Meet the 2023 Immigration Women of Inspiration recipients

Every spring, in recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8, Canadian Immigrant spotlights the Immigration Women of Inspiration in different fields. This year, our 10th annual, we feature women in finance and banking who have embraced their position of influence to make a positive impact on our economy.

While these women come from diverse cultural backgrounds, and even generations, they all have inspirational stories — and advice — about pursuing their passion and have committed to leading and inspiring others to do more. Here are the journeys of Haiping Fu, Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido, Souzan Esmaili, Ranjini Jha and Mehrsa Raeiszadeh.

Haiping Fu

Seizing opportunities

Haiping Fu’s successful career in the banking and finance sector began decades ago in China. The 41-year-old was born and raised on the island of Hainan, which was far removed from the hustle and bustle of neighbouring cities.

To provide a bright future for his five children, her father worked in business and trading, which involved extensive travel throughout China and time away from home. “My father was always a big influence on me,” said Fu. “He worked so hard to make a good living for his family.”

She was also inspired by her father’s affinity for new experiences.

“When he would return, I was always so excited to hear his stories, to meet his new friends and to receive the gifts and toys that were not available on the island where I grew up. So, in a way, my father planted the seed for my growth in the outside world.”

In time, Fu seized the opportunity to explore the outside world. Her cousin moved to Saint John to study at the University of New Brunswick. And once Fu graduated high school, she wanted to follow suit.

It was a big step, but her father was her most ardent supporter. “He said ‘go for it!’”

Those words have served as a guiding philosophy throughout her life. “I believe if I didn’t have this encouragement and support, I wouldn’t be who I am today.” It’s also what convinced her to persevere as a new immigrant to Canada faced with the challenges of learning a new language and culture all while far from home and family.

At the University of New Brunswick, Fu earned her Bachelor of Business Administration. “I was always good at numbers,” she said, adding that her degree allowed her to combine her interest in math and business.

After graduation, Fu embarked on a journey of change and growth. She worked her way up the banking and finance sectors in Halifax, Calgary, and then in Saint John, where she also completed her MBA.

“When I was presented with opportunities, I didn’t let them pass me by,” she said. “At the time, I had no idea where I would end up — many of us don’t, but I kept growing and preparing for ongoing learning.”

In January 2018, she joined RBC as an investment advisor, and she’s never looked back.

“It’s the best decision I have ever made. My team is now the biggest Chinese investment advisor group in the Atlantic Region. I am proud to be the only female Chinese-speaking investment advisor to serve my clients in Atlantic Canada.”

The mother of a young son, she finds time to volunteer at Imperial Theatre, a performing arts venue in Saint John. As a member of the Imperial Theatre Ambassador program, which is supported by RBC, Fu helps connect newcomers to the performing arts.

“The Ambassador Program is a wonderful way for me to share history and culture with new arrivals and to help other immigrants form meaningful relationships and feel that sense of belonging that I do.”

Providing a sense of belonging also extends to her role as an associate wealth and investment advisor with RBC. She said that throughout her career, she’s had the opportunity to meet many new immigrants and realized that regardless of their level of wealth, most felt insecure about their financial health and their future. But she also knew she could make a positive difference.

“I learned how financial security and independence can have an amazing impact on people’s lives, especially women,” she said. “I developed a desire to help my clients financially achieve what is important to them in their life and to help them along the way when they are embracing their new life in Canada. And I always feel more accomplished in the process than anything else I do. Fortunately, by helping others to achieve their dreams, and as a woman, I have also reached my own financial independence.” 

Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido

Empowering communities

Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido has always been curious about the lives of the women around her. But, growing up in Nigeria, a country filled with women professionals and yet dogged by patriarchal norms, a lot of their stories were about entrapment.

‘Kego, fortunately, was born into a progressive family. Her father nurtured her potential, “He gave me wings to fly.” Both ‘Kego’s grandmothers opened their own businesses after they were widowed. Her paternal grandmother once slapped a customer who tried to squirm out of his debt.

“This was a woman who stood up for her rights,” said ‘Kego. “(She) inspired me.”

After high school, ‘Kego entered the male dominated field of electrical engineering. But when ‘Kego was 28 years old, political instability swept through Nigeria, and she and her family decided to immigrate to Canada.

