Our Team

Leadership

Bénédicte N. Nolens

Bénédicte is a managing director and CCO of SC Ventures by Standard Chartered Bank, the co-chair of Women in Finance Asia (WiFA), and a board member of the Fintech Association of Hong Kong (FTAHK).

From 2018-2019, she was the Vice President of International Government Relations at Circle; from 2012-2018, she was the Head of Risk & Strategy of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), and in that capacity also the Fintech lead for the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) From 2007-2012, she was a managing director at Credit Suisse; and from 1997-2007 she was an associate and executive director at Goldman Sachs.

Originally from Belgium, she holds LL.M. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Leuven, and is admitted to the New York Bar since 1999. In 2016, she was a recipient of the China Daily Asian Women Leadership Awards for her efforts related to entrepreneurship, innovation and charity.

Aoife McGillion

Aoife McGillion is the co-chair of Women in Finance Asia and started her “WiFA” career in 2015 as the chair of the Social Media committee, working closely with the Education, Thought Leadership and Philanthropy committees. Aoife is the APAC head of Regulatory Relations for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, one of the founding members of Suits for Success and an active member of the City Mental Health Alliance HK (CMHA). She has a keen interest in all topics related to ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance), CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and physical & mental health. At the weekend you can find Aoife at WiFA working brunches with Kate Reid, but also, mostly, at Hour of Power or on the hiking and running trails or generally exploring Hong Kong with her closest friends Alex, Amy, Celia and Diane.

Why WiFA? I was attracted to WiFA by the opportunity to do something totally different from my day job and stayed so long because the energy and enthusiasm of the people involved in this association is so addictive. Being co-chair gives my life a bit of balance and also allows me to meet the most fantastic people.

Please link in with Aoife via linkedin

Bonnie So

Bonnie So is the former President of High Technology Crime Investigation Association for Asia Pacific Chapter between 2017 and 2018 with experiences in organising seminar and events. At Morgan Stanley, Bonnie is the Portfolio Manager for Security Development, Enterprise Security Platform in the Technology Division. Prior to this role, Bonnie worked numerous roles including the Insider Threat Outreach Asia Lead supporting the Insider Threat Program and the Asia Office of Chief Information Security Officers (CISO), the Data Leakage Prevention Asia Lead and the Investigation Team Asia Lead.

  At the weekends, you can find her out and about either hiking, swimming, cycling or playing in the parks with her husband Jason and 3 children; Stella, Harvey and Harry.  

Why WiFA? I was attracted to WiFA by the opportunity do something totally different from my day job with a great network to meet exciting and energetic people in Hong Kong and nearby cities.

Thought Leadership

Rebecca Sin

Rebecca is the head of equities products at Tradeweb for Asia Pacific. In this role, she is the responsible for the equity business, which includes ETFs, equity futures/options and convertible bonds.

Previously, Rebecca was the head of Commerzbank ETF Sales Trading for Asia Pacific. She was responsible for supporting and educating clients with respect to the ETF market and the entire spectrum of ETF products, assisting clients in executing trades, and driving the growth of Commerzbank’s ETF business and client base in Asia Pacific.

Rebecca’s career has been spent in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, and she has experience working as a portfolio manager, market maker and synthetic equity trader. She began her career with Deutsche Bank and also worked for Barclays Capital prior to joining Commerzbank.

Rebecca earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Brigham Young University majoring in Mechanical Engineering and minoring in Mathematics. She is also the co-chair of Asia’ Women in Exchange Traded Funds (WE), Young Investor Society and is the Chair of Tradeweb’s Asia Regional Diversity Committee. She is passionate about gender diversity and equality.

Oonagh van den Berg

Oonagh has over 16 years’ experience in the legal and financial services industry at local, regional and global level, predominantly in the Regulatory and Financial Crime Risk Compliance function and Regulatory Remediation. In addition to having successfully built compliance teams and frameworks, and developed and maintained solid regulatory and industry body relationships with most recent focus on APAC, Oonagh has a solid academic background and strong reputation as an SME in the compliance industry. She also has significant experience in leading, managing and supervising highly complex and time-sensitive regulatory and compliance engagements with successful outcomes including supporting Fintech and Regtech innovation development, covering a wide range of governance, regulatory compliance & financial crime issues.

