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We seldom hear a finance leader tell us that they took a pass on a promotion early in their careers, so when CFO Ozan Pamir told us that as a 25-year-old associate he had turned down a vice president position with Echelon Wealth Partners, a Canadian investment banking firm that he had been with for only 2 years, we felt obliged to ask: \\u201cWhy?\\u201d

\\u201cI\\u2019d like to think that I\\u2019m a relatively self-aware person, and at the time I just did not feel ready\\u2014I thought that I had a little more room to grow and things to learn,\\u201d says Pamir, who had joined the banking firm as an IV analyst and was promoted in short order to associate\\u2014at which time he began managing other analysts. \\xa0

\\u201cA year later, they offered me a vice president role again, and I accepted it at that time,\\u201d continues Pamir, who believes that the extra year as a \\u201csenior associate\\u201d served him well.

\\u201cIt gave me more time to learn how to better manage the analysts and how to take on responsibility when it came to managing certain deals,\\u201d explains Pamir, who notes that 12 months later he was able to more confidently accept the firm\\u2019s promotion to VP, a rank that positioned him to head up the firm\\u2019s small and midcap financing deals.

\\u201cSmaller deals are usually harder to complete\\u2014they are riskier and require a lot more due diligence and legwork to get done,\\u201d comments Pamir, who today views his development of a team of analysts for the firm as one of his most valuable experiences when it came to his own preparation for a CFO role.

\\u201cI advocated for their compensation increases, fought for their bonuses, put in place their career trajectories, recommended them for promotions, and mentored them,\\u201d says Pamir, who in 2018 left Echelon to step into the CFO role at 180 Life Sciences, a biotech firm specializing in the treatment of inflammation.

Having raised over $400 million in capital and helped to lead 30 financing transactions at Echelon, Pamir tells us that this time he felt more than ready.\\xa0\\u2013Jack Sweeney\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0

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