ASCEND™ - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Portfolio Manager
Ms. Sundstrom is a managing director and portfolio manager in the London office, focusing on asset allocation strategies. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2015, she was a partner and portfolio manager at Brevan Howard, where she led the Emerging Markets Strategies Fund. Previously, she was a portfolio manager at Moore Capital Management. Earlier in her career, Ms. Sundstrom held senior research roles with Citigroup Global Investments and Pareto Partners. She has 25 years of investment experience and holds a master's degree in finance from Birkbeck College at London University and two degrees from Universite Paris Dauphine.
Ms. Lin is a senior vice president and investment grade portfolio manager in the Newport Beach office and a member of PIMCO's Americas portfolio committee. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2014, she worked in fixed income portfolio analysis at Harvard Management Company and was a FICC (fixed income, commodities and currencies) derivatives trader at UBS. She was named a Rising Star at Markets Media's 2020 Women in Finance Awards. She holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and an undergraduate degree from Peking University with a major in mathematics and a minor in economics.
Job Titles:
- Executive Vice President, Corporate Secretary and Head of Governance / HSBC
- Executive Vice President, Corporate Secretary and Head of Governance at HSBC North America Holdings, Inc
Ms. Zielinski serves as Executive Vice President, Corporate Secretary and Head of Governance at HSBC North America Holdings, Inc. (HNAH). She is responsible for all corporate governance matters relating to US Boards and its subsidiaries and serves as a member of the HNAH Executive Committee. She is also the executive sponsor for the HSBC US Asian & Pacific Islanders Diversity Committee (APIC).
Ms. Makhdumi is an executive vice president and a team lead for the PIMCO U.S. global wealth management strategic accounts group. She is responsible for managing relationships with U.S.-domiciled broker-dealers and private banks. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2009, she was in the corporate strategy and business development group in the asset management division at J.P. Morgan. Previously, she was a credit research analyst in the investment banking division at J.P. Morgan. In 2012, Ms. Makhdumi received the "Rising Star Award" from the Women's Bond Club of New York. She has 17 years of investment and financial services experience and holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree in economics from Yale University.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President / HSBC
- Senior Vice President and International Banker at HSBC
Ms. Lim is a Senior Vice President and international banker at HSBC who currently oversees Greater China clients located on the West Coast. Her passion for diversity and inclusion earned her the co-chair position of the Asian Pacific Islander Committee (or "APIC") and her purpose is to empower and give voices to minority in the workplace.
Ms. Lim was born in Brunei Darussalam and raised in New Zealand, where she graduated with a Law and Accounting degree. Upon graduation, she worked at a law firm in New Zealand. Ms. Lim then moved to Brunei and started her career with HSBC. She then moved to Hong Kong where she worked with HSBC bankers in 21 Asian Pacific countries. In 2014, she moved to London and worked as a legal counsel for HSBC Global Commercial Banking team. She then relocated to the United States and has worked in her current capacity in LA, NY, and the Bay Area.
During her free time, she enjoys creating food art. She started an Instagram page (@mclimfood) during the start of the lockdown and has now accumulated more than 4,000 followers.
Stephanie Tom, a Sacramento native, and longtime AAPI community worker, has been hired as the new chief consultant for the California Asian & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus.
Stephanie began her state service career as the deputy director for strategic planning, broadband and digital literacy at the California Department of Technology and has more than 20 years of experience working with local API organizations. She currently serves on the board of directors for Asian Resources, Inc., as an advisory board member for My Sister's House and has worked with the California Asian Chamber of Commerce and on the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs steering committee. Stephanie also co-founded the first AAPI employee resource group at Oracle Enterprises, where she worked for 19 years until 2018. The group swelled to 2,000 in just the first nine months and remains the fastest-growing group in the company
Tammy Cho is a proud Korean-American who works at the intersection of social justice, community and tech. She focuses on work that dismantles harassment, discrimination and racism.
She does this through her work as the Co-Founder and CEO of Hate Is A Virus, a nonprofit and community of mobilizers and amplifiers dedicated to dismantling hate and racism. Hate Is A Virus started as a grassroots movement last April in response to the first spike in hate crimes against Asians due to COVID-19. Over the past year, they produced national awareness campaigns, educational resources for the community, and raised funds for essential BIPOC community organizations and small businesses across the nation and are committed to continuing these efforts this year.In addition to Hate Is A Virus, Tammy founded BetterBrave, a nonprofit that empowers thousands of employees with free knowledge and tools for navigating workplace harassment and discrimination, serves as the COO of Block Party, a tech startup focused on tackling online harassment and abuse, and co-produced Hidden Narratives with Steven Lim, a podcast that launched to highlight the impacts of COVID-19 on our community.Previously, Tammy co-founded Encore Alert, an AI platform that helps brands like IDEO, Denver Broncos, and the University of Michigan identify and act on emerging trends, crises, and influencers in their industry. She started the company as a college freshman at Georgetown University and sold it in 2016 at age 21.Tammy has also been recognized as NBC Asian America's A to Z Rising Star, Georgetown Entrepreneur of the Year, and a Power Woman in DC Tech. Her work has also been featured in Time, New York Times, Washington Post, Entrepreneur, Bloomberg, Glamour, and more.