Tag: Empowered Women Awards 2023

Jennifer Lee, the beverage marketing lead of PepsiCo in Malaysia, is named as one of the winners of the ‘Empowered Women in Marketing’. The award-giving initiative, MARKETECH APAC’s Empowered Women Awards 2023, is an inaugural effort by the digital media for women leaders in the industry. 

Jennifer’s stint with PepsiCo Malaysia started with her joining the team in 2019 as a marketing manager. Soon enough, her leadership is elevated to become the company’s beverage marketing lead, a position she’s held for three years now. 

Fusing creative prowess with business intelligence like a true marketing leader 

To have the country’s marketing health of an iconic beverage firm like PepsiCo on your shoulders is already a feat in itself; furthermore, being an inspiring success only speaks volumes about the leadership that has been demonstrated. 

There is so much to be shared about Lee’s accomplishments as the company’s beverage marketing head, but what is worth noting are the brand campaigns she’s previously led that beefed up not just the firm’s brands’ marketing performance but their soft metrics – brand awareness and customer loyalty. 

One would be the brand-building campaign for Tropicana Twister. Lee pulled the stops in relevant consumer and market insights in order to achieve success for the brand through the said campaign. According to the company, the said campaign resulted in a share gain of 3.1% and a remarkable 23% increase in volume uplift compared to the previous year in the Juice category.

Meanwhile, Lee was also the driving force behind the Pepsi Blackout Hour campaign, which utilized gyroscope technology and consumer insights to drive consumption of cola with meals.

A blend of empowering autonomy and supportive guidance 

In a team that inevitably demands cross-functional responsibility, a leader of marketing is given a challenge to continually engage and support team members. Jennifer, at the helm, honours both the value of allowing staff to exercise autonomy, at the same time, giving support that would drive the team to invest efforts in the right direction. 

At the heart of Jennifer’s leadership approach is having a clear and compelling strategic vision for her team and the company. In achieving business objectives, she makes sure to foster a collaborative and inclusive work environment where team members feel valued, heard, and encouraged to contribute their ideas and perspectives. 

Whilst setting clear performance expectations and holding team members accountable for their outcomes Jennifer never fails to recognise contributions and growth and to celebrate the success of her team. 

Leading the charge in diversity & inclusion beyond marketing 

Beyond being a strong advocate for gender diversity and inclusion in the workplace, this is also something Jennifer actively promotes and supports outside the corporate environment. 

As a passion area, Jennifer personally pursues motorcycling and acted as a marshal for bike trips. Similarly a male-dominated area, her empowered leadership and outlook in meaningful endeavours gave way to inspiring more women to take action and grab the lead – with no holds barred. 

Within her bread and butter at the beverage firm, meanwhile, Jennifer has implemented policies and practices that promoted gender equality. These are equal pay, flexible work arrangements, and mentorship programs, which have fostered a culture of inclusivity for women in the workplace.

As she moves forward, Jennifer believes in consistently creating opportunities for women to succeed in male-dominated fields. She comments, “I believe that promoting diversity and inclusivity is not just a moral imperative, but also a business imperative that drives innovation and growth.” 

Check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list.

Livia Wang, the chief brand officer of Access Brand Co. (ABC), is one of the winners of the ‘Empowered Women in Platforms’ category as part of MARKETECH APAC’s Empowered Women Awards 2023. Said initiative is MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural effort in recognising outstanding female leaders in the industry.

In her current role at ABC, Wang oversees the strategic direction of the group, as well as using her extensive knowledge of retail shopping trends and consumer demands both nationally and internationally to upscale the business operations of the company.

Using existing industry knowledge to expand brand portfolio and market presence

Under her leadership, she has helped in the expansion of the company’s brand portfolio, which included negotiating new deals for global distribution partnerships with brands like SRW Laboratories and Napoleon Perdis. Said negotiations position the company within well-known wellness categories in the premium product sector.

Moreover, she was also integral in ACG’s expansion into new markets, including Singapore and Malaysia, diversifying the ACG global footprint and reducing the risk of over-reliance on the Chinese market.

