Tag: Empowered Women in Tech

Patricia Freijo, the vice president of customer growth at adtech platform TrafficGuard, bags an award as one of the winners of ‘Empowered Women in Tech’. MARKETECH APAC’s Empowered Women Awards 2023 is an inaugural awarding exercise by the digital media to recognise outstanding women marketing leaders in the industry. 

Prior to joining TrafficGuard, Patricia has worked with tech brands Dataxu and Foursquare. She has a wealth of experience in sales and business development, having expanded revenue, created strategic partnerships, and implemented new marketing technology across multiple regions such as the US, SEA, and AU.

Protecting the ad industry from fraudulent acts

The often rigid and sometimes hard-hitting world of tech is not particularly seen as an area where women can thrive, but Patricia, as an empowered leader in the industry is defying all odds. 

As the vice president of customer growth for the APAC region at ad fraud prevention platform Trafficguard, she drives commercial growth and leads the team in positioning the company as the leading fraud prevention solution provider in the area. 

Becoming synonymous with Patricia’s name is creativity where she carries with her a track record of developing creative solutions that drive results. At the company, she has expanded its customer base and established partnerships to increase revenue. 

One of her notable accomplishments is managing the commercial partnership between TrafficGuard and Google Cloud across APAC. She has co-pitched TrafficGuard’s solutions to regional brands using Google Cloud and conducted an invalid traffic workshop for regional marketers at Google’s HQ in Singapore.

A growth-centric approach to leadership

Patricia as a leader puts a premium on a growth mindset. This is evident even with herself where within her role, elevation had not been far-fetched, immediately expanding to include regional efforts in EMEA and ANZ on top of SEA. 

She takes a growth-centric approach to her work and consistently expands her market knowledge to stay updated with industry trends, making her a mentor and go-to person for her team. Patricia is highly engaged with the team and lives by the principle of leading by example, willing to work alongside her members to achieve shared goals. 

Collaboration is, nonetheless, at the heart of what Patricia values in leadership. She makes sure to build a positive work environment and leads the charge in unifying the team in product, data, and customer success areas to truly sustain a diverse range of team capabilities.

Winning the game in inclusivity 

As a woman in tech, Patricia faced challenges in the male-dominated industry and struggled to be seen as a trusted advisor. Upon moving to Asia, she noticed a lack of women in management positions in adtech, which affected her confidence due to external and internal barriers. 

Needless to say, she has overcome and continues to weather these challenges. She makes the best out of the situation by joining ad tech networking groups, connecting with female leaders who became her mentors, and learning to become a mentor herself while volunteering with organisations such as ‘She Says’. 

Moving forward, her passion and determination won’t be dampened and she refuses to let gender perceptions limit her potential by working towards personal growth and success for the company. 

“As women daring to challenge the status quo and advocating for change and inclusion, we are forging a path towards a thriving future for ourselves and generations to come,” commented Patricia. 

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

Germaine Hendrik, the marketing lead of adtech Quantcast for APAC, is one of the winners of ‘Empowered Women in Tech’ at MARKETECH APAC’s Empowered Women Awards 2023. The awarding exercise is an inaugural effort by the digital media to recognise the outstanding women marketing leaders in the industry. 

Germaine is a seasoned marketer with a diverse roster of experience working with top companies Standard Chartered and Isentia Strategy & Content. She joined Quantcast in 2020 as a marketing specialist, and within only 2 years, was elevated twice. Currently, she helms the marketing of the adtech firm for the whole of APAC region. 

Handling a 2-person team to answer to region-wide marketing remit 

Germaine’s responsibility when she was appointed as the APAC marketing lead of Quantcast in 2022 had a unique challenge – with 8 different markets covered by the adtech in APAC, she only had two people under her team to manage its marketing business in the region. 

Nevertheless, this didn’t stop her from leading the company to achieve remarkable marketing initiatives. From events, to content, and digital marketing, Germaine was able to leverage the team’s capabilities to deliver communication strategies at a diverse range. 

Under her direction, the team was able to deliver flagship content that drove an increase of 7000 new customers via the Quantcast website and over 1000 high-quality leads for sales. Amongst her other key contributions, through 14 owned and sponsored events, Quantcast was able to reach over 300,000 customers and prospects in the wider marketing industry. 

Ultimately, despite the small headcount, she was able to lead Quantcast’s marketing team to drive USD7.9mil in marketing-generated revenue across APAC. 

A data-driven leader for the new-era marketing 

Quantcast as a first and foremost data company would demand from Germaine a consistent leadership approach that is agile and forward-looking with a data-driven strategic foresight. Needless to say, this is the kind of leader Germaine had been. 

Germaine says that part of being the head of marketing in such kind of business is being able to use data to make decisions that aren’t just for marketing, but for other departments that marketing touches. With this, she needs to be a marketing visionary in order to be in tandem with trends that constantly work in advanced ways.

