About Kristina
Kristina came to Canada from the Philippines after spending her career there in Capital Markets particularly in Sales and Trading roles. Her experience in often challenging work environments has led her to value the power of mentorship and allyship in supporting the career growth and development of future female business leaders.
She is passionate about female and LGBT2QA+ leadership and hopes to push for more gender diversity and inclusion in the Capital Markets and Finance space through her fellowship at GATE.
MBA Student Fellow Project
Kristina’s research, entitled OUTsider-Within: Effective LGBTQ+ Leadership in Business, delves into the question of whether lived experiences as an LGBTQ+ person (e.g. feeling like an outsider, coming out) contribute to building leadership qualities and skills that lead to success in the business world. To help answer this question, she made use of Patricia Hill Collins’ outsider-within framework, among others, and explored the lived realities of eight outstanding LGBTQ+ business leaders in Toronto. She uncovered themes and insights summarized in the following seven leadership qualities: 1) resilience 2) bravery 3) an outsider / diverse perspective 4) social perceptiveness 5) vulnerability and authenticity 6) visibility and 7) responsibility to the community. These qualities can be institutionalized into a leadership toolkit by both LGBTQ+ and non LGBTQ+ people alike, to be leaders in their fields while celebrating the freedom to be different in the context of greater inclusion. Most importantly, she hopes her research can help the younger LGBTQ+ generation reframe the way they think about their LGBTQ+ experiences—to see the unique qualities and skills that result from these experiences not as deficits but as assets and not as barriers but as opportunities they can leverage to be effective leaders today.