International Women's Day 2021: The Virtual Conference

Jenny is an ex-career banker turned business turnaround specialist and cash machine entrepreneur.

After leaving school at 16 to begin her working life counting cash in a bank branch, she climbed through the ranks to become one of the few senior female bankers at the time in the UK.

Following thirty years in the banking trade, Jenny left the corporate world in 2006 in pursuit of a new challenge - to turn around a failing cash machine business owned by RBS.

Jenny launched a major operational restructure of Hanco ATM Systems, turning it from a business that was making a huge loss in competitive markets to a thriving, profitable entity operating across Europe. She later went on to buyout the business from RBS and become the majority shareholder- later relaunching it as YourCash Europe Ltd.

The cash machine company quickly expanded to become a leading provider of ATMs to the retail market across Europe, handling millions of ATM transactions and processing billions in cash value.

Ten years on from taking the business under her wing, Jenny sold YourCash in October 2016 to a company listed on the New York stock exchange.

Previously awarded Business Woman of the Year, Jenny stays true to her favourite business motto- “live by corporate standards, but breathe like an entrepreneur”.

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is a global expert on all things gender balance. She is the CEO of 20-first, a global consulting firm working with companies interested in capturing the competitive advantage of gender, nationality, and generational balance. Her ground-breaking thought leadership is accessible through several seminal books and regular contributions to Harvard Business Review and Forbes. She’s done several TEDx talks, has been recognized by ELLE Magazine as one of the Top 40 Women Leading Change and was recently celebrated by PWN Global with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Gender Balanced Leadership. Her book, Why Women Mean Business, was awarded the MANPOWER Best Book of the Year Prize.

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Tania Bryer is a British born broadcaster and philanthropist.

She is the Host and Executive Producer of a number of hugely popular series across CNBC’s international network, including the critically-acclaimed ‘CNBC Meets…’, where she gains access to some of the world’s most inspirational figures to find out the secret to their success and how their philanthropy changes lives.

Amongst many other guests for the series, she has interviewed President Bill Clinton, President Jimmy Carter, Melinda Gates, Andrea Bocelli, Sir Richard Branson, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Boris Johnson, Maria Sharapova, will.i.am, Naomi Campbell, HRH The Duke of York, Yo-Yo Ma, Dolly Parton, Tamara Mellon OBE, Andre Agassi, Lang Lang, Diane von Furstenberg, Jon Bon Jovi, Matt Damon, Cherie Blair CBE QC, Novak Djokovic and Former Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, with contributions from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Angelina Jolie, Chelsea Clinton, Tom Cruise and Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Tania is also an Anchor on ‘The CNBC Conversation’ and CNBC’s Sport based series, ‘The Leadership League’ which sees her interview sporting legends and newsmakers including Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan, H.S.H Prince Albert II of Monaco, Groundbreaking actress and producer, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Global advocate for equality and widow of President Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Former South African President F.W. de Klerk, Basketball legend Shaquille O’ Neal, Sir Mo Farah, Jane Fonda, Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson, Nile Rodgers, Arianna Huffington, Sir Matthew Pinsent, Melanie C, Rose McGowan, Karl Lagerfeld, Dame Vivienne Westwood, Tom Ford, LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault, Dylan Jones, Richard Curtis CBE and Professor Muhammad Yunus, as well as hosting news specials for the network with guests including Victoria Beckham, Beyonce, Usain Bolt, Kate Moss, Sir Elton John and David Furnish, Nadja Swarovski, Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Fmr US Secretary of State, John Kerry.

Tania is also host and executive producer of CNBC's ‘Trailblazers’, experiencing the world’s greatest cities with some of the world’s most famous faces, including Hollywood superstar Gwyneth Paltrow, legendary Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan, Supermodel and philanthropist Natalia Vodianova, Queen of Latin Pop Gloria Estefan, Iconic Pianist Lang Lang, the world's best-selling solo classical artist Andrea Bocelli, rock icon Lenny Kravitz, pioneering Supermodel and businesswoman Elle Macpherson, King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan and Oscar-nominated actor Antonio Banderas.

