Xingdi Zhou is a Financial Advisor and Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) with The Atkins Group. As a new immigrant from Shanghai, she moved to the states/Seattle with her American husband in 2018. Xingdi joined Baird in 2019 as a Foundation Associate helping internal teams with process and business development. She comes to us with more than twenty years of experience in China as commercial/investment banker and received her CFP designation in 2021. Xingdi will focus on servicing existing clients, enhancing holistic wealth planning, and providing value to a wide range of clients.
Xingdi holds Bachelor of Arts from Wuhan University and MBA from China Europe International Business School. She loves to travel, having been to all seven continents. She is a Vipassana meditator and a self-taught watercolorist. In addition to English, Xingdi is a native speaker of Mandarin.
How did you arrive at Baird?
I moved to Seattle from Shanghai in March 2018. I grew up in a small village in China, and since my childhood I knew that study, dedication and hard work are needed in order to excel. This mentality has fueled the past 20 plus years of my career. I previously worked in commercial and investment banking and held roles with MNCs in project management and business development. When I arrived in Seattle, I focused on developing my own communities and saw a need for financial understanding among newcomers to the US. This new business concept appealed to me tremendously, and shortly afterwards, a friend introduced me to Baird. I quickly found a fit with an organization and a team that shared my beliefs in ethical business practices, and the need to serve others. My prior business experiences have given me insights that I believe will serve our clients well. Both Baird and the Atkins Group have welcomed me with open arms, and I have plunged into my new role here with great enthusiasm.
Who is someone you admire and why?
Frank Wild, a forgotten hero, who was the right-hand commander to Sir Ernest Shackleton on their Antarctic expeditions. During their famous Endurance trip (1914-18), Frank Wild was left in charge of 21 crew members on a small island where they lived for four months, enduring temperatures as low as minus 49°c. They were all rescued in the end. Frank Wild proved himself to be a great leader through fostering hope, self-belief, teamwork and the power of music.
Do you have skills and talents that most people do not know about?
I taught myself watercolor painting and became an artist (in my husband’s eyes) in 2015. I had visual practitioner training and look forward to using that skill to simplify complex wealth management topics with visuals.