After arriving in Toronto, ‘Kego embarked on a Master of Engineering Program at the University of Toronto. But she couldn’t juggle the demands of the courses with the needs of her children, so she quit the program to work in the more flexible financial sector.

But as ‘Kego shelved her dreams, she felt herself slowly slip away. By the time she hit her early 30s, she was just “going through the motions of life,” she said.

‘Kego turned to personal coaching to reclaim her identity. Her mentors encouraged her to use poetry as a tool, and, as she began writing and performing her works, she found her way back to herself. Poetry distilled her essence, she said. “It allowed me to be me.”

Building a new community was also healing. After befriending another Nigerian woman, Diana Barikor, who felt similarly lost, the duo vowed to take charge of their lives. They began going on daily walks and were soon joined by other immigrant women. Together they shared advice about relationships, finances and healthy living.

As the women made strides in each of these areas, they decided to formalize this process of empowerment. ‘Kego and the others pooled their money in an indigenous financial model known as a Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA).

In this system, the group collects a fixed amount of money each month, and each of the members receives the pot on a rotating basis. Whole Woman Network (WWN) was officially launched in 2010, and theatres, beauty salons and virtual platforms welcomed these speakers for workshops on topics ranging from fashion to personal transformation.

Soon, the WWN gained an international following, and women in trouble worldwide began reaching out for help. Most lacked the financial resources to leave situations of domestic violence. The WWN drew on their ROSCAs to loan them money or give them grants to start their own businesses and free them from psychological captivity.

As ‘Kego worked to liberate these women from their circumstances, she thought coaching could help them peel away the layers of societal expectations holding them back. “Something had happened for them to believe they were not worthy,” said ‘Kego. The lack of financial agency also put them in harm’s way.

Recognizing the influence of these factors, ‘Kego acquired multiple certifications in personal and leadership coaching, as well as in financial literacy. Today these courses are the mainstay of the WWN. ‘Kego puts her own spin on the programs, using poetry to help clients recover their voices, and enroll them in leadership classes where they learn to become their own guides.

Today, ‘Kego is thriving. She has completed an MBA from the Alliance Manchester Business School and is currently working full-time as a financial advisor for Sun Life Canada.

She also has a new, exciting venture she joined in 2021: the Banker Ladies. This is a Federation of women who run ROSCAs and are educating the government and financial institutions to create legal frameworks to make ROSCAs safe and effective to practice.

But ‘Kego’s biggest satisfaction is changing lives through the WWN, where she continues to volunteer. One recent coaching client, immigrant Bilkisu Umar, credits ‘Kego for helping her transform her love of cooking into a successful business, Elsutra Foods, whose products have landed on the shelves of over 30 stores across Canada. “I celebrate and appreciate (‘Kego),” said Umar in a testimonial. This kind of happy ending fuels ‘Kego’s sense of optimism. “It reminds me why I do what I do,” she said. 

Souzan Esmaili

Building a global community of anti-crime fighters

For many women in business, it’s common to find a personal connection that has led them to their chosen field. For Souzan Esmaili, the motivation for pursuing a career in anti-financial crime came from an event that happened before she was even born.

Esmaili’s family were victims of an act of terrorism. During the Iranian Revolution, a 17-year-old armed with an assault rifle entered her aunt’s home during a family gathering and opened fire, instantly killing Esmaili’s grandfather, uncle and aunt and injured her father, sister and other members of her family.

“It had a really traumatic effect on my family,” she said.

While she didn’t initially seek out the field of anti-financial crime — Esmaili studied computer science and business — her work led her to discover its importance. Esmaili was working for an insurance broker right out of school. The company got fined and started a compliance division.

“When I started to educate myself around the topic, I got more and more understanding that it is important for every one of us to be able to identify and find out how we can stop terrorism and money laundering.”

When she realized crimes like what had happened to her family were so deeply tied to finance and could be stopped before they happened, she decided this was what she was meant to do.

Financial crime was also intriguing to Esmaili due to the constant need for education. “It’s a field that you really need to be on top of. There are a lot of changes that happen very frequently and significantly.”

On a daily basis, regulations change, or a new type of scam emerges. “It’s constant and never-ending learning. To keep up with the bad guys you have to keep learning. They become very creative, and their creativity motivates us to try harder to stop them,” she said.