Tania is also a regular contributor on talk RADIO and Sky News and has also contributed on Radio 4's Today programme, ITV's This Morning, BBC's Celebrity Masterchef, and appeared as herself in a cameo on the US television drama, The Royals.

A highly skilled presenter and moderator, Tania hosts a wide variety of international events and panels for Women of the Future, Intelligence Squared, the World Economic Forum and the United Nations Development Programme, amongst many others. She is also the host for numerous charity fundraisers including the Elton John Aids Foundation and the King Hussein Cancer Foundation’s Hope Galas in Jordan.

Tania is Chair of the National Events Committee for Cancer Research UK.

Named one of the “Economic Times Most Influential Business Leaders in Asia” by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, for 2017-2018, Larissa Tan is one of the few female leaders in the technology and automotive industry and heads up Singapore’s first electric automotive company, Vanda Electrics.
For this role, she was awarded Women Icons Asia. As a thought leader, she is a keynote and public speaker on digital disruption, innovation and technology, digital and cultural transformation; the future of transport; and women in business and leadership.

Under her leadership, Vanda Electrics has successfully launched the Dendrobium, Singapore’s first hyper car, with Williams Advanced Engineering, the engineering team for Williams F1 as Vanda’s technical partner. With a passion for innovation and technology, she has also launched the iconic designed Motochimp, a fast charging electric scooter for urban transportation and Ant Truck, a mini electric logistics truck, both under the Vanda Electrics’ Umbrella.

Larissa is in a unique position having both MNC and start up experience as she first started her career in the field of banking and finance before moving towards strategic branding and marketing, an experience which proved to be fundamental in the pursuit of her career. Having been in the marketing field for over 16 years, Larissa was the marketing lead for STIKFAS, a company that made a notable global impact in the toy industry in the early 2000s. Since then she has held senior strategic branding, marketing and sales roles for many startup companies, in retail, consumer, luxury and technology, taking them from startup phase to international acclaim and making notable international impact on the branding of these companies.

Prior to her role as CEO of Vanda Electrics, Larissa headed up the branding and restructuring for Wong Fong Industries, where she saw to the rebranding strategy and restructuring of the entire group leading to a successful IPO.

Larissa is at the forefront of digital and technological transformational strategy and is particularly passionate about how technology and digital will affect our lives and change the way companies and businesses operate for success, especially the impact on people and the cultural transformation required not only for companies to succeed in this disruptive era, but the transformation that we will experience in our everyday lives.

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Trained as an Aerospace Engineer, Michelle Shi-Verdaasdonk is the Director of Global Manufacturing and Procurement at Dyson. With close to 20 years of industry experiences in R&D, manufacturing, supply chain and procurement, Michelle has spent the past decade running global operations in Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific in different industries. She also serves as a board member of the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre for the Australian government.

Having worked closely with large populations in many developing countries and rural cities during her career in manufacturing, Michelle is a keen observer in the social evolution that industralisation impacts and shapes communities. She is committed in driving sustainable and ethical supply chain in the industry.

Michelle is a passionate advocate for Women in non-traditional industries. In 2013, Michelle and two partners founded Apto PPE, a business set up to “start the diversity conversation” by providing purposely designed Personal Protection Equipment for females working in industries. In recent times, Michelle is advocating to have more women involved in the digitalisation of “everything”, where diversity needs to be reflected in the world controlled by algorithms.

Michelle now lives in Singapore with her husband and two children.

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Lewis Garrad is the Partner, Career Business Leader for Mercer’s People Science consulting practice across the Growth Markets region (fast growth economies). In his role, he applies his training in organisational psychology and experience in the development of data driven talent, engagement and employee performance programmes to help business leaders and HR executives design people practices that improve organisational performance. Prior to his role in Mercer, Lewis was the Managing Director for Sirota Consulting’s Asia Pacific operation.

Voted a top 101 Global Employee Engagement Influencer he is a regular contributor to publications such as the Harvard Business Review, Talent Quarterly and HQ Asia in the areas of HR data, employee engagement and leadership.

Lewis has designed and implemented some of the world’s largest HR initiatives including engagement programs for companies like Shell, Lenovo and Keppel. He has also supported the development of HR capabilities programs, including a leading role in the development of the HR Skills Framework in Singapore, partnering closely with the Ministry of Manpower, Institute of Human Resource Professional and SkillsFuture Singapore. He has deep experience making HR programs relevant for C-level executives in global companies as well as facilitating Senior Leadership Teams to help them unlock leadership effectiveness.

