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*Translations are unofficial and provided by Google translate
UN Women 2021 Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards:
Meet the National Winners
MALAYSIA
We are excited to announce the winners of the first-ever UN Women 2021 Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards!
Big congratulations to all the winners who have committed themselves to advancing gender equality and women's economic empowerment. These gender champions from different countries, sectors, and fields are acknowledged respectively for their outstanding Leadership Commitment, Youth Leadership, Gender-inclusive Workplace, Gender-responsive Marketplace, Community and Industry Engagement, and Transparency & Reporting.
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*The UN Women Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards represents recognition of exemplary company efforts for gender equality and is limited to a designated category and a specific location and time period. Awarded organizations, alongside their products and services, receiving awards are not endorsed or affiliated with UN Women or WeEmpowerAsia and being recognized as an Awardee does not constitute a partnership. Claims, statements, or endorsements made by awardees are solely those of the individual or organization and do not represent official policies or positions of UN Women.
Winners
Elizabeth Lee
CEO, Sunway Education Group
Professor Elizabeth Lee Fuh Yen, Chief Executive Officer at Sunway Education Group (SEG), is recognized both locally and internationally for her contributions to women’s empowerment and educational causes. Notably, her doctorate by Victoria University has recognized her role as a distinguished educator on issues specific to women’s education. Under Elizabeth’s leadership, SEG has developed into a dynamic group of 17 institutions, including Sunway University, College, and International School. Currently, SEG empowers 30,000 students, of which 56% are female.
In 1992, Sunway College’s top management consisted of 90% male and 10% female leaders, Elizabeth as the only female manager represented. Through Elizabeth’s active leadership in gender equality and advocacy of women’s empowerment in the workplace, women hold six out of the ten senior-most management positions as of 2020. 58% of SEG’s managerial roles are led by women and over 65% of SEG’s workforce are women. Elizabeth’s advocacy for women’s active role in the workplace has led to several advancements at SEG, including lactation rooms, gender-inclusive hiring practices, flexible work arrangements, and sexual harassment policies.
To further strengthen SEG’s commitment to gender equality, marketing and promotional materials continue to highlight gender equality and inclusivity.
Professor Elizabeth Lee Fuh Yen, Chief Executive Officer at Sunway Education Group (SEG), is recognized both locally and internationally for her contributions to women’s empowerment and educational causes. Notably, her doctorate by Victoria University has recognized her role as a distinguished educator on issues specific to women’s education. Under Elizabeth’s leadership, SEG has developed into a dynamic group of 17 institutions, including Sunway University, College, and International School. Currently, SEG empowers 30,000 students, of which 56% are female.
In 1992, Sunway College’s top management consisted of 90% male and 10% female leaders, Elizabeth as the only female manager represented. Through Elizabeth’s active leadership in gender equality and advocacy of women’s empowerment in the workplace, women hold six out of the ten senior-most management positions as of 2020. 58% of SEG’s managerial roles are led by women and over 65% of SEG’s workforce are women. Elizabeth’s advocacy for women’s active role in the workplace has led to several advancements at SEG, including lactation rooms, gender-inclusive hiring practices, flexible work arrangements, and sexual harassment policies.
To further strengthen SEG’s commitment to gender equality, marketing and promotional materials continue to highlight gender equality and inclusivity.
Toh Yin Li
Co-Founder, Women at Maxis
Toh Yin Li, Co-Founder of Women at Maxis, has spearheaded dialogue and initiatives on gender equality at Maxis. What started as lunch conversations between eight young women employees on issues from career progression to nursing facilities, progressed into Maxis’ resource group, Women at Maxis, with now more than 300active members and engagement with more than 1,000 employees through the Group’s events.
Toh Yin Li led collaborations with Lean In Malaysia to implement the Lean In Framework on Circles, which spurred the formation of a focus group of 10-15 women and men employees to provide peer support through open dialogue on gender equality. Toh Yin Li continues to make an active effort to ensure top-down engagement on gender equality.
With the formation of Women at Maxis, representation of women in management has increased to 38% in 2020 from 32% previously. Additionally, the Group has successfully established an Inclusion and Diversity Department to continue engagement on gender equality. Recognized for her efforts, Toh Yin Li was awarded the Divisional Spot Award at Maxis in 2020.
