With a focus on innovation and simplification, Kate Bohn has delivered positive impact and change across various sectors of the financial industry, including Asset Management, Markets, Finance, Strategy, Technology, Operations, and Innovation. A global leader with nearly 25 years of experience in Financial Services, Kate has driven commercial success in institutions headquartered across America, Europe, Australia, and the UK. By utilizing human-centered design and storytelling Kate revels in simplifying priority outcomes for her teams and stakeholders.
Kate’s focus lies in creating partnerships and engaging with accelerators, incubators, startups, and scale-ups, and providing access to founders, users, clients, fintechs, tech giants, and other Financial Services brands. Her current endeavor involves reimagining the world of Asset Management at Macquarie Group.
Leveraging her authentically engaging energy and understanding to create high-performing teams with shared purpose and vision, Kate holds a pivotal position within the FS and Fintech ecosystem. Having started her career as an academic and art curator, Kate ventured into Financial Services, deviating from the traditional path to a blue-chip banking career by co-founding an industry start-up alongside three other investment banks.
In our conversation with Kate, we gained invaluable insight into forging unconventional career paths, seamlessly transitioning from academia and art curation to thriving in the financial sector.
Aspioneer (A) – Please provide insight into your journey and how it has culminated in your current leadership role.
Kate Bohn (KB) – During the 80s, as a teenager, I grew up in the era of home computers like the Spectrum ZX and ZX-85. My older brother’s enthusiasm for technology sparked my fascination with technology. His curiosity in all things ‘tech’ and engineering became a guiding principle regarding a ‘steel thread’ and approach to Problem-Solving in my career. Whether navigating the art world or financial services, my focus has been on crafting clear, accessible, and intuitive solutions for customers and end-users.
Having experienced a geographically-migrant childhood, the notion that technology wasn’t for girls never crossed my mind. Being accustomed to always being ‘other’ in various environments turned out to be a stroke of fortune, ultimately propelling me into a world where breaking stereotypes has become my norm.
A – Was it always part of your plan to pursue a career in Fin-tech?
KB – Absolutely not. Any ‘five-year plan’ or original expectation was blown out of the water by traditional schooling styles at the time. Ultimately I knew I wanted to manifest change in allowing ‘purple people’ like me to be able to bring their strengths to bear within even the most traditional of industries.
On the flip side, while I haven’t had a formal plan to drive my ‘squiggly’ career path, I have a clear direction and intent with a draft ‘retirement speech.’ In it, I note the things I am most proud of having achieved, and how Disrupting for Good has been manifested.
A – What are your career highlights thus far, and what actions do you believe have contributed most significantly to advancing your career?
KB – While I have delivered significant innovation and technology-led solutions, the activities I am most proud of are those where I have had the opportunity to showcase others; where I have connected different, fabulous characters for mutual benefit, and enabled emerging talent to take on new responsibilities, to get promoted, or to manifest more robust outcomes in having their thoughts and ideas heard.
In terms of my career, I have found that saying ‘yes, if…’ has been transformational for me. I don’t believe in ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ but rather ‘feel the fear and find a way to reduce it to a level that offers comfort’. This ensures I can look back at each new experience and feel ever more comfortable with it – whether public speaking, writing, mentoring, advising… – until it becomes just another part of my everyday tool kit. If I constantly feel I’m hanging on by my fingernails, I am not inspired to keep putting myself into that scenario!
A – What has been the most vulnerable moment in your life or career, and how did you navigate through it?
KB – I continue to bump into experiences that expose my more vulnerable side. I think if you have a growth mindset and are naturally curious, you will inevitably bump into experiences that push you harder than you might wish: whether that’s dealing with difficult people, inappropriate behaviour, or just different approaches to hypotheses or potential solutions that push your usual ways of working.
Ultimately, the most important thing is to keep getting back up, dust yourself off, check alignment with your values and boundaries, complete a sanity check with an external, objective source, and keep moving forward. As the saying goes, the best revenge is success.
A – What defines your leadership style, and how did you discover it?
KB – My leadership style centers around purpose, trust, accountability, support, growth, and innovation. While I recognize that different situations through any corporate and start-up career path will call for different leadership styles, ultimately my default style is ‘servant leadership’. I seek to understand the diverse characters, needs and motivations within my teams, and encourage sharing/ collaboration across all areas. I value experimentation and welcome different ways of thinking such that everyone has not only equal opportunity to participate but equal weight in terms of being heard. Mental health, psychological safety, and empowerment are also key tenets for me.
"Be the person who enables change and helps those who do not have what you have to get it"
A – How did you build the foundation for your leadership confidence and cultivate your distinctive leadership style?
KB – I think a large part of finding my own voice and preferred style was in seeing how others behaved and NOT wanting to be like that, but also not wanting to give up on being ‘successful’ in whatever description that meant. I was exhausted in the process of endlessly being advised to be ‘more this’, ‘less that’, and ultimately feeling as though I had lost my identity in the process. It was with the support of some amazing peers in the industry that I realized my strengths were the very things that I had originally thought to be weaknesses – harnessing my ‘otherness’ became critical to developing my style and voice.
A – What does self-care mean to you, and how do you manage it as a leader?
KB – I believe that having clear boundaries is critical. We cannot be all things to all people and continue to operate at our best. Time with family is also essential for me. I have a teenage daughter and only a few precious months remain to enjoy her being with us at home on a full-time basis. I’m excited for her next chapter of University and exploring the world on her terms, but I shall also miss her immensely.
Carving out time for priorities, be that mental and physical health, a life partner, family, cherished friends… This is the real meat of life for me.
A – What current or upcoming projects or initiatives are you most excited about?
KB – I’ve recently completed a course with Oxford University at their Said Business School looking at Artificial Intelligence. I’ve also taken some time to write a self-help/ wellness book that I hope to publish in the future.
The year 2024 sees me stepping into a new corporate role, and I’m excited for the opportunity to drive change in more aspects of the Financial Services Industry.
A – What advice would you pass on to other business leaders to help them progress in your industry?
KB – Champion People – be the person who enables change and helps those who do not have what you have to get it. Whether that’s through your ability to offer access, opportunities, networks, upskilling, or being a sponsor and advocate in speaking on behalf of others when they are not able to be in the room.
Your light will never be dimmed by shining a light on others.
