Asia-Commonwealth Business Summit

Ms Yvonne Chia,  Senior Banker & Transformational Leader, has over 40 years track record of leading large banking organizations in the region. She is known for her energetic inspiration for change, openness and learning values that drives her personal and organisational  success.

 

She has been in the ASEAN  banking scene, with a focus on Malaysia in the last three decades. Her record of excellence and value creation had transformed the banks that she has led:  RHB Banking Group (1996 to 2002) and Hong Leong Banking Group (2003-2013).

 

She is a trailblazer for women in financial services in the region as the first women CEO of any commercial bank in Malaysia.  She played a distinctive role in shaping the Malaysian banking scene with the mergers and acquisitions she led. During the Asian financial crisis, she was at the helm of two banks,  concurrently heading a “good” bank  and a “bad” bank for a period of 18 months .

 

An award-winning banker, she was named among the ‘50 business women in the mix’ in 2013 by Forbes Asia and two-time finalist in the CNBC Asia Business Award 2008 and 2013. She has demonstrated her strong leadership in providing vision, focus and execution to achieve success in greenfield markets, high growth and turn-around operations. A proven strategist and influencer/mentor, she displays  strong understanding in relationship management, governance and engagement with partners, customers, staff and the community served.

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As a proponent of woman empowerment, she is a keen promoter of education, talent  and personal development as tools to enable financial literacy  and financial independence for woman.  She  is particularly admired for her agility to move  with the changing times, her  grounded style of walking the talk, showing  the way in the language of the audience of seniors, millennials  and the local communities  she served.

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Currently , she is an independent non-executive director of several companies,  amongst which is as Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad, Senior Lead Director for Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad, Silverlake Axis Limited as well as a Trustee for Teach for Malaysia and Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers. She is also an Honorary  Professor at the University of Nottingham Malaysia  and  the Nottingham Asia Advisory Board.