Between Cultures and Beyond Expectations: How Urmi Hossain Is Helping Women Find Their Place

For years, Urmi Hossain thought belonging meant choosing.

Born and raised in Italy to Bangladeshi parents, she grew up navigating cultures that were both hers yet never felt like they fit neatly together. She knew what it was like to look around and feel different, and later, to enter spaces where she might be the only woman at the table.

Eventually, she stopped trying to figure out which box she belonged in.

She created her own.

Today, the Montreal-based finance professional, author, speaker, podcast host, mentor and Co-Chair of the Montreal chapter of Women in Leadership is using the experiences that once made her question where she fit to help other women see more possibilities for themselves.

And that might be the most interesting thing about Urmi's story. Her work spans finance, mentorship, multicultural identity, leadership and storytelling, but the thread connecting all of it is surprisingly simple:

You don't have to fit into one box.

Growing Up In Between

Urmi was born and raised in Italy to Bangladeshi parents, an experience she describes as growing up as an “in-betweener.” She felt Italian. Her friends were Italian. Italy was home. But she was also very aware that she didn't look like most of the people around her.

Then she would return to a space where people looked more like her, but culturally and mentally, she didn't always feel exactly the same there either. Add four years living in the UK and an eventual move to Canada, and the question of identity became even more layered.

For a long time, Urmi felt like she needed to choose which culture she belonged to. Eventually, she realized choosing wasn't the answer at all.

“If I was choosing either one, I was betraying myself. I was betraying my identity. I was betraying my heritage.”

So instead of choosing a box, she created her own. She began embracing all of the experiences that shaped her and stopped allowing other people's assumptions about her to define who she was.

“Just because you labeled me a certain way, it doesn't mean I'm just that. I could be much more than that.”

That realization didn't stay contained to her cultural identity. As Urmi became clearer about

who she was, she also became more willing to pursue the things she wanted: mentoring, speaking, writing, leadership, her podcast, and opportunities that required getting a little uncomfortable.

A high school friend once reminded her that she had always been ambitious, even if Urmi hadn't necessarily seen herself that way at the time. Maybe the ambition was always there. She simply had to become comfortable enough with herself to fully step into it.

Turning Her Story Into Something Bigger

Eventually, Urmi put her experience on paper.

Her self-published book explores what it was like growing up between cultures, including memories of noticing how different she looked from her Italian friends and even wearing colored contacts because she wanted to look more Italian.

Years later, she read a book by a Pakistani-Canadian author and was struck by how deeply she recognized herself in someone else's story. For Urmi, being able to see parts of her own experience reflected back at her was powerful. It also made her wonder: If her story could do this for me, maybe mine could do it for someone else.

So, she wrote her own, appropriately titled, Discovering Your Identity: A Rebirth From Interracial Struggle.

The process was therapeutic, but sharing her story did something else too. Urmi began hearing from other South Asian women who had grown up outside their parents' home countries and understood exactly what she was talking about. The experience that had once made her question where she belonged became something that could help someone else feel a little less alone.

That idea eventually expanded beyond Urmi's own story. With Stories Beyond Borders, she created a space for immigrants, multicultural individuals and others navigating cross-cultural identities to tell theirs.

Part of its inspiration came from comparing her parents' immigration experience with her own. When her parents moved from Bangladesh to Italy, they truly started from scratch: no Italian, no established network, and no roadmap for navigating everyday life.

Years later, when Urmi immigrated to Canada, she knew the language, had connections and understood much more about navigating her new environment.

Same word: immigrant. Completely different experience.

Then There's Finance

With everything Urmi does around identity and community, you might assume her career in finance was another carefully planned piece of the puzzle.

Not quite.

She didn't grow up talking about finance. In fact, money wasn't really discussed at home at all. She originally entered university pursuing a different major, with finance as her minor. When the first path didn't feel right, she decided to give finance a try. She described what happened next as “love at first sight.”

She loved the classes, studying the subject and learning from her professors. She even remembers reaching graduation and thinking she wasn't ready to stop studying finance. What started as love at first sight eventually became what she now jokingly calls her “unconditional love” for the field. That passion eventually became her profession.

What she didn't initially notice was something other people would later point out to her: finance is still heavily male-dominated.

