Part of her responsibility as CEO is to provide leadership for goals that go beyond delivering results for customers and the business, said Yie-Hsin Hung of State Street Global Advisors.
"There is an element of not only engaging people's heads and their intellect, but also engaging people's hearts," Hung said. "Understanding what we're trying to get to in terms of growth and having impact, but [also in] having an organization that lives and breathes its values."
In 2023, Hung's first full year as CEO, assets under management grew 19% to a record $4.1 trillion for State Street Global Advisors, the investment management division of State Street Corp. With $4.3 trillion AUM as of the end of the first quarter of 2024, SSGA is the fourth-largest asset manager by AUM in the world. SSGA had $41.8 trillion in assets under custody and administration at the end of 2023.
Hung joined SSGA in December 2022, following a 12 year stint at New York Life Investments, including 7 1/2 years as its CEO. "I was attracted to SSGA because of the sheer size and scale of the business. With managing close to $4.5 trillion in total assets, there are millions and millions of people around the world who are ultimately impacted by what we do, and we're in a position to help them achieve their financial aspirations," she said.
Another leadership responsibility — one that needs to be shared by all leaders and managers at SSGA — is taking the time to have career conversations with direct reports to discuss their goals, potential opportunities and training or skills development, Hung said. This year, she implemented a new approach for SSGA's performance management process to emphasize career conversations and real-time feedback between employees and managers. She also started a new leadership development program to teach effective leadership skills, such as communication skills and emotional intelligence — the ability to engage people's hearts, she said.
"It's understanding that it's a two-way street. We need to be investing in our people at the same time and helping them to achieve what they want out of life," she said.
She sees diversity in SSGA's leadership and workforce as a means for reflecting the investment manager's global impact and for strengthening its decision making. Hung has appointed three female senior executives over the past year, which increased the share of women on the most senior leadership team at SSGA — its global advisors operating group — to 55%.
"It's a real firm belief of mine to have those diverse perspectives, experiences and different points of view around the table," she said. "We come to decisions, we deliver better outcomes and we identify things that we might not have thought of if we didn't have that kind of group.
"We serve a very diverse set of ultimate investors, and having that reflected within the organization is really important for us if we're going to continue to deliver value in ways that our clients want," Hung said.
By building a culture where different perspectives are welcomed and "where people feel like they can be themselves, that's how you end up creating an environment that fosters all kinds of talent to contribute to the strength of the organization and culture that says all of us matter," she added.
Hung was attracted to the field of asset management after studying mechanical engineering as an undergraduate, then earning an MBA, followed by 12 years of work in investment banking. "What has captivated me is that there is a strong sense of purpose; the ability to really impact so many people and what they aspire to for themselves and their families," she said. "You have incredibly smart people, you have the speed of markets and there is this real strong strategic component to it, thinking about where you can take this business and its impact in the world."
Once she was in asset management, she took on different roles every two or three years, which taught her "to get comfortable being outside my comfort zone," she said. "It's given me a chance to be in a number of different facets of the business so that today I may not be terribly deep in one area, but I'm very good at connecting the dots."
It takes curiosity and an interest in learning to be successful in a finance career, Hung said.
"At one level, the business is not that complicated," she said. "But you go a couple of layers deeper and it is; there are more technical aspects to it. Being interested in the markets and interested in different investment strategies and different kinds of clients, what their objectives are: That's a key piece. But also not feeling like you necessarily have to know all of this coming in."
