GROWTH PATH

While at a career crossroads, Alex Zaika didn't know what the future held - he just knew he wanted to be in a suit. Now, he is the chief executive of Global X and pushing a strong growth strategy. Eliza Bavin writes.

- Eliza Bavin writes.

Alex Zaika is probably one of the few people who can actively recall his first day of kindergarten.

Why? It comes down to having a father from a Ukrainian household, a mother from a Russian one, both born in China who moved to Australia independently.

“I couldn’t speak English because I came from a Russian-speaking household — the teacher was quite confused on my first day,” Zaika jokes.

His dream from a young age was to “grow to six foot five, move to Italy and play volleyball professionally”, something which he admits was somewhat out of his control.

“I didn't grow to six foot five, didn’t represent Australia, didn't play professionally, didn’t move to Italy. So, I guess that was my first taste of taste of failure. From there, it was a question of, ‘Well, what do I do?’” he says.

Zaika’s mother steered him in the direction of teaching, but from the get-go he says it didn’t feel quite right. Just six months into his three-year teaching degree, he wanted to change course, but his mum told him to stick at it until he figured out what else he might like to do.

After a year, the same conversation arose, and then again sometime later.

“This time her response was different. This time she said, ‘Well, if you're halfway, you can’t quit now.’ And I need to thank her for that, because I would have quit lots of times, but I stuck at it out of courtesy to my mum. I finished the teaching degree and started teaching,” he says.

In an odd turn of events, that teaching job is what led Zaika to the world of financial services. Knowing his heart wasn’t entirely in teaching, a friend and mentor at the time asked him a simple question that came with a rather simple, if not amusing, answer.

“He asked me, ‘What do you want to do?’, and I said, somewhat jokingly, somewhat seriously, that I wouldn’t mind wearing a suit,” Zaika says.