Looking back, the signs had always been there. A university classroom of roughly 60 students might have had only 10 women. Later, as she entered the workforce and began looking at management and leadership teams, she noticed the same pattern. Women became increasingly difficult to find as she looked higher up the ladder, particularly women from different cultural backgrounds.

Staying at the Table and Pulling Up Another Chair

Urmi has found herself in meetings where she is the only woman sitting at the table. It can be intimidating. She stays anyway.

“If I'm not staying, I'm not changing anything. And if I'm not showing up, if I'm not being present, I'm not helping the next generation.”

Because representation isn't always about making the biggest speech in the room. Sometimes it starts with simply refusing to remove yourself from it.

Urmi now wants younger women considering finance to see that there is a place for them in the industry. She is working with universities and educational organizations to talk about careers in finance, while mentorship has become another major part of how she creates that visibility.

She has mentored more than 20 women throughout her career, including through organizations such as Dress for Success and Empower'em. Growing up and entering her career, she didn't have a mentor who looked like her or shared her cultural background. Today, she gets to be that person for someone else.

But she doesn't see mentorship as a one-sided relationship.

“Mentorship is a two-way street.”

Her mentees learn from her experience, but she learns from theirs too. And she knows firsthand what having the right person in your corner can change.

Earlier in her career, Urmi worked with a female VP who became a role model. They shared similar educational backgrounds, and this woman consistently encouraged Urmi, pushed her forward and advocated for her.

“When you have someone cheering for you, you feel that you can do anything, and you know that you deserve to be there.”

It's an experience Urmi has carried into the way she now supports other women.

Her advocacy extends beyond finance too. Through the Montreal chapter of Women in Leadership, Urmi and her team create opportunities for women to meet, connect and learn from one another face-to-face through events around leadership, wellness and the realities women are navigating in their careers and lives.

For Urmi, representation matters because people notice who's in the room. She knows what it feels like to look around and wonder where you fit, whether that's between cultures or around a table where you're the only woman. Now, much of the work she does helps make it a little easier for someone else to see that there can be a place for them too.

Success Looks a Little Different Now

For someone as accomplished and ambitious as Urmi, one of the most interesting parts of our conversation was hearing how much her definition of success has changed.

There was a time when success was tied much more closely to external validation: the title, the job, the house, the accomplishment, the next thing that tells everyone around you, See? I'm doing well.

Except external validation has one major flaw: the finish line keeps moving.

“You can do as much as you want, but then people won't be happy because they will always ask for something else.”

Today, success is much more personal. It's about doing something she enjoys, creating an impact, making someone's life a little better and building a life that actually feels like hers.

“Your life is yours only, and it's up to you to build it the way you want to build it.”

And maybe that's the thread connecting everything after all.

The girl who once thought she had to choose between cultures eventually realized she could define her own identity. The woman who entered finance simply because she loved it decided she wasn't leaving the table because she happened to be one of the few women sitting there. The professional who didn't grow up with a mentor who looked like her became one.

And the woman who once looked outward for validation started deciding for herself what success should look like.

Be the Change

Before we wrapped our conversation, we asked Urmi what she wanted other women to know. Her answer came back to a quote that has guided much of what she does:

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

And that's exactly what Urmi is doing. She wanted to see more women in finance, so she's helping introduce women to the industry. She knows what it's like not to have a mentor who shares your background, so she mentors. She knows the power of recognizing yourself in someone else's story, so she told hers and created a platform for others to tell theirs.

Urmi spent years believing she had to choose where she fit. Now, she's helping other women see that they don't have to wait for someone else to define a place for them.

You can create your own.

Connect with Urmi

Want to hear more from Urmi? You can dive deeper into her story through her book, where she shares her personal journey of growing up between cultures and learning to embrace the different pieces of her identity. Find her book on Amazon in print or Kindle.

You can also listen to Stories Beyond Borders on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, where Urmi continues the conversation with guests sharing their experiences with immigration, culture, identity and belonging.

Read the book. Listen to Stories Beyond Borders. And follow along as Urmi continues creating space for more women and more stories to be seen.

Urmi Hossain, CFA, CAIA, Co-Chair– Women in Leadership (Montreal Chapter)

🔗 Connect Further: https://linktr.ee/urmihossain