Before she moved to Australia a little over six years ago, Gloria Yuen was a poster child for the “Hong Kong Lion Rock spirit”.
“I guess I lived it fully – efficiency, perseverance and solidarity,” she told Women’s Agenda.
In September, Yuen won the Emerging Leader in the Private Sector Award at Women’s Agenda’s Leadership Awards for her work in developing cultural inclusion across Corporate Australia, including NAB where she is the Chair of Cultural Inclusion Employee Resource Group.
Before emigrating to Australia, she ran a tutoring business for high school students in Hong Kong. After several years operating the school, Yuen decided to go back to university and study law. In 2008, she added an Executive Certificate in Financial Risk Management to her credentials — boosting her employability.
She began working for China Merchants Bank, before moving to Banco Santander, J.P Morgan, eventually landing a job with NAB, where she looked after the Asia markets.
In 2016, she relocated to the bank’s Melbourne headquarters — a move which Yuen said she found challenging at first.
She was often the only Asian, the only female, and the only millennial in meetings. She leaned into what she was good at, and decided to use her outsider status to help improve inclusive culture and operationalising regulatory obligations.
Now a powerful advocate championing culturally diverse female leaders, Yuen said she has a positive mentality when it comes to changing things.
“The scarcity of successful role models and trailblazers, alongside the lack of celebration of diverse leadership styles, have really hindered progression, and made it so much harder for culturally and racially diverse leaders to progress into leadership roles,” she said.
As the first Asian female Chair of NAB’s Cultural Inclusion Employee Resource Group, Yuen said she hopes to continue demanding greater intersectional diversity and set up more platforms for the under-represented.
“I hope Inclusion will form part of leadership expectation for everyone,” she said.
In her acceptance speech at the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards, Yuen noted this year’s theme of “resilience”, dedicating her award to her grandmother, who passed away a few weeks prior.
“To everybody who looks different, sounds different, thinks different, or are being told you’re different… keep going,” she remarked.
Yuen said that when it came to role models, her mother is “the most courageous and resilient role model who always reminds me that the taste of achievement is only rewarding if it is hard and challenging.”
She added that she was enjoying “getting comfortable with excellence.”
“It is incredibly humbling and encouraging to be recognised among such a high calibre of nominees and finalists, especially in the highly competitive category,” she told Women’s Agenda. “I am sure the prominence of the award will create further opportunity for me to drive change and make a bigger difference.
“It is extremely important to shine a light on and provide greater visibility and momentum for more intersectional diversity in leadership nationally and globally. It’s empowering to be recognised for the change that one can create with determination and conviction.”
The Leadership Award came in addition to Yuen last year being recognised as one of the 40 under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians, and awarded the Women in Banking and Finance (WiBF) Rising Star Award.