Mona Malone

Chief Human Resources Officer and Head, People & Culture, BMO Financial Group

(En français)

Mona is a visionary leader at BMO Financial Group, driven by her deep passion for talent, leadership, and community. She goes beyond conventional boundaries, constantly seeking possibilities and using her influential voice to make a positive impact. Mona’s formative career experiences have inspired her to pay it forward by championing the next generation of women in business, ensuring they have equal opportunities to fulfill their career ambitions.

How She Made Change

Zero Barriers to Inclusion

Mona’s transformative initiatives continue to advance equity and inclusion across the organization. In 2020, she led the creation of Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025, a strategy focused on three pillars—colleagues, customers, and communities—that is enabling BMO to drive progress for equity-deserving groups across its footprint.

Mona actively encourages self-awareness among leaders, viewing education as a means to build stronger allyship and understanding within the organization. Additionally, she promotes individual ownership over career development. Under her leadership, BMO has introduced new digital resources that provide employees with personalized development recommendations and increase the visibility of opportunities, further promoting gender equity and participation.

Empowering Next-Generation Leaders

Mona’s commitment to empowering future leaders is exemplified by her personal mentorship of young women, both within and outside the bank. Her dedication to guiding and supporting the leaders of tomorrow demonstrates her commitment to paying it forward and championing new generations of women in business.

Mona expanded on these efforts when she co-hosted an Innovation Hub event, challenging young women to devise strategies for advancing inclusion at BMO. She is also the executive champion of BMO’s 11 Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), including the BMO Alliance for Women and the recently established BMO Parents ERG. Under her guidance, the ERGs have grown significantly, with a current membership of over 22,000 employees, showcasing the effectiveness of these groups in cultivating a sense of belonging and inclusion within the organization.

Cultivating an Inclusive Work Environment
Mona recognizes that fostering an inclusive work environment requires adapting to the changing needs of employees. In 2020, she led the development of BMO’s New Ways of Working (NWOW) strategy, which crystallized the bank’s digital first, hybrid work model and brought new flexibility to the employee experience. Under her guidance, BMO expanded its benefits package to include 16 weeks of paid parental leave in the United States and up to 78 weeks in Canada, as well as other measures that support families.

Mona role models allyship, empathy, and ownership. She encourages education to build allyship and self-awareness among employees, while also promoting ownership of career development. Mona has expanded Workday HR to provide personalized development recommendations, leading to improved gender equity and greater participation by women in various roles.

Mona extends her influence to customer programs, advising on initiatives such as BMO for Women, which commits significant capital to support women entrepreneurs, and WMN*FINtech, a mentoring program for women fintech founders. Through these programs, Mona actively contributes to fostering economic empowerment and financial inclusion for women entrepreneurs.

Actions You Can Take

1. Pay it forward and engage with next-generation leaders through mentoring and sponsorship opportunities.
2. Adapt to the future of work and set new ways of working to support the changing workplace. Flexibility is key.

Mona Malone’s visionary leadership and passion for fostering talent, leadership, and community have had a transformative impact on BMO. Through her initiatives, she has driven substantial progress, created a more inclusive work environment, and empowered the next generation of leaders. Her dedication to mentoring and advocating for women in business, both within and beyond BMO, further cements her status as a catalyst for positive change and a powerful influencer in the industry.