In addition, she helmed the management of its corporate and brand strategy for the ACG Group. This is done by leading the international team forward and managing the overall decision-making process for the group in terms of expansion, brand partnerships and brand activations, channel diversification and global people and culture programs.

It has also grown its Access Brand Management (ABM) resellers network from 80,000 to over 100,000 individual retail partners for the company. Expanding this extremely important sales network for the business which is tech-enabled with humans at its core.

Driving visionary leadership through proactive corporate response

Livia’s foray into brand work started with helping Australian brands market products to China. Using the Daigou network, she could see opportunity but was quick to spot the inefficiencies of the system. So she changed the game and developed a new system that solved all of the logistical pain points of the Daigou model. Resellers flocked to the new platform.

Her vision and innovation are what sets her apart from the crowd and within the company, her staff are drawn to her collaborative approach and breezy sense of humour. She sets high standards and asks tough questions, but is supportive in her management style and quick to empower.

In response to the COVID downturn that was challenging for a consumer goods brand positioned, Livia launched campaigns for the company that focused tightly on wellness. At its centre, its health and beauty offerings are about self-care, and this was a red line that could be woven through all of the brands to make them relevant during COVID.

Combining confidence and empathy to empower women

Outside of her corporate role, Wang has taken the time to give back to rising women leaders, donating over AUD 100,000 to aspiring entrepreneurs via the University of Sydney’s Genesis programme in 2022. She loves the opportunity to engage with the students and share in their journeys.

In terms of her leadership, she has been described as a humble but quietly confident leader. She takes someone by surprise with her sharp intuition and business acumen. She’s also a creative, with an instinct for what will work from a branding and marketing perspective. Moreover, she has been described as someone caring deeply about developing a unique company culture with a flat structure and collaborative ways of working.

She has also been integral in building a predominantly female team and makes daily impacts by living the company’s values and mission of “wellness reimagined”. Her leadership is about disruption, innovation and keeping the company ahead of the trends. 

“Access is a rapidly scaling global brand management company operating in premium wellness. Our female ACERs are agile, resilient and entrepreneurial, comfortable amid the transformations of a growing business,” she said.

To become a visionary leader, one must require a supportive team who can maintain business as usual. To achieve this, Livia provides the lynchpin for those individuals and teams who take care of the daily management of the global brand business.

Aside from Livia, check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list. 

Heily Hindrea, the head of B2B product at ZALORA Group, has been named one of the winners of ‘Empowered Women in Platforms’. The recognition initiative, Empowered Women Awards 2023, is MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural effort in recognising outstanding female leaders in the industry.

Heily has been with her current position since April 2022. She joined Zalora in 2018 where she first served as a senior product manager before being promoted to the role of principal product manager in 2019, then to her current role. Prior to joining Zalora, she also had stints working with companies such as MindValley and Proekspert.

How to continuously improve and escalate B2B offering–the ZALORA way

As a company that specialises in enabling e-commerce offerings for businesses, Zalora must maintain its B2B offering in order to support its journey as a well-recognised e-commerce enabler in Southeast Asia. And for Heily, it all boils down to how she–as the company’s prime leader in improving its B2B product offering–will be up to the task.

In her current role, she oversees the company’s e-commerce B2B product portfolio that ranges from the merchant portal to logistics, supply chain, and warehouse operations.

She also led a team that was responsible for enhancing Zalora’s in-house logistics and

operations systems to ensure seamless real-time order processing and fulfilment.

With these in mind, Heily has managed to have Zalora effectively reduce business costs by over SG$ 100,000, while at the same time enhancing its capability to process 95% of customer orders within one working day. Under her leadership, Zalora has also looked at actively scaling its same-day delivery capabilities, and is expecting it to be a significant driver of future growth for the company. This is especially with the fact that its marketplace account for 43% of its net merchandise value (NMV), and platform services make up 9% of its revenue.

In short, her contributions to developing Zalora’s B2B platform services have strengthened the company’s capabilities to deliver innovative breakthroughs in operations and logistics, to stay true to its ethos of making fashion accessible to all.

