“Women are increasingly asserting their position in the fintech world”

Although an “outsider” in the fintech industry, after only a few years, Jen Tran has taken the position of CEO of the Asia region of a large European fintech corporation. In addition to her talent and constant efforts, Jen believes that the view that “women must be financially free” has become the driving force that has pushed her to achieve her success today.

Ambition to change stereotypes about women in fintech

Jen Tran

According to many statistics, in developed markets such as London or Europe, the number of women recognized in senior management positions can be counted on the fingers, especially in the financial technology industry - the combination of finance and technology are two industries that always have the overwhelming participation of male workers. Therefore, a woman pursuing fintech, at a very young age, and holding a very high position like Jen Tran has become a "strange" thing that surprises many people.

Sharing the reason for entering this thorny industry, Jen Tran was a bit nostalgic: "My mother passed away early, the family immediately fell into poverty, my father at that time with the salary of a university lecturer had to work very hard to earn a living by doing many jobs to support 2 children. This incident made me think about escaping poverty from a very young age. I always thought about making money from then until I tried to receive a scholarship and went to study abroad alone." After graduating, Jen worked in many global technology companies to keep up with modern trends, but she quickly looked for opportunities in a new field. "I wondered how I could be financially free. And I realized that to do that, I had to work in finance. So I looked for opportunities in the financial technology industry because it was challenging but also very attractive."

Entering a new industry, Jen had to start from scratch, had to relearn all the new knowledge about finance, low salary and low evaluation, but she was not discouraged. "At first, I just wanted to increase my income, but when I attended meetings or seminars for senior figures where the audience was almost all men, this motivated me to work harder. I wanted to change the stereotype about women in the fintech industry."

From "outsider" to Asia CEO of a billion-dollar corporation

Managing Director Asia

When the first financial company nodded to Jen, it was along with a request to reduce her proposed salary. With a background of working as a senior manager at many large global technology companies, Jen was also very hesitant but in the end she agreed because "I simply thought that I would get to go to school and get paid (laughs). You can't want to receive great lessons without paying, and in the fintech industry, that's even more impossible!"

In the early days of entering the new profession, Jen often faced many difficulties from heavy work on numbers, receiving a huge amount of knowledge about cash flow to complex trading methods, sometimes she worked hard without any time off. Being humble and quietly working hard every day, persevering with her goals helped Jen quickly enter the leadership ranks of a billion-dollar fintech corporation from Europe - she was appointed as the CEO of the Asia region, managing the markets of Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia...

At that time, many people still doubted Jen's ability because the fintech industry has very few women leaders. But time has proven that there is nothing women cannot do. Jen has also turned the markets she manages into some of the best growing markets of the group, with outstanding sales and an abundant number of potential customers. "Men have cool heads, so they are very suitable for the fintech industry. But women can have both a cool head to make decisive decisions and a warm heart to be flexible in management and customer relations - this is our advantage and I think I have taken advantage of this advantage well."

Women must be financially free

"In a meeting with senior managers from India, they were surprised why there were so many women in my team and why there were women in high positions. Women have many disadvantages, the image of women is still associated with the role of housewives, taking care of children, and taking care of the family, which is a disadvantage. But women can absolutely reach high positions, to be able to raise children and take care of their parents" - Jen reaffirmed the reason why she believes that women need to have a certain amount of financial freedom.

"I'm not the first woman in fintech and certainly not the first woman to succeed in the industry. There are many talented women who are increasingly asserting themselves in the financial technology world and if you love making money, this is the place for you."

If you just met Jen Tran or followed her on social media, everyone would think she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, never experienced any storms, because she is cheerful, optimistic and full of energy. However, Jen used to live in poverty when her mother passed away, went through a difficult student life, and struggled to "sell herself to capitalism" like everyone else. The only thing that makes her different is probably her extremely strong "overcoming fate" mindset. "I think women have great perseverance, they can do anything, they just need a reason and a strong enough motivation. Even if your reason for making money is simply to eat well and dress well, start thinking about serious financial investment from now on." - Jen shared.

Ms Jenny Tran's Profile:

- Head of Operations at Agoda (travel tech company - Thailand)

- Sales Manager at Infor (software solution – USA)

- Asia Director (fintech group XTB)

Source: Self-introduction

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/giam-doc-dieu-hanh-jen-tran-phu-nu-dang-ngay-cang-khang-dinh-vi-the-trong-gioi-fintech-20241018172420164.htm