Esmaili never stopped learning. She earned an MBA from the American University of Sharjah, a Post Graduate Diploma in GRC from Manchester Business School, a Certificate in Anti Money Laundering, a FinTech Program Certificate from Oxford University and a Chainalysis Cryptocurrency Fundamentals Reactor Certifications.

For 13 years, Esmaili worked for several firms in Dubai building their compliance framework, but when she immigrated to Canada in May 2019, she had a hard time finding a position. “They all told me that I was overqualified or that I don’t have Canadian experience,” she said. “It took me six months and 70 job applications to find my first job.”

During her exhausting job hunt, Esmaili took a break from sending out resumes and attended industry events, meeting others in the financial sector and continuing to learn. Esmaili summarized the events she attended and shared them on LinkedIn.

In October 2019, Esmaili decided to start TCAE (Toronto Compliance & AML Enterprise). It began as a hobby, with the goal of creating a community of professionals in the financial field and educating them on anti-financial crime and compliance.

Shortly after, in December of 2019, she started her first job in Canada at Wells Fargo, working on their anti-bribery and corruption program for Canada and Latin America.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, Esmaili began organizing training sessions with TCAE on Saturdays, her day off, bringing in speakers from around the world.

“On the first, call we had about 80 people. By the fourth call, we had over 200 people on the call who came from over 90 different countries,” she said.

After 13 months at Wells Fargo, Esmaili resigned to incorporate TCAE and decided to devote herself to the company. TCAE has now held over 70 knowledge sessions and has a staff of over 20 volunteers from around the world. TCAE has partnered with one of the biggest companies in the cryptocurrency space, Chainalysis, and with Seneca College. “So far we’ve educated more than 5,000 people in the financial community,” she said.

Esmaili is also passionate about speaking with newcomers to Canada. TCAE even has a newcomer program, a seven-week mentorship program to help newcomers in Canada in Regulatory Financial Crime and Crypto Compliance find their first job in Canada.

She tells other newcomers that the experience and knowledge they have in their home countries is not lost once they arrive in Canada. “Your experience in your home country has value, it will never be lost. It is a part of you, and you should be proud of it.” 

Ranjini Jha

Inspiring young minds

From becoming the first member of her family to graduate from university, Ranjini Jha now educates other students as a professor of finance at the University of Waterloo.

Jha grew up in Jamshedpur, India. Her father worked job at TELCO (now Tata Motors) and her family lived in a unique community called the TELCO Colony.

“The company didn’t pay very high wages, but they had a lot of amenities for its employees,” she said.

From low-cost housing to medical facilities and even school. Jha attended the Little Flowers School in the TELCO Colony, run by the Jesuits and Catholic nuns.

“I was in the first cohort that joined the school in Grade One and completed my education there,” she said. Jha was always top of her class and was the first of her family to graduate from university, completing an undergraduate and a master’s degree in physics.

After graduation, Jha said she felt burned out and wanted to try something different. She got a job working at the State Bank of India. “I got promotions each time I was eligible and got exposure to retail banking, then small business and agricultural lending,” she said.

After 11 years in the banking sector, Jha decided to pursue a formal education in business and finance. “I saw firsthand how finance can help the economy and the community,” she said. “Finance can be a force for good for the community. The primary objective is to serve as an intermediary and keep the economy going.”

Jha saw a lot of potential for growth in the finance sector. She moved to Philadelphia and completed an MBA with a specialization in finance. Her journey to Canada happened when she decided to continue her studies by working toward a PhD.

Academics, she felt, provided a good combination of research and teaching, two areas she felt passionate about. In September 1993, Jha arrived in Alberta to pursue her studies. “I think with coming to Canada, I won the lottery. I got a great education and was mentored by outstanding faculty at the University of Alberta,” she said.

“I started my academic career at the University of Waterloo in 1998 where the work environment has been stimulating, exciting, and inclusive. I work with a terrific set of colleagues. Working with students has been rewarding. I met my partner here and made many friends. Finally, I live in a beautiful and vibrant city. I have enjoyed traveling across Canada from east to west.”

Jha was the Associate Director of Finance at the University of Waterloo from 2010 to 2017. Her primary task was to grow the school’s finance program. “We were primarily a school of accounting, and now we’re a school of accounting and finance.”

