OCBC Names New CEO as Samuel Tsien Retires

The banking industry veteran, with 35 years of banking experience, will take the helm from 14 April 2021.

OCBC has named Helen Wong as the successor for its outgoing chief executive Samuel Tsien, who retires after 14 years at the bank, the firm announced on Friday evening.

Wong, who rejoined OCBC in January 2020 to lead OCBC’s new wholesale banking unit after starting her career at the bank as a trainee in 1984, was appointed after a rigorous global search, the bank said in the announcement.

Wong is widely regarded as a top female banker in Hong Kong with deep Greater China experience and extensive market knowledge and is regarded as an expert on the Southeast Asian region.

She previously spent 27 years at HSBC, where she held various senior management positions in corporate and investment banking, including president and chief executive of HSBC China, head of global banking (Hong Kong), and chief executive of Greater China.

Tsien, 66, joined OCBC Bank in July 2007 as the global head of global corporate bank and was appointed the group CEO in 2012.

In his nine years as the Group CEO, Sam has significantly built the OCBC franchise into a much more diversified and resilient business. He has strengthened the risk culture and internal processes, and instilled a set of solid corporate values to guide the team in doing business in a sustainable way, OCBC chairman Ooi Sang Kuang said in an internal memo to staff.