bracelet designed to help wearers reduce symptoms of motion sickness
B) A bracelet that measures a unit of dynamic pressure
C) A bracelet that can be activated to transmit a digital distress signal
D) A bracelet with hidden connectors that allows the wearer to charge mobile phones
Congratulations to Malvina Katsadoraki who is last month’s quiz winner. Malvina correctly
answered that ‘Relationships Matter’ is the slogan for LinkedIn.

F DM Fashion
Want to feature in this year’s staff magazine?
As a company based in fashion hubs around the world, we have been inspired by our very own
stylish employees across all our centres.
Send us photos of FDM style icons from around your office. This might be you or a few of your
colleagues, but whoever it is, share with us for a chance to feature!
Email your photos now to: catriona.smith@fdmgroup.com