Retiring CEO Helen Wong a 'unifying force' in OCBC Bank

Insiders call her leadership a people-centric one, praise her empathy and positivity

- Sheila Chiang

One of OCBC Bank chief executive Helen Wong's greatest contributions is being a leader who fosters collaboration across its different markets and businesses to drive synergies, say the bank's insiders.

Ms Koh Li-San, head of funding and capital management at OCBC, said Ms Wong believed in the value of collaboration as part of the OCBC's "One Group" strategy — an approach of operating as a unified group across various business units, entities and geographies to capitalise on the Asean-Greater China opportunity.

"She really brought people together, got everyone to work more closely and think of new ideas to reach more customers or do more cross-selling," said Ms Koh, who worked in the CEO office for two years during Ms Wong's tenure.

Mr Mike Ng, group chief sustainability officer at OCBC, said Ms Wong was able to find synergies in many areas, including sustainability.

"For example, best practices, training programmes, sustainable finance product development can be shared across divisions and entities," he said, adding that cross-collaboration became common across the group.

OCBC mainly operates across four key markets in Asia — Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Greater China. Also under its umbrella are private bank Bank of Singapore, insurer Great Eastern (GE) and asset manager Lion Global Investors, among others.

Ms Koh and Mr Ng are among staff The Straits Times interviewed following news of Ms Wong's upcoming retirement.

They were as one in highlighting the CEO's positivity and empathy as a leader.

Mr Lee Shyong, who works with Ms Wong on matters relating to large corporate and institutional clients, described her leadership as a people-centric one.