Women to Watch 2025: Melissa Lim, Standard Chartered Bank

Melissa Lim

Global head of marketing
Standard Chartered Bank
Singapore

Melissa Lim is a global marketing leader with nearly two decades of experience spanning four continents in financial services. Beginning her career in Australia through ANZ’s graduate program, where she earned the prestigious CEO Recognition Award, Lim built a strong foundation in institutional banking, strategy, and capital markets that continues to inform her marketing approach today.

Her international career has taken her through key financial hubs including Singapore, London, and New York, where she has led marketing strategies grounded in deep commercial and investment banking expertise and a talent for transforming complex financial solutions into compelling, insight-driven campaigns. At Standard Chartered, she leads a global team spread across Asia, Europe, and the Americas, pioneering a digital-first marketing strategy that aligns content and brand with clear business objectives and consistently delivers measurable impact.

Over the past year, Lim's leadership has driven a sizeable brand lift across more than ten markets through multi-channel campaigns, delivering a 65% improvement in agency cost efficiency and stronger ROI via a data-embedded marketing function overhaul. She has steered marketing efforts for complex advisory solutions such as Islamic Financing and Transition Finance, making these accessible and client-centric. Her sector-specific campaigns in energy, healthcare, consumer, and technology have reinforced Standard Chartered’s position as a leading cross-border bank in key growth corridors.

A modern leader known for strategy, foresight and inclusivity, Lim has restructured global marketing teams for greater efficiency, introduced capability-building initiatives including quarterly training, and fostered a collaborative culture across brand, digital, content, data, and communications functions internationally. She partners closely with C-suite and regional executives to ensure marketing supports business growth and client engagement.

Diversity and inclusion are core to Lim's leadership philosophy. She has built multicultural teams that represent diverse markets, genders, and backgrounds, and champions inclusive hiring, safe dialogue spaces, and the amplification of underrepresented voices. Her capability-building workshops empower team members at all levels, and she actively mentors women in marketing and financial services, advocating for flexible work and equitable leadership development.

Lim has also elevated marketing’s strategic profile within financial services by developing a global marketing impact dashboard that enhances transparency and aligns marketing with business outcomes. Her award-winning work, such as the 'Doors' campaign recognised by the Advertising Producers Association and New York Festivals Advertising Awards, set a new creative benchmark in financial services marketing.