Helen Wong Pik Kuen JP
黃碧娟
Class of 1980, Form 7 - First Female Banking Chief in Singapore
1980屆, 預科畢業 — 新加坡銀行業首名女總裁
Helen Wong graduated sixth form from St. Paul’s College in 1980. A banker, Wong began her career with Singapore-based OCBC (Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation) Bank as a management trainee. In 1992, she joined HSBC, where she rose to become the bank’s Greater China chief in 2015. She is now the group CEO of OCBC Bank, making her the first woman chief in the city-state’s banking history.
Throughout her twenty-seven-year career in HSBC, Wong has focused on expansion opportunities in China. From 2010 to 2015, she was the CEO of HSBC China (in Shanghai). As Greater China chief, Wong was in charge of the bank’s largest division. Coordinating Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and mainland China, Wong helped maintain HSBC’s position as the mainland’s largest external bank, while valuing Hong Kong’s position as China’s gateway to the world. At OCBC Bank, in addition to applying her decades-long experience in expanding its presence in South East Asia, Wong has also placed an emphasis on sustainable banking, with the bank joining the United Nations’ Net-Zero Banking Alliance in 2022.
Outside of finance, Wong has also served on the Corruption Prevention Advisory Committee (2005–09) of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and was a councillor of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (2008–10). She was appointed JP in 2017.
Reminiscing on her two years as ‘a girl in a boys’ school’, Wong remembers being inspired by the boys’ can-do spirit. St. Paul’s was also the place where Wong began playing basketball; while at university, Wong represented Hong Kong in the 1983 Universiade.