Toh Yin Li, Co-Founder of Women at Maxis, has spearheaded dialogue and initiatives on gender equality at Maxis. What started as lunch conversations between eight young women employees on issues from career progression to nursing facilities, progressed into Maxis’ resource group, Women at Maxis, with now more than 300active members and engagement with more than 1,000 employees through the Group’s events.
Toh Yin Li led collaborations with Lean In Malaysia to implement the Lean In Framework on Circles, which spurred the formation of a focus group of 10-15 women and men employees to provide peer support through open dialogue on gender equality. Toh Yin Li continues to make an active effort to ensure top-down engagement on gender equality.
With the formation of Women at Maxis, representation of women in management has increased to 38% in 2020 from 32% previously. Additionally, the Group has successfully established an Inclusion and Diversity Department to continue engagement on gender equality. Recognized for her efforts, Toh Yin Li was awarded the Divisional Spot Award at Maxis in 2020.
Intel Malaysia
Intel Malaysia is committed to represent the markets and customers they serve by implementing gender-inclusive strategies in their organization. Intel’s RISE 2030 Inclusive Goals include doubling the number of women in senior and executive roles and exceeding 40% representation of women in technical roles. Intel’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach includes gender-inclusive hiring practices that expand the talent pipeline to girls through STEM-education initiatives, establishing the Women Leadership Council (WLD) Steering Council for skill development, and working with third-party experts to advance pay parity globally.
Intel has surpassed their RISE 2030 Inclusive Goals; women represent over 40% of technical roles at Intel and are on track to double the number of women in leadership by 2030.
Intel has surpassed their RISE 2030 Inclusive Goals; women represent over 40% of technical roles at Intel and are on track to double the number of women in leadership by 2030.
CnetG Asia Sdn Bhd
CnetG Asia is committed to ensuring their clients’ hiring process is inclusive. CnetG Asia’s gender-inclusive hiring strategy includes presenting annual reports to key clients on gender composition in their hiring process, promoting women in leadership through CnetG’s ‘Leadership Development and Coaching for Women Leaders’ initiative, and coaching female candidates through the interview and career transition process.
CnetG Asia co-founded Malaysia Women in Energy – driving the development of Recruitment, Promotion, and Retention Best Practices accepted by the Minister of Science, Energy, and Technology in 2018 and 11 CEOs representing energy companies in Malaysia. Other key initiatives launched include an APAC wide study on ‘Barriers Women Leaders Face’ in collaboration with CCL and roundtable discussions held with Chambers of Commerce to promote dialogue on women’s advancement in the workplace.
CnetG Asia co-founded Malaysia Women in Energy – driving the development of Recruitment, Promotion, and Retention Best Practices accepted by the Minister of Science, Energy, and Technology in 2018 and 11 CEOs representing energy companies in Malaysia. Other key initiatives launched include an APAC wide study on ‘Barriers Women Leaders Face’ in collaboration with CCL and roundtable discussions held with Chambers of Commerce to promote dialogue on women’s advancement in the workplace.
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Standard Chartered Malaysia
Future makers by Standard Chartered is a global initiative formed to tackle inequality and promote greater economic inclusion for disadvantaged youth in low-income households, particularly girls and youth with visual impairments. Between 2019 to 2020, Standard Chartered raised USD$50 million for the Future makers program, reaching 366,000 youth across 35 markets in Malaysia. One goal of Future makers is to equip adolescent girls with the skills to be leaders in their communities and families. To achieve this, Standard Chartered has partnered with Women Win and WOMEN: girls to develop Goal, a girl empowerment program that promotes communication skills, women’s health, financial literacy, and community resources through sports-based sessions.
In the past decade, Goal has reached more than 646,000 girls and over 56,000 girls and young women in 2020.
In the past decade, Goal has reached more than 646,000 girls and over 56,000 girls and young women in 2020.
GoodKids Malaysia
GoodKids Academy is an online learning management system promoting self-management and mental health management tools to address online gender-based violence, domestic violence, and stigmas associated with mental health in marginalized communities in Malaysia. GoodKids Academy has collaborated with Kryss Network and Monsters Among Us, two organizations that champion female empowerment, to run workshops that address online gender-based violence. White Flag, a biproduct of GoodKids Academy, performs outreach initiatives to women and their families in economic distress. In 2020, GoodKids successfully crowdfunded supplies and money for bills and utilities for women and families infected with COVID-19.