Oonagh is a frequent industry speaker on key regulatory issues, recognized as a thought leader, and a guest lecturer at the Hong Kong University on financial crime.

Philanthropy Committee

Penny Barsha

Corporate Responsibility Manager, Asia at Linklaters

Penny worked as a corporate lawyer advising financial institution clients in Australia and Hong Kong for over 12 years. She is now the Corporate Responsibility Manager for Asia for Linklaters, a leading law firm headquartered in the UK. She manages the community investment, pro bono and diversity and inclusion initiatives across Asia for the firm. Penny moved to Hong Kong from Australia in 2007 and lives here with her husband and three children.

Karen Liu

Research and Content Development, Asia-Pacific, Market Entry Solutions at State Street

Karen is responsible for research and content development for the Asia-Pacific region within the Market Entry Solutions (MES) team at State Street. The MES team provides asset manager clients with information, insights and access to support their global product development and distribution ambitions. Karen received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Politics and Economics from Middlebury College with Honors. She speaks Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese, and is based in Hong Kong. She is an active member of State Street’s Toastmasters and Corporate Citizenship affinity groups and has worked with a number of nonprofits in Hong Kong, US, India and Rwanda.

Mentor Mentee Committee

Sonja Key

Sonja is Group Senior Corporate Counsel at AIA Group. She has over 25 years of experience in the Asia Pacific region leading large multidisciplinary teams, in the negotiation, execution and implementation of landmark M&A transactions as well as transformational initiatives, working closely with senior management and cross functional teams, as a senior legal and/or business leader. In addition to her legal roles, other roles with AIA have included AIA Head of Corporate Transactions and Head of Operations – AIA Group Partnership Distribution. Sonja is one of the founders and committee member of the AIA Group office internal diversity network and is also one of the co-chairs of the WiFA Mentor Mentee Programme.

Donna Titley

Donna is the APAC Regional Talent Development Manager for Peerpoint at Allen & Overy. She is a trainer, facilitator and coach who works with individuals, teams and organisations to maximise professional development and build and deliver career strategies and success. She started her career in London and has lived and worked in Asia (Singapore, Japan (Tokyo and Saitama) and Hong Kong) for almost 20 years. Donna has supported the WiFA Mentor Mentee Program since 2018 and is delighted to be co-chairing the programme from 2020.

Tonia Wong Kee

Tonia is the APAC Regional HR Business Partner for: Risk, Legal, Compliance & Operational Risk Lines of business for Bank of America. She is also the Hong Kong HR Business partner covering all Lines of Business. In this role she is responsible for supporting the businesses in attracting, retaining & developing their teams and driving the regional People Priorities. In her capacity as Country HR Partner she is involved in governance routines and sits on the HK country leadership team. Tonia is also on the leadership team for the Bank’s HK chapter for the Bank’s Women’s Network (LEAD) & leads the chapter internal speaker event series under the banner of LEADership Connect.

Tonia has worked in the UK, Australia before moving to Hong Kong 8 years ago.

Education Committee

Laurence Van Der Loo

Laurence is Director, Technology and Operations at ASIFMA, the Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association.
Based in Hong Kong, Laurence is responsible for coordinating ASIFMA’s Operations and Technology efforts including regulatory implementation, cost efficiencies, KYC/AML, fintech/regtech and cyber and cloud. ASIFMA’s work in this area includes regulatory advocacy, driving harmonization and work on industry best practices in these areas. In addition, she oversees several of ASIFMA’s regional committees in China and India. These committees help develop and shape ASIFMA’s regulatory engagement s to drive capital markets development in both countries. Laurence also supports the CEO team with ASIFMA’s corporate governance and board processes.
Laurence has over 10 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining ASIFMA in 2016, she was responsible for European business development at Vistra Hong Kong, assisting foreign companies and funds to set up in Asia. Before that, she managed a portfolio of Natural Resources Companies at ING Corporate Banking in Brussels, working on numerous ECM, DCM, securitisation and syndicated loan deals for her clients.
Laurence holds a Master Degree in Business Economics from the University of Ghent, and a Master Degree in International Business from EAE Business School. She is member of the Exco of the Belgium-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce (BLCC) in Hong Kong as well as Women in Finance Asia. She is fluent in English, Dutch and French.