Building a leadership ethos out of diverse experiences and inclusive mentorship

Heily’s career dates back to when she first served at Proekspert AS, and was responsible for helping to relieve emotional strains and tensions amongst team members to help them better focus on delivering product outputs. This was already on top of her existing responsibilities on helping her team develop essential software for clients.

When she was promoted to the role of team lead at said company, she also built a self-operating and balanced team within a span of seven months – ensuring the team’s success by balancing its members’ internal competencies evenly. Her promotion in the company back then was in recognition of her leadership and expertise, where she was tasked to deliver creative solutions for customers.

She then moved on at Mindvalley, where she established several initiatives demonstrating her strategic thinking and problem-solving skills to help the development teams create more thoughtful and better solutions for customers, manage priorities and optimise internal processes.

By the time she moved on to Zalora, she eventually went on to coach other Product Managers on product refinement and best practices in working with Zalora’s development teams. She attributes her success today to her sheer determination and the trust and confidence that her mentors placed in her capabilities as a leader.

Moreover, Heily is widely recognised as a coach who motivates and nurtures her team so that they realise their full potential. As a strong believer of paying it forward in the workplace, Heily consciously imparts to her team the lessons she has learned throughout her career. She empowers team members to take ownership of their responsibilities and accomplish their goals – whether personal or professional.

On breaking ceilings through insightful thought leadership and inclusive insights

Recognising her position as a female leader in her field, Heily consciously makes it a point to

speak up and speak of her experiences by representing ZALORA whenever she gets the opportunity. In doing so, she hopes to inspire more ambitious women and serve as their role model, much like how others were and are for her.

One of those recent initiatives was she recently participated in a webinar where she shared her experience and advice for navigating and thriving in the e-commerce and tech industries. Moreover, her speech also inspired the attendees on how women can break the glass ceilings they often impose on themselves by shifting to a growth mindset and building a strong network and community of support.

Aside from Hindrea, check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list. 

May Chin, the Head of Product – Growth, Experimentation and Analytics at ZALORA Group, has been named one of the winners of ‘Empowered Women in Platforms’. The recognition initiative, Empowered Women Awards 2023, is MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural effort in recognising outstanding female leaders in the industry.

Chin has been recently promoted to her new role in April this year after serving as a principal product manager for the company for over three years since February 2021. Prior to her Zalora stint, she served various marketing teams in companies such as Shoppr, Mindvalley, Lazada, iPrice, amongst others.

Pivoting company direction towards a culture of experimentation

With a wide array of experience across various startup companies in Southeast Asia, Chin’s expertise lies in product development from early-beta stages all the way to maturity. She brings with her a proven track record of strategically driving multimillion-user consumer products, apps, and platforms across the region.

Over at Zalora, she helms new product growth and experimentation, successfully building a new business unit from scratch in two years.

Some of those accomplishments include a yearly revenue uplift of SG$100 million that is directly attributed to various experiments. Moreover, her experimental cadence has ultimately overhauled the company’s approach to measuring success with impact measurement techniques and acting as AB testing evangelists, and successfully leading large-scale experimentation.

In terms of her leadership, she has been pivotal in setting the climate of innovation in the company by establishing a culture of experimentation that not only enhances creativity but increases revenue contribution and conversion rates.

In short, this reputation as de facto lead of company-wide experiment democratisation steadily cultivates a culture of female leadership and excellence.

In angling Zalora as a globally-recognised brand through her leadership

In addition to her various business successes over at Zalora, May not only consistently achieved quarterly recurring revenue of over SG$715k through her experimental framework but also further positions the company on a global stage.

Under her leadership, May’s achievements with the team have been recognised at the prestigious International Experimentation Elite Awards 2022; and was the sole Asian-based company to win an award at the ceremony held in London.

Using her various experiences at previous companies, May has become well-versed in bringing new products to fruition and optimising them towards innovative success metrics, as well as the formation of a new growth business unit that oversees all experimentation and analytics initiatives. 

How to balance industry advocacy amidst corporate duties

Outside of the product experimentation space, May is an advocate of active mentorship where she consults up-and-coming product managers on how to shift into a tech career. She has shared that her mentees have all received successful tech job offers. 

