- WIB PH
For three consecutive years, HSBC has ranked first in Bloomberg's Latin American bonds league table under the guidance of Katia Bouazza, who has earned one of the highest profiles of any investment banker, male or female, in the region.
September 18
Katia Bouazza
Co-Head of Global Capital Markets for the Americas, HSBC
When talking about the business she's been building for the last decade, Katia Bouazza sounds like a proud parent.
"I have two wonderful daughters 17 and two," Bouazza says. "And I had another child in between. It was called the Latin American focus for HSBC."
That focus was born in 2003, when Bouazza was promoted to senior vice president of debt capital markets for Latin America, and helped HSBC expand the business in the Americas, starting south of the border. Today, as a co-head of global capital markets for the Americas, Bouazza runs one of the most profitable businesses at HSBC.
With all her work in Latin America, Bouazza says she was often the only woman in the room, but she is hoping to change that. And she is trying to encourage more women to continue in finance by mentoring anyone who seeks help. Through HSBC's Balance employee resource group, she seeks to recruit and develop a gender-diverse workforce.
"The key to having more women in top positions is to develop and recruit a sufficient number of women to choose from in the pool of talent," Bouzza says.