Jha and her colleagues introduced experiential initiatives to get students interested in finance. The Student Investment Fund was set up in 2012, providing students with hands-on experience in equity valuation and portfolio management of publicly traded stocks with guidance from industry experts and supervision by finance faculty. The funds are supported by a university donor but provide students with real world experience, with an access to investment funds.

“Students don’t usually get this experience until after they graduate,” said Jha of the uniqueness of the program. She considers the program as one of her greatest professional accomplishments as an educator. “I’m very proud of having been involved in setting up these funds,” she said.

Jha is also a faculty mentor for Women in Finance, a student-run initiative that works to bridge the gender gap within the finance industry. “For the longest time, I was the only female faculty member,” said Jha, who is happy to see more women enter the field of finance.

As she gets ready to retire next year, Jha said she will continue to use her knowledge to give back to the community and is planning to be involved in the boards of not-for-profit organizations in the Waterloo region. It seems Jha will never stop learning.

Mehrsa Raeiszadeh

Empowering consumers

“I’ve always been a problem-solver and want to figure out a way to fix the problems that we have,” said Mehrsa Raeiszadeh, who has utilized that trait to find success. The 39-year-old is the cofounder (along with Mike Wood) and chief operating officer (COO) of Vancouver based MintList, an online marketplace that enables consumers to buy, sell and trade their cars at the touch of their fingertips.

MintList was designed with a clear goal in mind: “I wanted to make an inclusive product that makes it fair and safe for female-identifying people, new immigrants and minorities struggling with language barriers to buy and sell cars,” Raeiszadeh said.

The entrepreneur has used her financial management skills to create a product that makes it possible for consumers to harness theirs.

“MintList changes the way cars are bought and sold by empowering people with data to make better decisions,” she said. “Cars are the second largest asset for most people and MintList helps them get the most money for their vehicles. The platform equips them with knowledge so they can navigate the cost of buying, the going prices in the market, and the best time to sell. With all this information they can save upwards of one to two per cent and that can translate to thousands of dollars.”

Thanks to Raeiszadeh’s financial knowhow, her startup has partnered with Carfax and more than 200 car dealerships across B.C. and Alberta.

A year after MintList launched in 2020, it racked up more than $20 million in transactions and over $1 million subscription fees. The company began with a handful of dedicated staff members and has grown to a team of more than 20; 75 per cent is made up of women and visible minorities. Raeiszadeh has also raised over $1 million in non-dilutives and $5 million in dilutives.

How did she do it?

“You need to develop a strategy that includes knowing how to look for investors, what to look for in investors and how to channel funds to get the most impact,” she said. “You need to be cautious with every dollar.”

She is also thankful for the government support her business has received and encourages newcomers to research government-related grants, subsidies and grants in order to take their company off the ground.

“As an immigrant, it’s fascinating to see the opportunities that exist for female entrepreneurs and I’m extremely grateful,” she said.

The startup was inspired by Raeiszadeh’s personal experience. Upon receiving her PhD in Process Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, she decided to buy a car.

“It was going to be a celebratory gift,” she said.

But that initial excitement was tempered when she walked into a car dealership and told the dealer she was interested in buying a vehicle. “He asked me where my dad was,” she said.

The seed was planted. “I grew up as a fighter in Iran where you have to fight for your basic human rights and where women are told what to wear and how to act and who they can speak to. I don’t give up and that was shaped by growing up in an environment that can be very challenging for women.”

Raeiszadeh, who immigrated to Canada in 2016 and lives in Vancouver, said that although she’s encountered obstacles along the way, she’s remained determined and encourages others to continue on the path toward their goals.

“I started thinking about what makes me unique and what I’m really good at. That was my ‘aha’ moment. Think about what makes you unique and then put a laser focus on that.”

That unwavering vision has paid off. “Our first client was a 70-year-old grandmother who called me to tell me how proud she was that she was able to sell her car without having to ask anyone for help,” Raeiszadeh said. “That moment was all worth it. When I see people using my product to solve a problem, it’s an amazing feeling.” 

This story was originally published in Canadian Immigrant Magazine. A free national multimedia platform that helps newcomers through their journey in Canada, canadianimmigrant.ca provides the information, inspiration and connections they might need.