In addition, she is an established mentor for the Girls in Tech Reverse mentoring program, held in collaboration with Nanyang Technological University. With a sharpened focus on empowering women in tech, the mentorship program pairs female students with seasoned mentors and coaches. 

As part of this dynamic program, May was partnered with an ambitious student and counselled her on refining an early start-up idea and propelling tech-enabled solutions to tackle UN sustainable development goals, with a spotlight on quality education.

Aside from Chin, check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list. 

Juliana “Jay-Anne” Reina Encarnado, the vice president and head of corporate communications and public relations at Converge ICT Solutions, is one of the winners of ‘Empowered Women in Tech’. The recognition initiative, Empowered Women Awards 2023, is MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural effort in recognising outstanding female leaders in the industry. 

Encarnado started off her career with a position with the Philippines’ Department of Finance before moving to a role in Aboitiz Transport System in 2010. She was also with telco giant PLDT for over six years then moved to steel company SteelAsia. She had a brief stint with the digital and PR agency Stratworks before ending up in her current senior position at Converge.

How her leadership style led to building a leading ISP fiber broadband service in the Philippines

As one of the leading Internet service providers (ISPs) in the Philippines that offer fiber broadband service, Converge ICT Solutions needs to maintain its high market position by offering affordable and unlimited (fibre-based connectivity at price points accessible to the wide market.

For Jay-Anne, this was a huge undertaking, considering the fact that the ISP only assumed a corporate communications and public relations function in late 2020. Amid this meteoric rise, the company established a reputation as a cut above the rest – a new kid on the block with something valuable to offer. This was the prevailing message of the company from 2020 and well into 2022, and it was received warmly by the public, especially the media. 

Under her leadership, Converge ranked second among top competitors in the industry in terms of media exposure (as measured by article count). This translates to a 30% share of media exposure among four brands. This is indicative of the value the Philippine media gives to the brand and its relevance in current affairs. 

Moreover, it is now appealing to a wider, mass-appeal image as it introduces fiber prepaid products for developing and emerging markets. Since it is targeting new addressable markets, the company’s corporate image and messaging has changed as well.

A diverse leadership experience journey, from political communication to corporate leadership

On a day-to-day basis, Jay-Anne provides direction in brand-building campaigns and executions, overseeing the process from creation to implementation. She is especially adept in managing the editorial content of the department, always ensuring the key messages remain consistent and intact in all channels of communication, including in social media. 

Through strategic decision-making and with a collaborative mindset, she leads the Converge team in sound corporate image-building and reputation management, as well as fostering strong stakeholder relationships, particularly with media.

Her vision of serving the unserved and underserved communities has been evident in her previous communications consultancy work with high-profile public officials including Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona III, former Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) Chief Operating Officer Mark Lapid, and former Finance Secretary Gary Teves.

With that, she has a deep understanding of monetary and fiscal issues and the macroeconomy in general, as well as the political environment. Moreover, she is familiar with the workings of various media, having been a reporter for print, television and newswires and has an extensive network in the local and foreign media in the Philippines. 

In summary, her expertise lies in handling communication crises, providing crucial insight and advice to top management on responding to developments and news involving the company. 

Juggling advocacies for marginalised and women voices on top of corporate leadership

In her official senior leadership capacity, Jay-anne has extended assistance to marginalised communities and groups. With the ‘Community Relations’ unit under her supervision, the department has led activities in support of environmental, education, and internet safety causes.

Some of those advocacy initiatives include those concerning environmental rehabilitation, charity assistance, as well as connectivity solutions and gadget provisions. All of these efforts were made in consonance with Converge’s sustainability agenda and were executed with careful consideration of the needs of the vulnerable communities. 

Meanwhile, she has also initiated a mentorship program in Converge that aims to give a bigger voice to women and an opportunity for career advancement. Despite in its early stages, key women executives in Converge have already conducted a preparatory meeting to flesh out the guidelines of the woman-to-woman mentorship program.

She has also devoted time and effort to shed light on women’s issues in her column for leading Philippine business daily, The BusinessMirror. Entitled ‘Usaping Babae’ (‘Women Talks’), the column provided insightful commentary on women’s plights, particularly on women rights violations and also gave space for consumer-related concerns.

