Witad Awards 2026: Trailblazer (Lifetime achievement) award (end-user)—Sarah Mears, MUFG Investor Services

What is your position within your firm?
Sarah Mears, MUFG Investor Services: I am the chief human resources officer at MUFG Investor Services. I created and lead the firm’s global HR strategy, ensuring our people agenda is fully integrated with our business strategy and long-term growth objectives. I am responsible for talent, leadership development, succession and embedding our diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) framework across the organization, driving a high-performing culture grounded in accountability, respect and opportunity.

How long have you been in the financial services industry?
Mears: I joined MUFG Investor Services in 2018. Prior to that, I held senior HR leadership roles at Mastercard, Barclaycard, Unilever and other global organizations, where I focused on leading people strategies within complex, international businesses.

How did you get into the industry? Was it a conscious decision or did you “fall” into it?
Mears: It was a conscious decision. I have always been drawn to organizations where people strategy is central to business success. Financial services offered both scale and complexity, and the opportunity to shape culture in a meaningful way. Joining MUFG Investor Services gave me the platform to help build an environment where performance, inclusion, and well-being are equally valued.

What does your day-to-day role entail?
Mears: I lead the execution of our global HR strategy, ensuring our people agenda directly supports business performance and client outcomes. On a daily basis, I work closely with our CEO and executive leadership team to shape culture, strengthen leadership capability, and advance our DEIB priorities across regions. My focus is on embedding accountability, enabling our colleagues to thrive, and ensuring our culture evolves alongside our growth.

What single project/piece of work are you most proud of during your career in the industry to date?
Mears: I am most proud of embedding our DEIB strategy into how we lead the business, not as a standalone initiative, but as a core leadership expectation. We have moved from intent to structured accountability, ensuring inclusive behaviors, sponsorship, and equitable access to opportunity are built into how we operate globally. Driving sustained cultural change at scale requires consistency and discipline, and I am proud of the progress we continue to make.

You won a category in last year’s Women in Technology and Data Awards. To what extent has the win impacted your role/career over the last 12 months?
Mears: Winning the wellness and work-life balance award was a genuine honor. It affirmed that prioritizing well-being and sustainable performance is both necessary and valued within our industry. Over the past year, it has reinforced my sense of responsibility to continue leading with empathy and accountability, and to ensure that well-being remains embedded in how we think about leadership, performance, and long-term success.

Recognition creates visibility, and I am intentional about using that visibility to elevate others. I work to ensure talented women have access to mentorship, meaningful stretch opportunities, and exposure to senior leadership

What have been your work-related highlights over the last 12 months? What specifically have you been working on since you were last in the winners’ circle of the Witads?
Mears: Over the past year, my focus has been on accelerating the impact of our DEIB strategy across our global organization. We deepened leadership accountability through Inclusion Champions, strengthened pathways for female leadership progression through Catalyst and expanded Empowering Voices, and scaled our global mental health infrastructure. Most meaningful has been seeing these efforts translate into stronger engagement, belonging and trust across regions.

As a past winner, to what extent have you been able to “pay it forward” so that other talented women within the business can benefit from your success?
Mears: Recognition creates visibility, and I am intentional about using that visibility to elevate others. I work to ensure talented women have access to mentorship, meaningful stretch opportunities, and exposure to senior leadership. By strengthening structured pathways through programs such as Catalyst and Empowering Voices, we are helping more women build confidence, expand their networks, and advance their careers.

Do you believe the financial services industry is doing enough to smooth the way forward for talented women? What more could the industry do to redress historical gender imbalances?
Mears: The industry has made meaningful progress, particularly in increasing transparency and dialog. However, sustained change requires continued focus on accountability, sponsorship, and equitable access to opportunity. Real progress happens when inclusive leadership becomes part of performance expectations. We are moving in the right direction, but there is more work to do to ensure long-term, systemic balance.

Do you foresee a time when awards such as the Witads become redundant/unnecessary? If so, are we anywhere near that point?
Mears: I look forward to a future where representation and opportunity are so well balanced that awards focused on gender are no longer needed. We are not there yet, but progress is visible. Awards like the Witads play an important role in spotlighting leadership and accelerating change, and that visibility continues to matter.

As one of the very few double winners in the Witads, what does this award mean to you?
Mears: Receiving the trailblazer award is an extraordinary honor. It recognizes years of intentional, collective effort to create meaningful cultural change across our global organization. Being a double winner is deeply humbling and reinforces the responsibility that comes with leadership. This recognition belongs to our colleagues and leaders who champion inclusion every day, and it strengthens my commitment to continuing this work with purpose and accountability.