SCARSDALE, NY, May 28, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Christine Y. Zhao has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
An acclaimed financial executive with more than two decades of experience to her credit, Ms. Zhao excels as a Board Director for Nasdaq listed BeyondSpring Inc, and a Venture Partner at YuanMing Capital, a cross-border VCPE fund. She has been Chief Financial Officer for two large private equity-backed growth-stage companies, including Best Inc. which was subsequently listed in NYSE with $3bn market capitalization. Previously she held a successful career in financial services, having served in JPMorgan as Asia Pacific CFO for transaction banking and multiple senior positions in corporate and investment banking, and culminated with Managing Director in Bank of America Merrill Lynch overseeing firm-wide capital risk management.
As a young woman, she became acutely aware of the positive and rapid impact that economic development had on people's lives, witnessing the transformation of Shenzhen, her hometown, a special economic zone in China as it underwent drastic economic reform, which encouraged her to enter the field of finance.
Ms. Zhao started her career in Strategic Marketing Analysis in FedEx Corporation, progressing rapidly through Corporate Finance and Corporate Development. Her career in Financial Services started with Investment Banking in Goldman Sachs Asia, and was turbo-charged in American Express, where she held increasing responsibilities across finance, strategic planning and corporate venture investing.
Throughout her career, Ms. Zhao was credited for her ability to drive strategy and business execution, consistently delivering strong double digit revenue growth on billion dollar base by co-leading and supporting global business strategy, M&A, client planning, sales force management and product development, among others. She managed with rigorous P&L and investment discipline, tight balance sheet, capital and risk controls, achieving double digit bottom-line growth amidst global financial crisis. She has successfully built infrastructure and engineered change management at firmwide or regional level in every company she held management positions since American Express, overseeing hundreds of million dollars of budget and delivering as high as over one hundred million of increase in profitability under single initiative. A seasoned banking and capital market executive, she has helped raised over $1 billion private financing for growth-stage companies, and led the IPO readiness for Best Inc., which was successfully listed in NYSE since 2017. The breadth and depth of her experience is unparalleled - her expertise in financial services covers wholesale banking, consumer finance and asset management, across payment, liquidity and credit products; her investment and management experience has spanned across broad industries, including fintech, healthcare, education and logistics technologies, among others.
Two decades of career has made Ms. Zhao a global citizen, having worked in US, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and China. With fifteen years of experience leading teams, Ms. Zhao is respected as a strong people leader skilled at managing teams across four continents including North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America.
Ms. Zhao has been honored numerous times for excellence in her field. She was nominated twice for the CFO Premier Award, the highest Finance honor in American Express, and was honored to participate in the inaugural Global Accelerated Leadership Experience, a training program for top performing executives in Global Risks at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Ms. Zhao was recognized as an exceptional female business leader with her inauguration into the National Association of Female Executives (NAFE).
In pursuit of her career, Ms. Zhao earned a Bachelor of Science in World Economy from Fudan University, Shanghai, and Masters of Arts in Economics and Finance from the University of Alabama. Subsequently, she became designated as a chartered financial analyst through the CFA Institute. Ms. Zhao concluded her academic efforts with a Master of Business Administration in general management through Harvard Business School.
Dedicated to her community, Ms. Zhao serves on the Board of the Chinese Finance Association (TCFA), a nonprofit organization with over 7,000 members worldwide. She is also a Board member of the Westchester and Hudson Valley Chapter of the Asian Pacific American Advocates (OCA). In March through April of 2020, with several partners Ms. Zhao co-founded the American Chinese United Care (ACUC), a charity coalition of 159 organizations, whose members jointly raised over $5.8M for Covid-19 relief in the Tri-state area.
About Marquis Who's Who®
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
# # #