For Jay-anne, such initiatives are significant for women to gain a stronger foothold, especially in a field such as ICT that is decidedly male-dominated. This program is seen to open doors for women in ICT and equip them with not just technical but leadership skills needed to adapt to the changing needs of the ICT workplace.

“Women get things done. Whether in the workplace or at home, women are active agents of action and should be treated as such. When the situation calls for it, we take things in our own hands and we get things done,” she said.

Aside from Jay-Anne, check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list. 

Sybil Ng, account director for Asia at Quantcast, is one of the winners of ‘Empowered Women in Tech’. The recognition initiative, Empowered Women Awards 2023, is MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural effort in recognising outstanding female leaders in the industry. 

Ng has been with Quantcast for over four years, starting off in the role of senior account manager in 2018. She was then promoted to her current role in October 2020. Prior to her joining Quantcast, she served various roles within companies such as Blis, PHD, and Omnicom Media Group.

Creating business wins for greater good and team growth

For Sybil, being a leader often means stepping out of your comfort zone and rising to change business challenges. This was exemplified when she led IOPEX project within Quantcast, and helped out in building the entire workflow migration process, built job descriptions for support candidates and worked closely with HR to interview, and recruited the best-suited candidates to support this initiative.

Moreover, she has worked closely with senior APAC leadership and sought to identify challenges that the account management team faced on a daily basis that prevented them from working more strategically and spending more time with clients.

As a core part of her team’s remit, Sybil has led them to retain revenue which has to date accounted for at least 65% of the region’s revenue. This number has grown steadily to the 80% range during her tenure with Quantcast.

Lastly, she has helped to drive the recovery of revenue from travel and hospitality clients through proactive outreach initiatives and excellent client management. With this, she has achieved a 92% year-on-year account retention within the portfolio she manages.

Building and solidifying team culture during a time of uncertainty

With 2023 entering into a year of recession, the media industry in general faced instability internally and externally. Seeing this trend, Sybil immediately took steps to make sure her team of aspiring future leaders were well-equipped to navigate the challenges ahead while keeping them motivated and optimistic about the direction of the company and industry.

Some of these strategic steps included savant leadership and maintaining an open-door policy to team members, empowering team members to build their own brand profile, and playing coach and cheerleader to team members.

She is also readily available in sharing and collaborating with team members from other Quantcast offices globally to find solutions to challenges – a great example is helping teams troubleshoot with their offshoring initiatives given the proven success they had in Asia.

In terms of fostering cross-region sharing to help team members, she is eager in sharing and amplify team wins across APAC and beyond to help facilitate client- and vertical-level learning sharing. For her, the amplification of APAC wins has led to global teams in EMEA and NA being able to open up conversations with the same clients in their respective markets, unlocking new business wins for Quantcast.

Tying in her passion for learning and guidance through high involvement

For Sybil, she aspires to become a mentor and guide in the media industry, understanding that this field has a growing knowledge gap and that there’s no educational curriculum that teaches individuals everything they need to know about the industry. 

To start with, she is an active contributor and committee member of various industry boards such as the IAB SEA + India, Programmatic Pioneers, and IAB Hong Kong. Moreover, she is also a mentor for aspiring undergraduates looking to start a career in the media industry at her alma mater – Singapore Management University -as well as a peer mentor within Quantcast APAC, paired with aspiring future leaders within the organisation.

Sybil notes that she has also taken proactive steps to get to know the goals and aspirations of each individual and work closely with other supporting functions such as marketing and HR to help elevate and push team members in areas they’ve identified they would like to grow and develop in.

“Women should support women’ – I heartily disagree with this. It should be ‘people support people’ because this is when you can be your most authentic self; not determined by gender norms society tells you to adhere to,” she said.

For her, she aims at helping empower her team and equip them with the skill sets to become more prominent in the workplace through confidence-building exercises such as presentation/leadership skills training workshops. 

Aside from Sybil, check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list. 

