Based in Seattle, Hypatia Kingsley serves as a leading member of the Financial Services, Boards and Education & Social Impact practices globally, with a particular emphasis on global fintech. Hypatia cultivates leaders who create access to capital, financial systems and technology and effect positive change. With more than 25 years of experience, Hypatia specializes in a range of advisory, succession and search assignments across fintech leadership in consumer financial services, commercial/corporate banking, payments, asset and wealth management and alternative investing in the United States and Asia, with an emphasis on China.

Global fintech perspective

  • Today, Hypatia represents Spencer Stuart as a core supporter of onBoarding Women, an early director program focused on senior female director talent in the Pacific Northwest in partnership with Deloitte, Perkins Coie, Madrona Venture Partners and Cascadia Capital. She also serves as a strategic advisor for 1TCC, a supply chain finance and capital efficiency fintech startup.
  • Prior to her move to Seattle, Hypatia spent a decade based in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and during the latter part of her tenure led Spencer Stuart's Greater China business. In addition to her work with financial services organizations, Hypatia was a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors and the Women Director’s Forum. Prior to joining Spencer Stuart in 2003, Hypatia began her career in search with another global firm in Washington, D.C., focusing on the financial services industry.
  • In her experience with the firm’s Education & Social Impact Practice, Hypatia works with clients in the social enterprise, secondary and higher education sectors in North America and Asia Pacific.

Hypatia holds a B.A. in East Asian studies from the University of Wisconsin and an M.A. in Chinese history from the University of Hawaii. She was a graduate fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu and a Eu-Tong Sen Research Fellow in Hong Kong while receiving her M.A. She is fluent in Mandarin.

Practice Areas