Marie Hong is Asia Head of Treasury at Manulife Financial based in Hong Kong, and is the Highly Commended Winner of Treasury Today’s Woman of the Year for APAC award. She is an expert in the treasury field and has created positive change in several companies across her 18 years in the industry.
Born in Korea, Marie embarked on her career journey during the mid-90s. Despite societal pressures and gender expectations to settle in her home country, Marie longed to pursue a career on the other side of the world. In 2004, she moved to New York to pursue an MBA and subsequently became Senior Financial Analyst, Global Treasury at Avon Products Inc.
After six years in New York, Marie’s professional journey led her to Hong Kong, the financial hub of Asia. Armed with only two suitcases and no long-term job prospects, her two-month trial in Hong Kong evolved into a 12-year career. As with her initial move to New York, this highlights Marie’s confidence to take risks in order to develop her career. Throughout this period, Marie played a pivotal role in establishing and developing regional treasury functions for two Fortune 500 companies.
In between roles at two Fortune 500 companies, Marie worked for Standard Chartered Bank, where she provided treasury solution advisory services to top-tier companies and helped them provide best in class treasury solutions. Working on the sell side of treasury solutions she developed her expertise in value-adding solutions and enhancing treasury functions, which would prove useful later in her career.
Marie joined Manulife in late 2021, amidst the global pandemic. She is responsible for leading the regional treasury team, which comprises nine on-shore and ten off-shore supporting staff. Immediately after assuming her role, Marie identified several opportunities to increase efficiency in the company’s treasury operations and set about a grand transformation of the treasury department.
Driven by a strong belief in the treasury function’s role as a value-driven and strategic partner to the business, Marie embarked on a journey to revitalise the team. Guided by her leadership, the off-shore team transitioned from manual and transactional tasks to become technical enablers adept at automating processes. The treasury transformation project had a complete overhaul, shifting focus onto local cash management, process re-engineering, automation and payment optimisation. The team’s efforts on investment optimisation, transaction fee reduction and creating effective liquidity management proved successful with an annual revenue generation and cost savings ranging from US$10m to US$17m.
Under Marie’s guidance, the team evolved to assume expanded responsibilities beyond operations to include managing and operating custodial cash, FX and liquidity risk, as well as playing a key role in capital planning for the Asia segment. Notably, Marie spearheaded the rollout of a multi-entity, multi-currency short-term investment vehicle in 2024, collaborating with the investment team to deliver an estimated incremental income of US$40m annually.
Successful leadership
Having grown up with few successful career women to serve as her role models, Marie has become that figure for the next generation. Her successful leadership is evidenced in her bold restructuring of the treasury team at Manulife, which became the most important aspect of the overall transformation.
Remote working conditions imposed during the global pandemic, combined with the head of function changing three times in six years prior to Marie’s arrival, gave a clear opportunity for Marie to implement consistent and strategic leadership. Marie aligned roles and responsibilities with each team member’s expertise, potential and career aspirations creating a renewed job satisfaction within the team. She implemented tailored knowledge-sharing and learning initiatives, and established treasury KPIs to track direct and indirect value creation for the company.
Marie’s commitment to empowering her team has helped create a culture of ownership and satisfaction. Manulife’s treasury department is now an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and motivated to contribute their best. There has been a clear improvement in job satisfaction within the team, reflected in their elevated engagement survey scores.
Marie’s hard-working nature and empowering leadership has helped inspire others outside of her organisation, as well. “Her unyielding championship in driving transformation in the organisation always amazed and inspired me,” says Sophie Kim, Chief Marketing and Transformation Officer Asia, BNP Paribas Cardif.
Furthermore, Marie’s exemplary leadership gained recognition as she was selected for the ACcelerate Women Leadership Programme, an industry-wide programme for female leaders in Hong Kong. This programme has increased visibility and reach for Marie, who is now an active alumni of close to 100 female senior leaders that constitutes the ACcelerate programme. This programme allows Marie to actively transfer her 18 years’ of knowledge and insights to a larger audience and help empower the next generation of treasury leaders.
Marie’s accomplishments truly embody the spirit of leadership and excellence. Her personal journey from Korea to New York to Hong Kong showcases resilience, adaptability, and a commitment to pursuing opportunities beyond traditional gender roles. Furthermore, her visionary leadership, strategic thinking, and ability to drive impactful change have not only delivered significant value to her organisation but have also inspired others and contributed to advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion within the financial sector.