Marie Swarbreck

Marie is the founder of FLEXImums, a recruitment and coaching consultancy, focused on empowering women and Hong Kong corporations to strive for gender equity and work-life balance.

Before devoting her time to FLEXImums, Marie started her career as an International Correspondent with the South China Morning Post, International Herald Tribune & The Asahi Shimbun meeting business leaders across Asia, Middle East, Europe and Canada. Driven by building relationships and connecting people, Marie went on building her network as the Communications & Business Development Manager with a leading international trade fair organiser across Asia.

After her daughter Arabelle was born in Hong Kong during 2014, she found herself in need of flexible yet challenging work and little to no options to choose from. This was the beginning of a new adventure, the birth of FLEXImums.

Marie together with her husband Sebastian and their two children, Arabelle and Jude, moved from HK island to South Lantau 4 years ago to combine the best of what Hong Kong has to give.

Why WIFA? Passionate about Diversity & Inclusion and Gender Equity, Marie joined WIFA and its Education Committee to support and inspire young female professionals as well as bring together industry professionals, men and women, for inspiring talks, panels and networking events in Hong Kong.

Please link in with Marie via linkedin

Emerging Talent Committee

Co-Chair Katie Mok

Senior Consultant, Protiviti

Katie is a Senior Consultant within the Financial Services Consulting practice at Protiviti Hong Kong. She specializes in transformation project management and compliance advisory and assurance work, leveraging on her law degree and CAMS certification.

Katie is passionate about empowering emerging talents to build and maintain a meaningful external network as part of their professional development. She is also keen to connect individuals to help drive diversity and inclusion initiatives together.

It’d not be a surprise to find Katie on one of the islands here in Hong Kong on weekends hiking or skateboarding.

Why WiFA? I started off as a volunteer to help out with their events on-site from time to time. I was increasingly drawn to the level of enthusiasm and dedication that the WiFA Committee members had consistently shown, which inspired me to get more involved. To step up as a co-chair was a great opportunity for me to practice what I preach as I help deliver some of WiFA’s signature events with a lasting impact.

Networking Committee

Jennifer Hsieh

Jennifer is Head of Asia Pacific for TradingHub, a fintech/regtech firm offering trade data analytic solutions. She began her career with Merrill Lynch’s investment banking division in New York and Hong Kong, then moved to product structuring in its Debt Capital Markets. After receiving her MBA from INSEAD, Jennifer resumed her career specialty of product development, focusing on the buyside. She looked after this function at Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management (London), ETF Securities (London), and BlackRock (HK). Prior to joining TradingHub, Jennifer was the founding COO for a boutique hedge fund manager in Hong Kong.

Bernice Choi

Bernice works in Bloomberg’s Enterprise Sales and covers clients in the banking industry. Her positivity and hardworking attitude drives confidence in the sales strategies and projects that she leads in APAC. She is a strong believer in staying curious, constant learning and giving back. She is co-lead for the marketing team of Bloomberg Women’s Community and helps to promote internal and external events within the women’s network. Bernice’s enthusiasm in diversity and inclusion related topics drew her to attend WIFA events. She was inspired by like-minded professionals and became a committee member in 2018.
Bernice holds a BA from Boston College with a major in Art History and minor in French. Prior to her career, she has also co-founded the Lean In at Boston College chapter inspired by Sheryl Sandberg.
On the weekends or her spare time, you will find her doing yoga or on hiking trails, and enjoying quality time with friends and family over good food and wine.