In-person event: Wealth HER Way 2025: Empowering Financial Independence

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Key takeaways

• Know yourself before you begin your investment journey: We all have unique circumstances, distinct life goals and varying risk preferences. Build an investment portfolio that is tailored to you. Keep your investment costs low as they could eat up your returns in the long-run, and stay diversified.
• Investment strategies could change at different life stages: Although daily review of investments may not be essential for long-term investors, critical life milestones, like marriage and parenthood, are opportune opportunities to review your investment strategy and portfolio.
• Females are not necessarily worse investors: Numerous studies indicate that female investors, on average, tend to outperform male counterparts. This is attributed to women's tendency to conduct thorough research, adopt a long-term investment horizon, and engage in less frequent trading.
• Technology's role in empowerment: Technological advancements have made personal investing more accessible, personalized, and cost-effective. We should leverage these tools to capitalize on the compounding effect of investing early.

About the event

Wealth HER Way 2025: Empowering Financial Independence

An Endowus survey revealed that nearly 70% of Hong Kong female investors surveyed want to invest more, primarily to secure a stronger retirement and achieve financial independence.

This International Women’s Day 2025, Endowus and 100 Women in Finance are delighted to co-host our annual female empowerment panel forum and networking event on the evening of March 4, 2025 (Tuesday). We will hear from distinguished panelists, including:

• Lora Yip, Managing Director, Head of Legal Greater China, Blackrock; President, HK Federation of Women Lawyers 
• Vicky Kong, Chief Executive, Citibank (Hong Kong) Limited; Head of Wealth, Asia North & Australia Cluster, Citi
• Natalie Chan, Partner, Banking & Capital Markets Leader, Deloitte
• Joanne Hon, Managing Director, Equinix Hong Kong; Board Director, AmCham HK

Our panelists will share their personal journeys, and discuss how women can cultivate financial confidence and take steps towards achieving long-term financial independence.

The session will be moderated by Steffanie Yuen, Managing Director and Head of Hong Kong at Endowus, and a global committee member of 100WFintech.

We are pleased to have The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (AmCham), Deloitte, Fintech Association of Hong Kong (FTAHK), Hong Kong Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), The Hong Kong Independent Non-Executive Director Association (HKiNED) as supporting partners for this event.

About the speakers

Lora Yip, Managing Director, Head of Legal Greater China, Blackrock; President, HK Federation of Women Lawyers

Lora Yip serves as the Managing Director and Head of Legal for Greater China at BlackRock. In this role, she oversees legal teams across Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan, providing strategic counsel on complex legal and regulatory issues. Her expertise includes mutual funds, ETFs, investments, thresholds, trademarks, and other regulatory matters.

Before joining BlackRock in May 2023, Lora was the Regional Head of Legal, APAC at Wellington Management, where she played a pivotal role in supporting the China strategy implementation. During her tenure at Vanguard between 2012 and 2018, she led the Legal and Compliance team in Asia, ensuring regulatory compliance and mitigating legal risks.

Beyond her professional endeavors, Lora is actively involved in the legal community. As the current President of the Hong Kong Federation of Women Lawyers, she empowers other female lawyers, advocates for the welfare of women and children, and engages in various charitable activities.

Lora holds both an LL.B. and an LL.M. from The University of Hong Kong and is dual qualified in Hong Kong and England and Wales.

Vicky Kong, Chief Executive, Citibank (HK) Limited; Head of Wealth, Asia North & Australia Cluster, Citi

Vicky Kong is the Head of Wealth for Asia North and Australia. In this role, she is responsible for the setting and execution of our wealth business strategy, delivering the wealth solutions and services to our clients. Vicky also serves as the Chief Executive for Citibank (Hong Kong) Limited.

Vicky has extensive management experience in retail banking and wealth management business. Before rejoining Citibank in 2022, she held numerous management roles at Standard Chartered Bank locally and overseas. Her last roles were Regional Head of Wealth Management and Global Head of Wealth Proposition. Vicky started her career in Citi as a Management Associate. During the period of 1994 to 2008, she held a number of senior positions in retail banking, treasury, wealth management and international personal bank.

Vicky graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) holder and has obtained her fellowship from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

Natalie Chan, Partner, Banking & Capital Markets Leader, Deloitte

Natalie is the Banking & Capital Markets (BCM) Leader of Hong Kong, leading all business functions including consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax, and audit and assurance services to best serve the banking and capital markets clients in Hong Kong. 

Natalie has extensive experience in the financial services industry in Hong Kong and in the Greater Bay Area, serving a diverse clientele of international banking institutions, multi-national banks listed in Mainland China and Hong Kong, securities, asset managers and funds. She specializes in audit and IPO services, as well as a wide range of advisory services, including regulatory advisory, compliance review, and assurance services. She is also the first Deloitte partner to graduate from the inaugural Financial Leaders Programme of the Hong Kong Academy of Finance ("HKAoF") in 2022, and she is now a member of the HKAoF. 

Currently, she is the Financial Advisor of the Ministry of Finance of the Guangdong Province of Mainland China, Deputy Secretary General of Council of the Promotion of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Cooperation, and Advisory Board Member of Hong Kong Export Credit Insurance Corporation. Other key roles in professional bodies include the Council Member of ACCA Global and Board Member of the GBA Advisory Board of ACCA. She is also a panel member of the Investment Funds Regulatory Advisory Panel and the Securities Regulatory Advisory Panel of HKICPA.

Joanne Hon, Managing Director, Equinix Hong Kong; Board Director, AmCham HK

Joanne Hon joined Equinix in 2024 as Managing Director of Equinix Hong Kong, leading the company’s overall business and strategy in the market. She focuses on expanding the company’s growth and impact to Hong Kong to accelerate customers’ digital transformation. 

Joanne possesses over 25 years of experience in financial technology, investment, insurance, legal and professional services across in the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to her role at Equinix, she has held leadership positions at several publicly listed multinational companies and private equity-backed technology firms, including Thomson Reuters, Mercer, Dealogic, CPA Global and Broadridge.

Joanne holds a Master’s degree in Financial Management from the University of London, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia.

Joanne is passionate about social matters especially children, diversity & inclusion, and green sustainability. She serves as the board member at three NGOs, The Child Development Centre (CDC), YWCA’s Y-Hospitality, and the American Chamber of Hong Kong.

‍Steffanie Yuen, Managing Director and Head of Hong Kong, Endowus

Steffanie Yuen is the Managing Director and Head of Hong Kong at Endowus, Asia's leading independent wealth management platform, servicing over 200,000 clients with over US$7 billion assets under advice.

Before joining Endowus, Steffanie was Managing Director at Value Partners and was responsible for leading the Group's Direct Distribution, Marketing, Communications and Investor Relations functions, as well as other key strategic growth initiatives. Prior to Value Partners, she was the Business Development and Strategic Partnerships Director at Alibaba's fintech affiliate Ant Group, where she was responsible for driving strategic collaborations and partnerships with international financial institutions and Ant's overseas e-wallet partners, which together serves over 1.2 billion annual active users globally.

Steffanie started her career in the investment banking divisions of Deutsche Bank and Barclays in Hong Kong and holds a BS in Finance and Accounting degree from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Steffanie was selected into the Financial Leaders Programme in 2023 organised by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. She also currently serves as Co-Chair of the WealthTech and InvestTech Committee of the Fintech Association of Hong Kong.