Chamber Spotlight: Jonathan Chasen, Wells Fargo Advisors

What does your organization do?
We work with clients to help plan, grow and gift their wealth, while managing controllable things, like tax exposure and behavioral biases.

What is unique about your organization and the work you do in our community?
One of our core values is serving our community. All of our team members do this is in a variety of ways - board service, volunteering, youth coaching, mentorship & sponsorships.

What was your first job?
First with a W-2 was Kay Bee Toys at 15 years old.

How did you choose the field you're in?
Service to others while building wealth in a flexible hours career appealed to me.

What has inspired you most in your career?
A sense of service to others while being economically independent.

What is your most memorable experience in your career?
Very early in my career, I made a costly mistake for a client. Despite my nervousness, as a new financial advisor, I called the client immediately, expecting to be fired. Instead, the client was quite generous and said, "We all make mistakes. The best thing you can do is admit, correct to the extent possible and learn from it." I've never forgotten that.

What is your greatest skill that you have learned or developed in your career?
Absorbing a client's personal fears and desires to ensure we understand this well enough to mitigate natural judgement errors.

What's your favorite thing about the Charlottesville area?
Incredible natural beauty with plenty of things to do but yet at the heart a rather small town.

What is one of your favorite local businesses, and why?
Common House - great spot for social & business activities with diverse membership and programing.

How do you like to spend your days off?
Multiple things fill up most weekends - Hike (I'm climbing Kilimanjaro with Waterboys in February), Read and gather some place with friends and family. With more time off, I love traveling some place new.

What animal would you be and why?
Fish - seems relatively calm but is always moving as a survival requirement.

What is your favorite piece of advice?
A lot of life is luck and we should be humble enough to admit this but also hard work and ambition make a fortunate circumstance better.

Is there anything that you feel Charlottesville is missing? Spark ideas for others!
Mergers & Acquisitions among non-profits. We need someone to facilitate missions that are duplicating so that we can be more efficient solving issues.

What do you like about being a Chamber member?
Helping build a favorable business climate to lift others up as entrepreneurs and employees while serving the public with products and services they need.

What else would you like to tell us about yourself and your work?
I'm grateful to serve as Chair this term and am open to ideas from our members. There is a lot of work to be done to make this an even better community and business climate.