EBT Securities managing director Mrs. Cheryl-Ann Lister is retiring.

Today or tomorrow will be the 37-year-old investment manager's last day in the Hamilton office that is just one corner of the business empire of Austrian financier, Mr. Wolfgang Flottl.

But before you think Mrs. Lister, who is Chartered Financial Analyst and MBA, may be acting a little prematurely in stepping back from the fast-paced and lucrative world of investment trading, it would be worth considering how full her last 15 years have been.

She already has a lot to be thankful for.

"I've satisfied my own career goals,'' she says. "I had always wanted to compete with Wall Street from Bermuda, and do it in a way that it could be measured.

"In the last couple of years, especially, I've been able to trade in the emerging markets and evaluate our profit and performance versus a lot of the other major firms. And we beat them. From our perspective, yes, the firm has done well. It is very satisfying,'' she says matter-of-factly.

"I was able to, from Bermuda, interact with the larger financial community and manage an investment company and be involved in all aspects of investments. I feel that I've seen the whole arena and proved that I could do it.'' After obtaining a Masters of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Toronto after first obtaining a BSc (Hons), Probability and Statistics from Queen's University, her first job in Bermuda was in the investment department of the Bank of Butterfield, managing client portfolios.

After seven years there, she spent five years as investment manager at the Bermuda Commercial Bank.

Today, she is looking forward to beginning a new career and spending more time with her family. They include husband, Senator Terry Lister, a chartered accountant and partner in the firm, Anfossi & Butterfield/Deloitte & Touche.

They have four children: A 26-year-old who was adopted and three others aged 11, 10, and eight. She had her children while she was engaged in her three year programme to obtain her CFA and holding down a full time job.

In leaving EBT she intends to be more of a consultant on the finance side of business, as opposed to investments. Even now, she feels there is more she can contribute to the community, especially in her areas of expertise.

"Our community needs more input from people who have experience and expertise in various areas. That's one of the things that I would like to get more involved in. I used to talk to community groups about investment and finance and talk to schools. I haven't had the time recently. But I'm very concerned to be involved as much as possible in the community.'' She has no interest in following her husband into the political arena but may look to foster the future of some businesses of her own, to keep the challenge of investment and finance alive.

"My goal is to find a good balance in terms of working with the community and seeking a financial reward for my family, on a more balanced level.

"I've had a good run in investments. But I want to be doing more consulting on a part time basis, working with small businesses, dealing with business plans and things like that. But whatever I do, it will initially be working from my home.'' "Investment gets into your blood. I've loved it. It is really a fascinating area. I've always been interested in international markets.

"Essentially, coming to EBT Securities was the culmination of all of it. When I first started out, I was doing portfolio management, or managing portfolios for clients.

"Then at Bermuda Commercial Bank, I was actually managing a department and overseeing both the operational side, the back office side, and also the investment management. So I did client service plus back office. And then I came here (EBT) and was actually running the company and also trading.

"For a period of time I was responsible for our Brazil office, too. So last year I spent quite a bit of time going back and forth to Brazil.'' The man who gave her the chance -- financier Mr. Wolfgang Flottl -- gets nothing but praise from Mrs. Lister.

"He's a fascinating man to work for, a brilliant man. It has been a very interesting period in my life. I've learned a lot from him.

"I think he has brought a lot to Bermuda and he has been very good in terms of bringing Bermudians into his organisation at the appropriate level.

"The glass ceiling does not really exist here at EBT Securities, as it has at many other organisations. It is based on your ability and if he sees that you have potential, he is quite willing to give you the opportunity, and I think that is fantastic. He has had a lot of unfair press. But it probably comes because some people are surmising things, that they can't find out because he is a private man. He's been given a bad deal.'' Mrs. Lister now hopes to scale back a hectic schedule. She is a member of the Bermuda Hospitals Board, a director of the Bermuda Electric Light Company, president of West End PTA, treasurer of the National PTA, and is on the Packwood Home management committee.

She teaches Sunday School, directs the church choir, plays the church piano and, along with her husband Terry, runs the church youth group.

Mrs. Lister is also a director of the International Society of Financial Analysts. She has to fly to the US for meetings. She is the immediate past president and member of the board of the Bermuda Society of Financial Analysts.

She said: "It just got to a point where it was literally 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I enjoy the community aspect as well, but structuring it sometimes get difficult.

"Some of my duties I took on recently, because I anticipated winding down my office work. But I've always had a pretty full plate and with a lot of help from my husband and our families, it's been an enjoyable and interesting challenge.

"I've always enjoyed working and I would like to keep my hand in, but I don't want to tie myself down. I want to have more flexibility for a period of time.

Instead I want to do project type work that will allow me to continue to use my expertise and skills.'' She admits to leaving a very intense job, a very stressful one, not just in terms of running the company, but particularly in terms of her role as part of the trading team.

"When we were trading at our peak, I was getting up at 5 a.m., calling London and then getting to the office and staying here until seven and eight at night. Go home and spend some time with the kids and then read and watch TV to keep up with what was happening. Then back again the next day, staying constantly on a roll. And then I was traveling back and forth to Brazil, three trips there in six months, managing the Brazil office for eight months.'' EBT Securities (related to the European Bank and Trust) is a far cry from a school teaching post that Mrs. Lister first had in mind when obtaining her GCE "A'' Levels (in Maths, Physics and Chemistry) at the Bermuda College, after leaving Warwick Academy.

Born a Simmons, she won the top Bermuda Government Scholarship Award, an academic distinction she shares with her husband, who was also a Bermuda Scholar.

It was only 13 days after graduating from Queen's that she was walking down the aisle in Bermuda. Her husband was working at Price Waterhouse in Toronto and had to fly here for the wedding.

It was not long after the nuptials that he was back on the job and she was back in school chasing her MBA, but this time together in Toronto as husband and wife.

She did her MBA in a year and a half and a few months later, they decided to return to Bermuda.

Her hobbies include reading (a lot of investment and finance related material and mystery novels), tennis (which she has had very little time for not surprisingly), music and antique collecting (her house is full of them).

"There are no negatives in my life at the moment. There are always stresses and strains that include trying to get the best education for your children as possible. They are all part of the challenge in life. But I'm very happy with my family and the way my life is, right now.'' MOVING ON -- Mrs. Cheryl-Ann Lister