Geetha Boyani, the head of performance at 2Stallions Digital Marketing Agency, is one of the winners at MARKETECH APAC’s ‘Empowered Women in Agency’. The recognition initiative under the ‘Empowered Women Awards 2023’, is an inaugural effort to honour empowered women leaders in the industry.

Interestingly, Boyani didn’t necessarily start out her career in marketing, as she initially had a background in civil engineering. She then made the conscious decision to go into marketing to blend her interest in finance, data and project management, eventually finding her way to 2Stallions in 2018 and getting promoted to her current role in 2022.

Establishing a strong performance marketing team through new development and strategy adaptation

When she first held the position of head of performance for the agency back in 2022, Geetha was put in charge of establishing a strong performance marketing team with brand new members and integrating the existing SEO specialists into a holistic marketing strategy that benefited not only them but their clients as well.

To make this possible, she spent time actively headhunting the right people – reaching out to potential candidates and bringing them on board. Moreover, she needed to develop as well new standard operating procedures (SOPs) and adapt existing workflow structures to be more efficient and effective in response to the changing requirements of both internal and client project demands.

To that end, Geetha set about establishing clear guidelines and methodologies to allow for smooth working standards. Many of the SOPs she has implemented over the last 12 months have been adopted by other department heads in the agency. It has since then seen the growth of several long-term projects of 2Stallion under her supervision.

How her workflow-oriented leadership has helped agency productivity and efficiency

Despite her previous experience in civil engineering, Geetha has exemplified her strength to be able to see what really matters – whether she’s looking at a landing page or a proposed strategy. And this has been the driving force of her leadership under a marketing agency.

It is noted by her colleagues that rather than dictating to others, she lays out her reasoning and opens their eyes to the rationale behind doing something one way or the other. 

Moreover, her patience, understanding and skilful advice are not only highly valued by her team but also by her peers within the agency, who often come to her for insight or help – especially when it comes to the organisation, collation and interpretation of data.

Leading the way while keeping feet on the ground

Despite all of her great work, Boyani is described as keeping her feet always on the ground. This was best exemplified at the time when she was first approached about this nomination. Her initial reaction was to recommend another team member for nomination instead, showing her compassion for others and putting others ahead of herself.

She leads the way in this industry because of her ability to deliver amazing results for her projects and her skill at training and guiding her team. Not only is she making an impact for the clients and for 2Stallions – she’s helping create the future leadership of the digital marketing sector.

Moreover, she has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with directors and CEOs in this industry and has often been the only woman among them. She has never backed down and she’s never let her gender be used against her. Even before joining the digital marketing industry, the construction industry where Geetha started out was a male-dominated sector. 

As she says herself: “Sitting in a room filled with men is nothing new for me.”

Geetha also adds, “Diverse perspectives lead to better decision-making and ultimately drive innovation in the workplace. Women empowerment is just a step towards bringing those unique perspectives to where they matter the most.”

Aside from Boyani, check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list.

Amelia Peng, the business director for Malaysia at Lion & Lion, is one of the winners under MARKETECH APAC’s ‘Empowered Women in Agency’. The recognition initiative, ‘Empowered Women Awards 2023’, is an inaugural effort to honour empowered women leaders in the industry.

Peng has a wide range of leadership experiences revolving around strategic communications and marketing. She started off with roles in agencies such as JWT Malaysia, Naga DDB, and Leo Burnett. She then took the role of head of marketing at online book store BookXcess before shifting to Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution for a senior role in strategic communications. Prior to her current role at Lion & Lion, she was a client service director for GrowthOps.

Blending exceptional leadership and business forward-thinking skills to achieve agency success

As a market leader with a wide experience in strategic leadership, Peng shows a trifecta of an effective leader: exceptional leadership, management and business development skills. With this, Lion & Lion has viewed her as an invaluable asset to the agency and pushed them towards new business heights.

Under her leadership, she has helped her team secure and diversify offerings for current retainer clients as well including AIA, and integration of Lion & Lion’s range of services which included diversification of the service portfolio and increased value delivered to clients.

Moreover, she has been vital in renewing accounts for its clients Tropicana and Kellogg’s, all thanks to her maintaining strong relationships with clients. She has also pursued big clients such as Red Bull, leading to successful pitches and later on, positively impacting company revenue.

