HSBC Holdings Plc.’s Canadian bank has achieved something most financial firms can only aspire to: gender parity at its upper echelons.
“They are leading by example,” Tanya van Biesen, executive director for Canada at Catalyst Inc., a nonprofit that pushes to make workplaces better for women. “They’ve done it quietly in an unassuming way.” Gender parity has been a deliberate strategy in Canada under Stuart’s leadership. She joined HSBC in 1982 and climbed the ranks to top roles including chief operating officer and chair of the subsidiary’s diversity and inclusion council. She became a member of HSBC Bank Canada’s board in 2011 and was named the top Canadian executive in 2015.
The push has coincided with growth in the business. HSBC Bank Canada’s total assets have increased about 29 per cent during Stuart’s four-year tenure. The division generated $2.26 billion of annual operating income last year, compared with $2.04 billion in 2015, the year she became CEO.