Women’s World Interview: Mona Zhang on Breaking the "Glass Ceiling" in Finance

Mona Zhang

April 29, 2021

In the financial hub of Bay Street, Toronto, there is a vibrant community of outstanding Chinese finance professionals. Mona Zhang is a prime example among them.

Every time I speak with Mona, our conversations seem to transcend the realm of finance. It was through Mona that we established a deep connection with Mackenzie Investments, one of Canada’s leading asset management firms. Barry McInerney, CEO of Mackenzie Investments, has since joined Women’s World on multiple occasions to participate in various online and offline programs and events.

As a fund manager overseeing billions of Canadian dollars, Mona possesses rigorous logic and handles complex data reports with ease. As a Chinese woman, she also brings a uniquely female commercial perspective, which has become her competitive edge in investment management and the workplace. Through more than a decade of perseverance and stellar investment performance, she has secured her place on the highly competitive and male-dominated Bay Street. Mona has served some of the world’s top institutional clients, including several of the top three global family offices and Ivy League university endowments in the United States.

We welcome you to read today’s Women’s World interview.

Mona embodies the directness and efficiency of a Beijing native. I have spoken with her twice, and whether discussing complex financial issues or practical workplace experiences for women, she has always shared openly and thoughtfully, leaving me both deeply moved and greatly enlightened. I hope our readers will gain valuable insights into her unique perspectives on investment, career development, and life.

Are Women Truly a Disadvantaged Group in the Investment Industry?

The finance industry is notorious for its male-dominated culture, where women remain underrepresented both in absolute numbers and in leadership or star positions. The “glass ceiling” remains evident. Throughout Mona’s career, she has faced skepticism related to her gender. However, she firmly believes that such phenomena have social and historical roots but do not imply that women are inherently unsuited for finance.

“Many exceptional female investors surround me. For example, Catherine Wood of ARK Invest, widely popular among investors, manages actively traded ETFs with a distinct market position and is known as the ‘female Buffett’ of Wall Street.”

Mona’s own journey stands as powerful proof of this belief.

Shortly after graduating with a degree in Electronic Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology, Mona pursued her MBA at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, already determined to enter the investment field. Reflecting on her time at Rotman, she candidly admitted that despite her resolve, the obstacles were significant.

“Gender stratification was prevalent at school. Women made up about 30% of the MBA cohort, and when it came to roles in marketing or management consulting, female applicants were noticeably more common. But when it came to finance positions, female applicants were few and far between. Many women believed that finance was a male domain and that their competitiveness could not match their male classmates.”

In addition, a lack of Canadian work experience presented a major hurdle. Some senior students even bluntly told her, "Graduates from China should not expect to break into Canada’s asset management industry."

Mona believed that for female job seekers to excel in finance, they must leverage their strengths and find their unique positioning. Drawing on her engineering background, she skillfully combined her technical expertise with investment principles, focusing on deep industry analysis and uncovering valuable insights.

Just before her graduation, U.S.-based short-selling firm Muddy Waters launched concentrated attacks on Chinese concept stocks, including Spreadtrum Communications, a semiconductor design company Mona had closely followed. Muddy Waters issued 21 allegations against the company, accusing it of financial fraud, causing the stock price to plummet by 70%.

“I was furious. Muddy Waters was exploiting information asymmetry among North American investors to smear Chinese companies.”

In response, Mona published a detailed rebuttal on the prominent investor platform Seeking Alpha, addressing each of the 21 allegations. Her article was widely reprinted by financial media outlets, including Bloomberg, and garnered tens of thousands of daily views. Muddy Waters never issued further reports on Spreadtrum, and the company’s stock price fully recovered within three months.

When Mona’s future employer learned about this experience during her interview, they repeatedly remarked, "Impressive!"

Following months of rigorous interviews—seven rounds over nine months—Mona secured a role as an investment analyst at one of Canada’s top investment institutions immediately upon graduation. She became the first Chinese woman hired by the firm in its twenty-year history and the first Chinese graduate from Rotman to enter the buy-side directly upon graduation.