Lewis is chartered by the British Psychological Society (BPS) as an Occupational Psychologist, he graduated from the University of Nottingham in the UK with an MSc in Occupational Psychology and a First Class Honours BSc in Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience. Lewis is also qualified by the British Psychological Society to use both ability tests and personality questionnaires (Hogan, NEO-PI-r) to assess talent.

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Cindy received her Ph.D. degree in Electronics Electrical Engineering from the University of Glasgow in 2004 for her work in intelligent design and synthesis of automation of analogue circuits. Her research is in AI for intelligent optimisation and data analytics, specifically applied to decision making and design to advance current state-of-the-art technology in computer-automated design for healthcare, manufacturing and other complex systems. An extensive part of Cindy’s work focuses on transforming academic research into industrial solutions. She collaborates extensively with the industry with over two-thirds of her research being fully-funded through industrial research sponsorships. She currently holds a patent for her work in design automation of ship hull. She has over 50 publications in international peer reviewed journal and conferences.

Cindy joined the University of Glasgow, Singapore in 2011 and became its first female Director in 2017. Previously, she also held the role of Director of Research Programmes. In her role as Director, Cindy has overall responsibility for the University’s in-country strategic directions. She oversees and manages relationships with key partners and stakeholders including industry, government agencies, grant funding bodies and both local and foreign institutions of high learning.

She is a reviewer for over 10 international peer-reviewed journals. She is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a fellow of Advance Higher Education. She also serves on the Scientific and Technical Committee & Editorial Review Board of the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology and was an invited founding member of the International Union of Radio Science Committee, Singapore. One of her key passions is to encourage more students, particularly women, to take up careers in STEM.

Anna leads Amazon Web Services’ ISV and DNB teams across Asia Pacific and Japan. Her career focus has been to lead international business through complex cultural and transformational change using digital business models. She has developed a deep understanding of the financial, regulatory and industry levers that facilitate success for business in that context.

Prior to joining AWS, Anna was the CEO of Australia New Zealand Bank in the Philippines and prior to that she was the CEO in Laos. She is a qualified lawyer and has practiced corporate law in top tier firms in Sydney and London, served as a Board Director for several ANZ entities across ASEAN and most recently held the role of Director on the Bankers Association of the Philippines.

Anna is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion and has partnered with the UN, regulatory and government bodies, customers and business councils to build mechanisms to drive meaningful change around these issues.  

She holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of NSW, a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Political Science from the Australian National University and recently completed a Chief Executive Women scholarship at INSEAD.

Anna has lived and worked in Sydney, London, Vanuatu, Hong Kong, Laos, the Philippines and now lives with her family in Singapore.

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Rachel is an avid self-starter whose mantra to live life on the edge has propelled her and Love, Bonito to the forefront of the regional fashion industry.

As Co-founder of the fast expanding brand, Rachel’s role stretches beyond marketing, branding and design. She also oversees community building, content creation and customer
service – areas that elevate the brand notches above the rest. Rachel is the unifying force who brings forth Love, Bonito’s unique identity and mission.

Having started her own online fashion business at the tender age of 19 when e-commerce was minimal, Rachel revolutionised and headlined the spheres of online retail, redefining the fashion scene in Singapore and growing her $500 blogshop outfit into a multi-million dollar label. Armed with a foundation of knowledge from self-studied business and leadership books, she continues to garner a strong following among women with her innate ability to engage, relate and connect with them.

In line with Love, Bonito's mission to create a safe space for women to discover, embrace and be the best version of themselves, Rachel works to further touch and impact the community they have created. The brand remains the leading fashion label in Asia, designed specifically for modern Asian women, and has grown beyond Singapore to Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Hong Kong and Australia.

Rachel was honoured by Forbes as Asia's 30under30 in 2016.

