Winnie Leong’s parents had a fundamental reason for immigrating to Canada from Hong Kong 40 years ago.
“My parents were hoping we’d have a better life here,” said Leong, who came to Canada in 1973 as a teenager with an older sister and younger brother. “As it turns out, it was a pretty good decision. All three of us ended up having really good careers.”
Her sister recently retired as a vice-president at the Business Development Bank of Canada. Her brother is working on a major project in Fujian province in China with ExxonMobil. And after a more than 35-year career at Scotiabank, Leong became the bank’s first Chinese-Canadian regional senior vice-president responsible for the B.C. and Yukon region.
“I think she’s a wonderful woman with an extraordinary story of starting at the very entry level of the bank and now, through charm, hard work and a love of banking, she’s such an important banker in British Columbia toda,” said Michael Francis, emeritus chairman of Simon Fraser University and the Vancouver International Film Festival,
Leong started at Scotiabank in 1976 as a stenographer, transcribing letters and memos for a local branch manager in Vancouver. She didn’t plan on staying with the bank for very long, but she quickly got promoted to different administrative and back-office positions before working in more senior service and sales positions.
“We had different positions in the old days,” she recalls. “In those days, you had to do a lot of manual calculations. For term deposits, we actually calculated and deposited the interest semi-annually into people’s accounts. Those were the ‘good old days.’ Thank God for technology!”
By 1995, she became branch manager at the Bridgeport and No. 5 Road branch in Richmond and would eventually lead the team at the main Richmond branch on No. 3 Road, which has one of the largest portfolios for the bank in Canada.
By 2005, she became a district vice-president, responsible for 27 branches in B.C.
Part of Leong’s success comes from her knowledge of the local market and her ability to create strong teams, said Maple Freight president Bonnie Chu, who has known Leong for more than 10 years.
“She’s very detail-oriented with the market. She definitely picks a winning team. The team members she has are very good to their customers.”
The customer-service focus of staff became crucial once the global financial crisis hit in 2008. The turmoil created incredible volatility in the markets and generated considerable fear and concern among clients. Leong said the key was to help customers through the market noise and help them stay focused on their own financial circumstances and goals, “making sure they had a budget, didn’t overspend. There was more focus on the financial plan.”
Financially, that focus paid off for the bank. Its Canadian banking unit in 2008 posted a 10% increase in net profits, partially offsetting the declines in Scotiabank’s international operations and its investment banking unit that year. And Scotiabank’s Canadian operations would continue to grow despite continued shocks to global markets from the growing eurozone sovereign debt crisis in 2010 that continues to linger.
Until then, Leong’s connection with the financial crisis was primarily through addressing client concerns and dealing with tightening mortgage rules. But by the time Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, she would be getting hands-on experience in dealing with the complex, global mélange of new regulatory changes that would affect the world’s financial markets.
In 2010, she was among a handful of senior Scotiabank managers selected from a global talent pool to participate in its annual Executive Project Office program, which gives leaders the responsibility to explore various strategic issues facing the global financial institution.
That year, the team of six managers had to determine the impacts on the bank’s operations from stricter capital and liquidity requirements under new “Basel III” global rules.
The opportunity to work with senior Scotiabank executives and connect with the bank’s partners around the world broadened Leong’s knowledge of the bank and gave her the opportunity to develop a more strategic understanding of the bank’s operations and priorities. That experience paid huge dividends when she became the bank’s national vice-president of multicultural banking in 2012.
But her background and experience also made her ideal for the role. Maggie Ip, founding chairwoman of SUCCESS, has known Leong for five years.
“As a bilingual and bicultural person, she has a capacity of looking at issues from many different perspectives,” Ip said.
During Leong’s tenure leading multicultural banking, the bank rolled out nine different initiatives and partnerships to increase its market share of the hundreds of thousands of new Canadians who come to the country each year.
In 2012, it was the first Canadian bank to partner with the High Commission of Canada in India to provide a student guaranteed investment certificate program, which helps Indian students looking to study in Canada prove their financial ability to stay and support their study permit application. It also became one of three Canadian banks to offer the same service for students from China.
In February, it launched an automated account-opening program for immigrants, allowing newcomers to apply for a Canadian account even before landing in the country.
Over the summer, the bank also partnered with BioTalent Canada to help newcomers with skills in that sector to build a resumé that optimizes their chances of working in the biotech industry in Canada.
“In a mature market like Canada, we need to grow our customer base, and newcomers are a great opportunity for the bank. We know that newcomers are very loyal. Usually, if they open an account with you, they will stay with you as you build the relationship with them.”
With Metro Vancouver among the country’s most culturally diverse communities, Leong said it’s remained a priority for the bank to provide staff who can speak the dominant non-English languages in the community to help build local connections.
Last year, Scotiabank updated its online branch locator to allow people to find branches that have staff speaking specific languages.
As an immigrant herself, Leong has dedicated time to supporting various organizations helping newcomers.
She volunteered as a fundraiser for SUCCESS for much of the past 20 years and was on the board of the organization, which provides a host of services for immigrants, for three years. She was also on the board of the Vancouver International Film Festival and the Richmond Chamber of Commerce.
Since becoming Scotiabank’s top executive in B.C., her primary volunteer position is as a board member of the United Way of the Lower Mainland.
For the bank, B.C. remains a key market for growth, especially with the country’s increasing focus on strengthening ties with Asia. Leong remains optimistic about B.C.’s prospects in her new role.
“We have a number of great things that are happening. Everyone is talking about the Asia Pacific influence, and we definitely have that. And we are close to the U.S., which is recovering,” said Leong. “We have a diverse market. It’s my first year, and I’m certainly very focused on developing business opportunities for the bank.” •