Mona is currently a fund manager at Mackenzie Investments, one of Canada’s largest independent asset management companies, managing over CAD 180 billion in assets. Mackenzie is also the largest foreign shareholder in China’s China Asset Management Co. Ltd. Mona manages the firm’s largest global equity fund, with a focus on Asian markets and the global technology sector. The fund’s assets under management now exceed CAD 11.6 billion.

Having become a seasoned investor, Mona has developed new perspectives on female investors: "Women generally have stronger risk management abilities and adopt more prudent investment styles. This stems from a profound respect for the market and deep introspection."

She elaborated: "Women tend to have a more open mindset and are adept at picking up external signals. When these signals indicate what is right or wrong, we are often quicker to recognize our shortcomings and make timely adjustments."

These qualities are invaluable. The greatest investors are, above all, exceptional risk managers. The challenge in investing is not spotting opportunities but overcoming human tendencies toward short-termism and greed, objectively identifying risks, and pricing them accurately. The most outstanding investors are those who endure over the long term. She encourages all women passionate about investing to pursue the field without allowing gender to become a barrier.

Remaining True to Value Investing, Expanding Analytical Frameworks, and Achieving Sustainable Success

Some in the investment community claim that "value investing is dead." However, Mona’s investment philosophy is deeply aligned with Warren Buffett’s, focusing on fundamental-driven value investing.

“There is a widespread misconception that value investing simply means buying cheap stocks. In fact, value investing is about using a company’s fundamentals to conduct valuations, assessing its long-term price trends and intrinsic value. If the intrinsic value exceeds the market price, then it is worth investing in.”

Unlike Buffett, who rarely invests in technology stocks, Mona and her team actively allocate to technology and growth stocks, focusing on "high-quality growth stocks," including leading companies in the internet and semiconductor sectors.

“The most important aspect of value investing is analyzing company fundamentals to determine whether the company has a strong competitive advantage and sound growth prospects. This emphasis on economic moats is not only consistent with Buffett’s philosophy but also particularly critical in the fast-evolving tech industry.”

Mona has developed a global investment framework called "commercial context comparison," which her team finds particularly useful when analyzing Chinese companies. Commercial context refers to the historical, cultural, regulatory, and consumer behavior environment within which businesses operate and structure their business models. Understanding a company requires contextualizing it within this commercial environment.

For example, when Alibaba went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, many Western investors struggled to comprehend its business model, being more familiar with Amazon’s approach. Mona explained that China’s fragmented retail landscape made it viable for Alibaba to provide a platform for small merchants. China’s underdeveloped credit infrastructure also necessitated the creation of Alibaba’s own payment system. In contrast, the highly concentrated U.S. retail market and the prevalence of credit card systems allowed Amazon to focus on in-house operations without building an independent payment network.

Both Alibaba and Amazon are outstanding companies, demonstrating that there is no single e-commerce model. Conversely, as China’s e-commerce infrastructure became more developed and open, industry barriers to entry diminished, presenting new challenges for Alibaba. The commercial context is dynamic and continuously evolving.

This comparative analysis framework has enhanced the team’s understanding of both Chinese and Western companies and has generated significant alpha for their portfolios.

Recently, meme stocks like GameStop and AMC surged and plunged dramatically with retail investor involvement, sparking debates over whether retail or institutional investors achieve superior investment outcomes. Mona believes investment returns should not be judged by short-term price movements but by multi-year performance over three, five, or even ten-year horizons.

“Investing is a long game,” she emphasized. “In the medium to long term, data shows that professional investors consistently outperform, particularly when managing large pools of capital.”

Building a Personal Brand: Women Must Proactively Manage Their Careers

As a Chinese woman advancing her career in Canada, Mona has accumulated deep insights on how women can excel professionally. She believes that Chinese women must overcome passivity and proactively manage their careers. Whether within a company or an industry, women should actively build their personal brands and define their professional positioning.

