Shanghai Securities Feng Xun: Climbing After "Reset"

Shanghai Securities News China Securities Network News (Liu Yuxi, Reporter Xu Wei): From an economics PhD to head of a research institute, from senior executive at a securities firm to local financial regulator, and back to the asset management frontline—each career shift for Feng Xun has been a reset. In April 2025, she was appointed Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Securities, overseeing asset management. Facing a new team and market environment, she once again stands at the starting point.

Over more than twenty years in finance, she is accustomed to describing her journey as “climbing.” Each experience feels like crossing a mountain; reaching the top reveals even higher peaks ahead. This time, she has chosen to join the Shanghai Securities asset management team to start a new ascent.

A Year of “Laying Foundations”

Since joining Shanghai Securities nearly a year ago, Feng Xun describes her experience as “a long and difficult road, but walking will get us there.” At that time, she faced several “must answer” questions: completing the transformation to a public fund, deepening fee rate reforms, navigating a complex and volatile market, and balancing scale growth with revenue increase. The most challenging issue was the intensifying Matthew effect in the industry, which continued to squeeze the survival space of small and medium-sized securities firms’ asset management units.

When she first arrived at Shanghai Securities, Feng Xun chose a “deep immersion” approach—communicating individually with the asset management team, repeatedly aligning with compliance, risk control, and operations departments, and identifying bottlenecks in product structure, research and investment processes, and channel layout. Subsequently, under the company’s overall strategic framework, she and her team explored and refined ideas, establishing the “Five-Point Strategy,” which positions the firm with fixed income as the “ballast,” FOF as the “growth engine,” and ABS as the “specialized feature.” In her view, the only way for small and medium-sized securities firms to break through is not to become a large, all-encompassing “department store,” but to develop into a refined and deep “boutique.”

Faced with the survival dilemma of small and medium-sized firms in tight spaces, Feng Xun’s answer is “self-reflection.” Regarding industry-finance synergy, she highlighted the industrial resource advantages of Bailian Group. But she emphasizes that this is a platform advantage of the company, not personal resources. “My team and I study how to leverage industry-finance collaboration—focusing on asset revitalization, capital allocation, and customized services.” On the other hand, leveraging her experience in financial regulatory departments, she promoted compliance and risk control teams to intervene early in product development, ensuring innovation proceeds within regulatory frameworks and avoiding costly post-hoc corrections.

“This year, we didn’t do superficial work but focused on laying a solid foundation. The entire team worked together to strengthen the groundwork so that future layers can be built securely,” Feng Xun told reporters. Over the year, through collective effort, Shanghai Securities Asset Management has won multiple industry awards, including the “Golden Bull Award,” and gained industry attention for its steady drawdown control and client trust amid low interest rates.

Treat the Team as a “Team”

“I prefer to see the team as a ‘sports team,’” Feng Xun said, leaving a deep impression on the reporter. She explained that each member has their own position and role, with the common goal of winning the game. But more importantly, the head coach’s role is not to play on behalf of the players but to enable everyone to maximize their value in their best positions. Therefore, she adjusts formations and clarifies responsibilities flexibly based on market changes and client needs to ensure the team remains competitive.

As a manager with a rich research background, Feng Xun deeply understands the anxiety of researchers and the pressure on investment managers. She integrates research and investment thinking into management, proposing the concept of “three connectivities,” and encourages her team to practice: breaking down barriers between research and investment to share results and conduct joint reviews; connecting strategy and products—maturing strategies before productization; and bridging experience and data—using digital systems to assist decision-making. She also requires researchers to conduct in-depth market research and investment managers to review regularly, honing their “inner skills” through practical experience.

In talent selection, she prioritizes integrity and resilience. “Professional skills can be cultivated, experience can be accumulated, but integrity is the foundation.” For young professionals just entering the workforce, her advice is simple yet profound: “Start with specialization, then broaden; plant deep roots; focus on results and let performance speak; follow your heart and keep moving forward.”

A Clear Love

In 2021, leaving a securities firm to serve as a regulator at a local financial supervision bureau marked a unique turning point in Feng Xun’s career. From being a “regulated entity” to a “regulator,” she gained her first perspective on industry development from a regulatory viewpoint, understanding the logic behind risk prevention and order maintenance. “Changing positions, I suddenly saw clearly. Risks seen from a regulatory perspective are often hard to perceive in the market,” she said. This experience gave her a unique outlook, combining practical market experience with regulatory insight, and became an important foundation for her subsequent return to the asset management field.

What drives Feng Xun to keep pushing forward are two things: curiosity and a sense of responsibility. Curiosity makes her willing to explore unfamiliar fields and to say “I can learn” when faced with the unknown. A sense of responsibility makes her unwilling to disappoint every trust—whether in her team’s growth or clients’ assets.

Despite the pressures typical of the financial industry, Feng Xun has her own philosophy: live in the moment and face it calmly. “The future hasn’t arrived yet, so there’s no need to worry excessively; the past, whether good or bad, is best left behind.” She told reporters, “If work and life are hard to separate, I pursue integration—using efficiency to create space while maintaining curiosity about the world. If a person loses curiosity about the world, their career life stops growing.”

“Recognize the reality of the world and still love it. Pessimists are often correct, but optimists are more likely to succeed,” Feng Xun said with a smile. Over more than twenty years, she has always “climbed” anew after “reset.” On this Women’s Day, she wants to tell working women: “Don’t set limits, don’t depend on others, follow your heart, and keep learning and growing. Time will give you the best answers.”