“This means that I need to always have a clear vision for the region I manage and be able to communicate it to my team, and hold them accountable for the strategies I devise,” she says. 

In line with this, she also believes that the value of resilience is extremely important. Adapting to new trends and challenges takes a resilient approach, particularly to keep one’s team motivated and moving forward. 

“This includes navigating the recent economic downturn, changes in data privacy regulations and directions in the business as a result,” added Germaine.

Taking the charge in diversity and inclusion 

As an empowered woman leader, Germaine goes out of her way to ensure that diversity and inclusion are actively practised within her team and the company. 

On a regular basis, Germaine reviews her team’s performance and ensures that they have access to opportunities for career advancement, promotions, and pay where relevant with company policies. She also makes the effort to eliminate potential bias that may be at play by having active participation in all company processes. 

As part of the leadership team in APAC, she sits in on at least one interview during the hiring process for any individual, not just the ones hired for marketing. She believes that having a presence in these processes helps her to contribute to the elimination of gender bias in recruitment, and helps the hiring managers establish objective criteria for performance. 

In moving the needle in women empowerment, Germaine, most especially, is an active member of the Quantcast Women’s network. Through this platform, she uses her knowledge and skills to help provide women in the business with the training and support they need to succeed in a wide variety of roles. 

“When women succeed at the workplace, so do men, and vice-versa. True equality is when people are celebrated for their successes, not their gender,” remarked Germaine. 

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

Katherine Ng, the managing director of web3 ecosystem builder TZ APAC, snares the award as one of the winners of ‘Empowered Women in Tech’. MARKETECH APAC’s Empowered Women Awards 2023 is an inaugural awarding exercise by the digital media to recognise outstanding women marketing leaders in the industry. 

It hasn’t been very long since Katherine joined the Singapore-headquartered company, TZ APAC. Nevertheless, her leadership, driven by her seasoned expertise in marketing and tech, has allowed her to deliver relevant contributions not just to the company but to the whole industry. 

Starting out as TZ APAC’s Head of APAC Marketing and Operations in 2020, she has been elevated to currently assume the leading role of managing director. 

Going up the stage to deepen Web3 industry knowledge 

As much as Katherine is laser-focused on deepening the discourse of Web3 within her own network at TZ APAC, she makes sure that at the industry level, she grabs opportunities to speak to a wider audience and expand the conversation and circulation of knowledge on Web3. 

At the well-renowned convention, Singapore Fintech Festival, in 2022, Katherine took the Global Plenary stage. She was also one of the talking heads at a high-level roundtable which comprised influential figures to discuss the latest Web3 affairs, speaking about building resilient web3 companies and communities in APAC. 

In other commendable ways, Katherine pushes the needle in expanding the rich ecosystem of Web3. Behind the launch of the TZ APAC Tezos Incubator program in 2022 is Katherine’s contribution and leadership. The program aimed to support blockchain and Web3 startups in the region.

Putting a premium on ownership 

With an intricate and complex nature of work such as Web3, Katherine honours the need for a team to have the freedom to explore and be creative. With this, she encourages the value of ownership as a leader. 

With a track record of achieving business objectives, Katherine is highly results-driven and holds herself and the team accountable for delivering on their commitments. She encourages those around her to be innovative and entrepreneurial in their approach which, in turn, led to the development of new solutions that have driven growth for the company. 

Her unique touch in relationships also makes her unique as a leader. She possesses effective communication skills and a talent for articulating complex ideas in a clear and concise manner; this has helped her build strong relationships with clients and partners.

Continuing to create strides for women in the tech world 

Tech continues to be a male-dominated industry and her presence as a leader in this area serves as a testament that gender diversity and inclusion are essential for a company’s growth and success. Her leadership style and results-driven approach have helped pave the way for women in the industry. 

One of her notable achievements as an industry ally is becoming a board member at ACCESS Singapore, which is a blockchain association committed to being a collective industry voice for regulators and its members. Within this role, she advocated for greater transparency by rallying a blockchain-based e-voting solution developed by Electis to vote in new board members that include leading voices across Southeast Asia’s blockchain ecosystem. 

Moving forward, Katherine is committed to embracing equity more than equality. The concept of equality states that all people receive the same opportunities and resources. In order to achieve inclusive, diverse, and equitable outcomes, equity acknowledges that every person has a unique starting place in life and works to equalize access to resources and opportunities. 

“At TZ APAC, we celebrate women empowerment — encouraging women in the workplace to be confident, speak up, and believe in their sense of worth,” remarked Katherine. 

“At TZ APAC, we do our best to celebrate women empowerment in the workplace and encourage women to speak up, be confident, and believe in their sense of worth,” she added. 

Aside from Katherine, check out who else made it to the 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.