“There are significant differences between Eastern and Western workplace communication styles. In traditional Chinese thinking, a good employee focuses on working diligently and obeying authority. Especially for newcomers in a foreign country, family often advises them to 'avoid causing trouble.'”

“But in Canada, Chinese professionals must recognize their value and assertively claim their rights. The hardest part is not accepting new ideas, but letting go of old ones.”

She has observed that women often wait until they feel fully qualified before negotiating for promotions or raises. Some never actively seek advancement, believing that hard work alone will earn them recognition. Mona believes these approaches are ineffective.

She advises women to clearly communicate their career aspirations with their supervisors. For example, one can say: "This is the position and compensation I aim for. What areas should I improve to meet the requirements?" The goal is to align expectations regarding career development direction and timeline. Once targets and deadlines are set, one must rigorously follow through.

She also stresses that the most crucial professional relationship is with one’s direct manager. Building this relationship requires identifying the manager’s pain points and providing practical solutions to increase one’s value within the team. The more you contribute, the more indispensable you become.

Furthermore, communication methods are critical, especially when voicing differing opinions. One must first consider the other party’s feelings and viewpoints. Before expressing a different perspective, ensure that your input is helpful to the team, offered in good faith, and genuinely valuable to the other person.

Even if promotion opportunities are limited, this proactive process will elevate one’s professional worth.

Beyond one’s core responsibilities, women should also understand their competitive edge within the broader industry. In the era of social media, everyone needs to build their personal brand, showcasing their unique value proposition. This will remain their market advantage even if they change roles in the future.

Actively Engaging in Social Responsibility: Reflecting on Life’s Purpose

Beyond her career, Mona is dedicated to philanthropy. She has continuously sponsored underprivileged female students in rural China and serves on the board of directors for Educating Girls of Rural China (EGRC), a Canadian charity. Since its establishment in 2005, EGRC has supported 1,280 female students from impoverished regions in Gansu, Qinghai, and Guizhou provinces.

Mona explained that Mackenzie supports EGRC and that women’s social advancement is intrinsically linked to educational access. Her ability to succeed in the industry is largely attributable to her MBA education in Canada. “Education changed the trajectory of my life. I hope more Chinese women can change their destinies through education.”

Mona also serves as a guest lecturer at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and has taught investment management courses to senior executives from 50 Chinese securities firms and asset managers at the invitation of the Capital Market Institute under the China Securities Regulatory Commission, receiving near-perfect evaluations.

Few investors willingly share their methodologies with peers, let alone develop courses to openly teach others. Mona commented: “I have benefited greatly from the support of many industry mentors. Warren Buffett, for example, has selflessly shared his knowledge, becoming a teacher to all investors. My professor at Rotman also returned to academia after years in senior management at top consulting firms to pass on his knowledge. This is a legacy of knowledge. Although I am not Buddhist, I believe this is a virtuous cause that I want to continue. Moreover, teaching compels me to keep exploring and refining my investment philosophy.”

“No one is an island. Personal success is inseparable from teamwork, family, friends, and even help from strangers. My achievements are also thanks to the support of Mackenzie’s leadership, colleagues, and team, who are genuinely committed to advancing women’s development. I am grateful for this. From the historical perspective of women’s rights, this is the best era. This sense of empowerment motivates me to support the growth of others. Helping others is helping oneself.”

Finally, Mona shared that what sustains her in the fiercely competitive finance industry is her passion: “I am passionate about what I do.” This is also her advice to young people entering the industry.

“Every year, many outstanding young people enter finance, but many also leave. Some are drawn by high salaries or the glamour perceived by outsiders. To truly succeed, genuine passion is essential. Investment is about separating truth from falsehood, embracing challenges, continuously satisfying curiosity, expanding knowledge, and enriching life experience. Money should not be the primary driver for choosing this profession. Only passion will compel you to devote significant time and energy to learning and surpassing yourself. With this mindset, one can find meaning and value in any role or industry.”