The WFE's Women Leaders 2021 - Edith Lee, Managing Director and CEO, Taipei Exchange
Nominee’s name: Edith Lee
Member: Taipei Exchange
Nominee’s job title: Managing Director and CEO
1. - Brief description of nominee’s role/job:
Edith Lee is appointed as a managing director and chief executive officer of Taipei Exchange. She executes the policies decided by the board of directors and handles daily operation of Taipei Exchange (TPEx). She also hosts the Listing Review Committee to review listing applications.
2. - Short bio (career highlights, education, interests/hobbies):
Edith is professionally focused on IPO examination with extensive experience of promoting companies listing on the exchange. Under her leadership, TPEx has successfully assisted more than 780 companies to list on the mainboard and more than 1,700 companies registered on the Emerging Stock Board (ESB). Other than IPO business, Edith has also worked with regulators in Taiwan to amend all aspects of regulations in terms of listing criteria, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) to keep abreast of global trends.
Edith graduated from National Chengchi University with a M.A. in Accounting in 1992 and then became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Her career started at Deloitte prior to joining TPEx in 1994. Before Edith was nominated as a CEO in TPEx, she was assigned as a senior executive vice president in Taiwan Depository and Clearing Company for two and six months.
Edith Lee was awarded a national securities and futures market award named “Gold Vessel” for her outstanding market service and talent. She loves mountain climbing, power walking and aerobics sports. She is an extraordinary female leader who loves work and life, and is very focused on talent cultivation and sustainable environmental development.
3. - What were your professional highlights and challenges of 2020?:
- We are leading the way in promoting corporate governance. According to "CG WATCH 2020" from ACGA, The Asian Corporate Governance Association, Taiwan ranks fourth in Asia.
- We aim to develop sustainable finance and to guide firms to invest in ESG-related projects. In March 2020, we launched the ESG index and released sustainable bond regulations in October. By the end of 2020, three sustainable bonds were listed with issuance of US$ 207 million. In terms of green bonds, 19 green bonds were listed in 2020 with a total issuance of US$ 1.98 billion. To further enhance sustainable finance function, Taipei Exchange expected to release social bond regulations and launch a “Sustainable Bond Market” for disclosing information and quote of green bonds, social bonds and sustainable bonds in the Q2 of 2021.
- In order to help innovative industries with high potential to enter Taiwan’s capital market, we scheduled a "Pioneer Stock Board " in 2020 and it is expected to debut in Q3 of 2021.
- Due to Taiwan's successful prevention of Covid-19 spread, the average daily trading value of Taipei Exchange securities in year 2020 hit a record high, increasing 45.44% compared with 2019.
- Bond ETF listing and issuance size ranks first among the Asian stock exchanges. There were 93 bond ETFs listed by the end of 2020 and issuance size reached US$ 43.2 billion.
- In coping with the impact of Covid-19, we consistently review and amend relevant regulations to assist companies to reflect economic changes.
4. - What and who inspires/has inspired you to achieve your professional success:
The efforts of the past Taipei Exchange’s chairmen and CEOs and the support of the competent authority have enabled us to achieve today's results.
5. - What advice do you have for other women who aspire to be in leadership positions:
- Replace supervision thinking with service
- When setting a rule, take local characteristics and international trends into account
- Keep passion for people, things and life