As the business director, and market leader for the Malaysian team, Amelia has made an indelible mark on Lion & Lion in 2022. Her contributions are remarkable, as she has led and expanded the client servicing team for the Malaysian market, paving the way for growth.

Strong and intelligent, yet emphatic and compassionate: the true definition of a leader

Peng’s leadership style is deeply rooted in her belief that leading with empathy and compassion, combined with strength and intelligence, is key to driving a team towards success.

As described by her colleagues, she was able to create a work environment that empowered people to do well while setting clear standards. Moreover, she was also instrumental in bridging the gap between departments, something that is often challenging in agencies, especially with creatives.

Other colleagues note that Amelia strikes a balance of hard and soft skills, which influences the team to achieve that balance as well, even in tough situations. She encourages critical thinking and pushes boundaries to think of new possibilities, opportunities, and solutions on the spot, confidently and with no hesitation.

She believes that using your heart to lead with compassion and your head for strength and intelligence is key to effective leadership. She strives to create a work environment where everyone feels empowered and supported, encouraging the team to think outside the box and challenge the status quo.

How to make leadership more far-reaching and inclusive

While many individuals focus on their personal achievements, Amelia’s impact is far-reaching, as she has dedicated her time to producing the next generation of compassionate and capable account servicing professionals. Through her leadership, she has encouraged her team to speak out with confidence, to make mistakes, and to grow. Her emphasis on treating all individuals with respect has helped to create a work environment that promotes equality and encourages team members to support one another.

In terms of advocacy, she supports a wide range of interests including animal welfare, environmental sustainability, as well as mental health.

Meanwhile, in terms of empowerment, she is a firm believer that everyone has a voice. However, she understands that some people may be too scared or intimidated to make their opinions heard – especially females. That is why it is important to her that she takes extra steps to empower her team to be vocal and have their voices heard.

“Never put a limit to what you can achieve. Never allow someone else to determine your worth. Go above & beyond, believe in yourself as a person, unbounded by gender,” she said.

In short, Peng is a true inspiration for many – she has achieved remarkable success in her

career and is a loving mother of two children and one furkid. She is a strong advocate for gender equality and believes that both men and women should be given equal opportunities and respect.

You can check out other winners of the Empowered Women Awards 2023 aside from Peng.

Mikaela Crimmins, the head of strategy and experience at Orchard, has been named as one of the winners of the ‘Empowered Women in Agency’ category at MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural recognition initiative for women leaders in the industry, Empowered Women Awards 2023.

Crimmins has been with Orchard for over four years, starting off as a digital strategist in 2013 before leaving the agency for a stint at Ogilvy from 2016 to 2019. She then returned to Orchard as planning director and was elevated to her current role on February 2021.

Propelling agency growth through forward-thinking leadership

For Crimmins, as a strategic leader, she is responsible to push the agency to meet greater success and achieve greater results. This was first put into action when she developed a new proposition called ‘the home of connected experiences’. The new proposition, made alongside Orchard’s senior leadership team, highlights the agency’s capability to connect customers with a full range of experiences and passions, positioning the agency for success in the future.

With the proposition being the driving force for the agency, she doubled down on the agency’s need for data and experience design through new hires and products to achieve this.

This resulted in new business growth through winning new clients such as Epson, Johnson & Johnson Eyecare, Clear Skincare, Beyond Bank, amongst others. Moreover, she was also vital in leading some of the agency’s transformational projects, which included launching Hyundai Worldwide’s first e-commerce direct-to-consumer service and launching an app for Tourism Tasmania.

In addition, Crimmins is a strong advocate for courageous thinking and values individuals who bring unique perspectives to the table. She is also committed to fostering a culture of inclusivity and creativity, empowering her team to succeed by giving them a platform to showcase their talents.

She also co-created the agency initiative ‘No Guts, No Glory’, which blends passion with purpose –designed to leverage creative thinking to solve real-world health problems.

