Helen Wong

Helen Wong started her career in 1984 as a management trainee at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), one of Singapore’s “Big Three” banks. OCBC named her CEO almost four decades later. Wong is the first woman to run a Singaporean bank. In between, Wong was based at HSBC, where she eventually rose to become CEO of Greater China. She’s relying on that mix of China and Southeast Asia experience as Singapore hopes to tap trade and financial flows between these two major economies. OCBC posted a record $5.9 billion in net income for 2024, thanks to surging net interest income and wealth management fees. The coming year may not be quite as rosy, but Wong sees “Trade War 2.0” as an opportunity, “following the flow” in helping Chinese companies invest in Hong Kong, Singapore, and ASEAN.