CEOs must be connectors, custodians and cultivators in a shifting world, says Standard Chartered boss

Mary Huen, CEO of Standard Chartered Hong Kong, Greater China and North Asia, says all businesses must come to terms with a “shift of the world” that requires them to rethink what it will take to succeed.

“My number one priority is helping clients navigate a world that is full of complexity,” says Huen. She adds that supporting clients through complexity also carries a wider responsibility to “help reinforce the resilience of the financial system itself, particularly at a time of heightened geopolitical and market volatility”.

For Huen, that leadership remit is threefold: to act as a connector, to be a custodian, and to cultivate talent and skills for what comes next.

The CEO as a connector

Huen’s role running Hong Kong, Greater China and North Asia operations for UK-headquartered Standard Chartered increasingly means working with new clusters of international markets and redrawing the map of global trading relationships.

She says she is visiting markets in-person more often, because real connectivity is difficult to achieve from a distance. “You have to be present,” she says, “to understand the market, earn trust, and connect the right people at the right moment”.

On a recent visit to Vietnam, she brought together regulators, clients and bankers across Hong Kong and Vietnam, linking decision-makers across both sides of the corridor. “That kind of convening creates a ripple effect,” she says. “Other markets start engaging Hong Kong more proactively, and one connection leads to the next. It builds momentum, deepens ecosystems, and turns corridors into repeatable growth.”

That proximity and the real conversations it enables also sharpens the bank’s ability to stay ahead of changing customer behaviours.  

“You have to be close enough to smell what is going on,” she says. “You have to get close to people, you have to check the pulse more often.”   

For Huen, this is also how the bank ensures it continues to build products and services that remain relevant for the next generation of clients. “People will buy digital assets when they are young, and they enter the wealth continuum early. Our clients are navigating a changing world in new ways, and so are we.”

The CEO as a custodian

“Standard Chartered has been around for more than 160 years,” she says. “There’s a real benefit in working for a bank with that depth of history. We’ve inherited strong foundations, trusted client relationships, and a legacy of doing the right thing.”

For Huen, custodianship is not simply about preserving heritage. It is about building on what has been created—moving the business forward while safeguarding its long-term relevance, resilience and trust.

“We are one of the oldest note-issuing banks in the world,” she says. “But we’ve also built Mox, our digital bank, and entered a joint venture to explore a Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin.” She adds that this dual identity—rooted in trust but designed for what comes next—is what makes the bank both “enduring and future-facing.”

The CEO as a cultivator

Delivering on that ambition is, in Huen’s view, ultimately about talent—cultivating new skills and mindsets. But she also believes continuity matters: drawing on the bank’s 160 years of experience to inform how it approaches new technology. She brings this philosophy to life by encouraging a talent exchange between Standard Chartered’s main bank and Mox, strengthening the connection between past, present and future.

Huen is also passionate about strengthening diversity in the pipeline of future leaders. She is a champion of increasing female representation in boardrooms within financial services and truly believes diversity is a leadership advantage.

“I am part of the female CEO network in Hong Kong, which had few female leaders when I became CEO in 2017,” says Huen. “That has now grown to over 60 female CEOs from financial institutions. Some are competitors, but they are also allies now—supporting one another as they lead in their own fields, while empowering the next generation of leaders.”

It’s one example of the leadership approach she returns to throughout her work: “Connect where it counts, preserve what endures, and build what’s next,” she concludes.