How a dynamic leader leads through fearlessness and tenacity

When asked about what makes her strategic leadership work, Crimmins notes that she adheres to four key qualities: bravery, grit, inclusivity, and realism. For her, bravery and grit help inspire her team to keep moving forward, while inclusive and realistic attitudes help create a work environment where everyone is valued and encouraged to contribute.

In her current role at Orchard, she has developed an experience-led proposition, built the strategy and experience team from 5-15 people within 3 years, and transformed the agency into a digital powerhouse.

Her various experiences at past agencies had also helped her to strategise and communicate with teams in a compelling way and then ensure that it can be practically implemented.

Developing the rise of female talent and leaders through advocacy

For Crimmins, she has always believed that sharing knowledge is an essential skill of a team leader, particularly in an industry where there aren’t many opportunities for professional development. For her, sharing knowledge is a way for people to gain new insights, learn from experience and develop new skills.

She also stressed that the industry has an absence of female voices in the strategy area of the industry. As such, this has been an area that Mikaela has actively sought to address through industry (external) and agency (internal) initiatives.

“We (women) are a fearless bunch who not only blaze trails, but also support each other. Imagine the impact we could have at the executive level with that kind of spirit,” she said.

Crimmins also added that for too long, women who have caregiving responsibilities have found it difficult to progress into senior roles in our industry, finding it difficult to work traditional hours, making the industry‘s proposition unattractive to working mothers. And so, she wants to keep this incredible talent in the industry through creating flexible working conditions so that these women can continue with their careers while meeting their family obligations.

Check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list.

Jessica Faye Tan, the head of marketing at Moneymax, has been named as one of the winners of ‘Empowered Women in Marketing’ category at MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural recognition initiative for women leaders in the industry, Empowered Women Awards 2023.

Tan has been with Moneymax for over three years, starting off as a campaign manager in 2019. She slowly went up the ranks, starting from heading the company’s campaigns, growth, and later on in marketing. Prior to joining Moneymax, she also had experience working for companies such as PurpleClick and Divergent Media.

Being at the forefront of pivoting brand focus

As startups navigate an economically challenging environment, most companies have shifted focus to growing profits instead of revenue. The same is the case for Moneymax, who is one of the largest financial service marketplaces in the Philippines.

For Tan, in order to grow the company’s profitability, they shifted to implementing campaigns as well as fostering and facilitating seamless internal collaboration and synergies. This resulted in more Filipinos getting approved for a banking product as well as aiding them by providing them with financial literacy content and advice. 

Moreover, under Tan’s leadership, Moneymax has become the third contributing market for digital finance company portfolio MoneyHero Group, to which Moneymax is part of.

A journey of an emphatic leader through encouragement and empowerment

Tan joined Moneymax in 2019 where she first spearheaded the planning and execution of Moneymax’s reward campaigns. And she did not stop there: she also helped in filling the gaps and holes in the company’s business operations to ensure the success of every campaign. These include creating all the processes required from the ground up, planning and forecasting, implementation, gift procurement and fulfilment, and even customer servicing. 

She was then promoted to various roles in just a span of two years within the company and continues to rapidly upskill herself to be able to manage and guide her growing team and scope.

Lastly, she prides herself on being an empathic leader who encourages learning and growth within her team and fosters a culture that is psychologically safe. She also makes sure to spend a lot of time teaching and training her team members to be capable, independent managers.

Maintaining leadership alignment amidst restructuring

Moneymax went through a major restructuring in 2022, pushing Tan to manage the company’s presence in the Philippines. Its local business also underwent restructuring to ensure all departments and stakeholders are aligned, especially with the refocus to maximise profit.

With this restructuring in mind, Tan also exerted additional efforts in ensuring that new processes are identified and set in place to ensure that the entire market is working towards the same goal and direction.

Moreover, she also restructured the marketing team, setting it up for scale. During the restructuring, no resignations were rendered as the new setup also took into consideration existing members’ strengths and career progression. 

Lastly, new quality standards and targets were set coupled with streamlined processes to ensure that the team can deliver maximum output without sacrificing quality of work. 

“Empowered women ignite brilliance, uplift their team, and together conquer every challenge, painting the canvas of success with unity and determination,” she said.

Check out who else made it to Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list.