Jingjin is co-founder and CEO of ZaZaZu, the first personalized sexual wellness hub in Asia Pacific that synergizes education, digital services and products to help women own their sexual wellness. At the start-up, she is responsible for leading its strategic development and business execution in the region. As a FemTech entrepreneur with a deep passion for positive impact, Jingjin aims to empower women to own their sexuality and aspires for ZaZaZu to become the top sexual wellness hub in Asia.

Prior to ZaZaZu’s inception, Jingjin spent more than 10 years in the entrepreneurial and automotive scene. During her previous tenures, she has led global product management teams, driven portfolio turnarounds and built organisations from scratch, across a wide range of geographies such as Germany, China and Singapore.

Apart from ZaZaZu, Jingjin has co-founded ASBO Drives Technology Components GmbH, with roots in Germany and China. The company was successfully acquired by China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) in 2019. Prior to her entrepreneurial foray, she was also the first and youngest woman to become Global Marketing Director at WABCO, managing portfolios of up to USD800 million. She delivered over USD200 million in revenue growth at WABCO, while achieving USD5 million in sales for ASBO Drives.

Jingjin has a master’s in industrial engineering and business management from the Technical University of Braunschweig, an EMBA from INSEAD and is fluent in three languages: English, Mandarin and German. She is also currently Entrepreneur in Residence at INSEAD and Board Advisor at The Analysis Company.

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Simon has been the CEO of SAESL, a Joint Venture between SIAEC and Rolls-Royce, since September 2019. With a team of 1,500 people and an annual turnover in excess of US$2Bn, SAESL is the largest Trent engine overhaul and repair centre in the Rolls-Royce MRO network, capable of over 300 shop visits per year.
Prior to joining SAESL, Simon worked for Rolls-Royce for 19 years in its aerospace and marine businesses; he was previously SVP – Overhaul Services accountable for the development and execution of the Civil Aerospace overhaul network and Director of Assembly and Test leading all new Trent engine build and MRO activity across three sites in Derby and London Heathrow through the largest period of volume growth in RR’s history.
With a 1st class degree in Physics from Warwick University, Simon joined Rolls-Royce in 2000 and spent his early career in planning, supply chain and operations roles. From 2004-07 he was part of the team that set up RR’s first in-region supply chain management capability in South East Asia, living in Taiwan and Singapore, before returning to the UK to run high-technology component manufacturing facilities.
From 2011-2015 Simon firstly led the commercial, operational and new factory build activities of its Marine business in Brazil. He subsequently progressed to be SVP Business Development and Strategy for the Marine Operations business, defining and executing the manufacturing and supply chain strategy across 28 sites around the world, working extensively across the Nordics and Asia. These roles gave significant commercial exposure to new business evaluation, M&A and business disposal activities.
As physics graduate he is a passionate supporter of the importance of STEM in the workplace, whether aligned to specific roles or through using its invaluable skillset in broader business roles. Simon resides in Singapore with his wife and son and is enjoying tennis, cycling and the wonderful food, but cannot wait to get back to travelling around Asia-Pacific over the coming months…

Jason Moo is Head Private Banking South East Asia and Branch Manager Singapore. He is responsible for Julius Baer’s business presence and client base in South East Asia and the Bank’s operations and development in Singapore.

Prior to joining Julius Baer in 2020, Jason worked at Goldman Sachs for more than two decades and has held several senior roles, most recently as CEO of Goldman Sachs Singapore and Head of South East Asia and Australia for Private Wealth Management (PWM). Before relocating back to Singapore, he was based in Hong Kong as Head of Market Solutions Group and Head of Alternative Capital Markets Asia Pacific. Prior to that, he worked in the Equities Merchandising Group in New York. He joined Goldman Sachs as a financial analyst in PWM in Singapore upon graduation.

Jason earned a BA in Economics and East Asia Studies, with a focus on Japan, from Brown University, USA. He serves on the Board of Governors of Raffles Institution.

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Kara has been the British High Commissioner to Singapore since 26 June 2019.

Before becoming High Commissioner, Kara was most recently Director for the Americas at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Paris (2011 to 2016)
Head of Strategy, Communication and Training Department, Consular Directorate, FCO (2011)
Head of Diversity and Equality at the FCO (2009 to 2011)
Deputy Head of Mission in Hanoi (2005 to 2009)
Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary (2003 to 2005)

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