Omar Qureshi, CIMA^®, CPWA^®

Omar Qureshi wanted to be a truck driver, growing up…perhaps not what anyone who knows “Now Omar” might have predicted. His desire to drive the highways was likely based on his lack of interest in all things school related. Brilliant Omar was a terrible student; nothing really grabbed his attention. His parents, given frequent reports of Omar’s disruptive tendencies, were not overly panicked — they saw they had a smart cookie, but the subject needed to be on his terms. His mom pointed out if he paid half as much attention to school as to the baseball stats he could recite from start to finish, he’d have been able to build a spaceship to Mars — perhaps using the LEGO® that covered every surface and were his constant companion.

Then computers entered the picture. Finally, here was something that was always ahead of Omar—always changing, impossible to master, because something new was happening every day. Omar asked for and received an Apple 2E computer for Christmas and his world changed. He became all things technology; he fondly recalls the scratchy sounds of modems connecting and real-time messaging friends through a DOS prompt. And that opened one more door.

Omar had advances to paying attention to the stock market, following all of the tech stocks attracting his attention. Like computers, the financial markets were ever-changing — perfect for Omar’s never-at-rest mind. He and his dad traded stocks for his father’s retirement account and thus began a lifelong fascination with the markets.

When it came time to take the next steps for his career, Omar and his physician father sat down to determine what path Omar should take; he’d been accepted for a six-year medical program, but after some soul searching and conversations with his dad, Omar decided to pursue a degree in information systems — medicine could still be an option, but not an obligation. Omar graduated and decided he would pursue the markets…yet found getting a job as a stockbroker with no experience was tough.

Back to computers. Omar got a job maintaining the computer systems at an insurance firm, and a few months in, his boss inadvertently spread the “Love Virus” to friends and clients — not the way he wanted to win business. Omar was dispatched to fix it at client Carol Rogers’ financial planning practice, and while there, he fixed a few other things. In fact, he fixed things so well they asked him back. And after a summer of fixing things on the weekends, and listening and asking questions, they asked him to stay and become a financial planner.

In early meetings, Carol encouraged him to wear glasses to make him look “older and more serious” but she also mentored him in countless other ways. She encouraged him to explore and learn, and to chart a path; Carol and Omar couldn’t be more opposite on paper but that helped both of them grow professionally as Omar absorbed lessons in empathy and connection; Carol benefited from Omar’s insatiable need for learning and numbers and facts. The two had a successful combination and never looked back.

Omar is happy where he is…the juxtaposition of markets and technology. In his “down time” (he’s not very good at down time) he’s always finding new things to tinker with and finding new things to learn- even having a stint at building crypto currency mining operations; he’s volunteering; he’s hitting tennis balls. And he’s a vital part of the ensemble feel of our team.