Amanda Ong started her career at Citi, servicing the portfolios of institutional clients, and then moved to a multi-family office where she handled investment advisory for UHNW clients. She started her own fitness tech startup as well, which received investor interest, but she eventually decided to focus more on building her career within the financial services industry and fintech space.
Amanda became the Head of Client Experience at StashAway in 2018. The firm was only in Singapore at the time, and she was directing a team of three. Over the following several years, she grew the team to more than 48 people in five countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.
Amanda began to take on several positions over time, including worldwide public relations; developing and heading StashAway Academy, the company’s financial education arm; and lastly, serving as a Wealth Advisor to the company’s high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clientele. Amanda was promoted to Country Manager of StashAway in January 2021, where she oversees the company’s Singapore operations.
Below are highlights of the interview:
Tell us more about the company.
StashAway is a digital wealth manager that offers investment portfolios and wealth management solutions for both retail and accredited investors and operates in Singapore, Malaysia, the Middle East and North Africa, Hong Kong, and Thailand.
As of January 2021, the company surpassed $1 billion USD in assets under management. It achieved this milestone faster than it took the world’s largest digital wealth managers, Betterment and Wealthfront, to reach the same milestone. In 2020, StashAway was recognised as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and a Top 10 LinkedIn Startup.
Why did you choose to become a finance expert?
When I was 14, I moved to the US as I was playing golf competitively. It was a 28-hour flight from Singapore to Florida, with a stopover in New York. When you’re on a plane for 18 hours, just watching movies won’t get you through it. I started picking up the Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times that the stewardess would give out. Over time, I really enjoyed reading these papers as you start to realize how interconnected financial markets are with things that happen every day. I really liked that and took Economics in high school before deciding to do a double major in Finance and Accounting in university. I knew then that this was the industry I wanted to be in and where I wanted to build my career.
How do you motivate people to go the extra mile?
Hiring the right person and then trusting them to get the job done. I try to make sure I hire people with the right attitude. That’s a lot more important to me than experience. I don’t believe in micromanaging and believe that, as a manager, my role is to support my team and give them all the tools and guidance necessary to succeed.
What gets you up in the morning? What motivates you?
I’m a big believer in hard work and putting in the hours. It probably comes from my days as a competitive golfer and practicing every day to get better. Nothing beats putting in the hours to accomplish more. I love working and being really, really good at what I do, whatever it is, so that’s what motivates me. It helps when you choose something that you’re passionate about and really enjoy. The culture of the company is important as well. A toxic culture wouldn’t have you jumping out of bed to get to work. If you have a job that you’re passionate about and where you get to work with incredible people that are working towards the same goal, that would have you jumping out of bed.
Kindly describe how you will specifically know what success looks like for you.
Success from a financial perspective would be to achieve financial freedom—working because I want to and not because I need to. I hope to be able to achieve that by the time I’m in my mid 40s. With that said, I’ll probably want to work for the rest of my life. I hope to be known as someone who worked incredibly hard and always went above and beyond.
What is some of the advice you give to aspiring women leaders?
Just say “yes”. Even if you’re unsure if you can do a particular role or project, just say “yes” and figure it out after. Women tend to only say “yes” to projects they know they have the required skillsets for. This does not mean saying yes to everything, but saying yes to the right opportunities that will value add to your growth and career.
What are your future plans to sustain StashAway’s success?
We’ve spent the past 2 years focusing on international expansion and expanding to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Hong Kong, and Thailand. In the next few years, we’re going to focus on our existing markets and increase our reach there. Singapore is one of our largest markets, so we’re going to continue to innovate when it comes to our app features as well as in investment product development here.
Markets have also been very volatile since the start of the year so it’s going to be very important for us to help our clients navigate the ups and downs of the market with consistent communication and engagement. It’s something that we’ve done since the start of the company with StashAway Academy, our financial education seminars and webinars, but we’ve since added more channels at which we can reach and connect with our clients including Youtube videos and a podcast.
Website: www.stashaway.sg