GoodKids Malaysia believes it takes a village to address the systemic challenges in Malaysia’s marginalized communities and are identifying partners to advance their content and bridge communication gaps with beneficiaries.
GoodKids Malaysia believes it takes a village to address the systemic challenges in Malaysia’s marginalized communities and are identifying partners to advance their content and bridge communication gaps with beneficiaries.
1st Runners Up
Leong Wai Yie
Perdana University
Dr. Leong Wai Yie, Chair of IET Malaysia and IET Industry 4.0 Technical Network, is an active advocator of EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) in the discipline of engineering. Women engineers lack representation and visibility, which challenges their opportunities to advance professionally and demonstrate their technical expertise. As the Vice President of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia and Women in Engineering Committee of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), Dr. Wai Yie has engaged with international audiences to promote EDI and has actively facilitated exchanges specific to women’s empowerment in the ASEAN engineering community.
In response to the many barriers ASEAN women in engineering face, Dr. Wai Yie successfully developed an online communications strategy in collaboration with IET Malaysia Networks, resulting in over 100 webinars, workshops, and conferences to engage with women engineers and to promote active collaboration. As the Taskforce Lead for EDI, Dr. Wai Yie and her team have formalised the EDI Charter for WFEO, in addition to proposing to the Government of Malaysia to raise the benchmark for women’s participation in top management to 30%.
Dr. Wai Yie continues to impact women issues specific to engineering through an EDI-lens, in collaboration with international organizations including UNESCO and UN Women.
Dr. Leong Wai Yie, Chair of IET Malaysia and IET Industry 4.0 Technical Network, is an active advocator of EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) in the discipline of engineering. Women engineers lack representation and visibility, which challenges their opportunities to advance professionally and demonstrate their technical expertise. As the Vice President of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia and Women in Engineering Committee of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), Dr. Wai Yie has engaged with international audiences to promote EDI and has actively facilitated exchanges specific to women’s empowerment in the ASEAN engineering community.
In response to the many barriers ASEAN women in engineering face, Dr. Wai Yie successfully developed an online communications strategy in collaboration with IET Malaysia Networks, resulting in over 100 webinars, workshops, and conferences to engage with women engineers and to promote active collaboration. As the Taskforce Lead for EDI, Dr. Wai Yie and her team have formalised the EDI Charter for WFEO, in addition to proposing to the Government of Malaysia to raise the benchmark for women’s participation in top management to 30%.
Dr. Wai Yie continues to impact women issues specific to engineering through an EDI-lens, in collaboration with international organizations including UNESCO and UN Women.
Fatin Fatihah Zahari
Microsoft Malaysia
Fatin Fatihah Zahari, Cloud Adoption Engineer at Microsoft Malaysia, is an active advocator of gender equality and has intentionally leveraged her skills to encourage representation of minority groups within the organization and the wider technology industry. Fatin has led women empowerment initiatives at Microsoft as a Developer Community Champion, a Diversity, Inclusion & Allyship Co-Lead, Accessibility Co-Lead, and her latest involvement, AI Lead of Code Without Barriers program.
Learning from previous initiatives, Fatin crafted the AI Lab under the Code Without Barriers program that helps women across various communities to upskill and reskill according to updated cloud computing requirements. This includes demos and case studies at events in collaboration with universities, enterprises, and government agencies in Malaysia. Currently, over 100,000 individuals participate in Microsoft outreach programs in Asia. From a small town herself, Fatin aims to reach women in marginalized communities through other AI skilling initiatives and achieve Microsoft Malaysia’s target of doubling outreach numbers in a two-year period.
Most recently, Fatin spearheaded the first Women in AI Malaysia Summit in September 2021, where Fatin aimed to improve internal awareness at Microsoft on allyship in the tech industry and spearheading diversity in innovation as the end goal.
Fatin Fatihah Zahari, Cloud Adoption Engineer at Microsoft Malaysia, is an active advocator of gender equality and has intentionally leveraged her skills to encourage representation of minority groups within the organization and the wider technology industry. Fatin has led women empowerment initiatives at Microsoft as a Developer Community Champion, a Diversity, Inclusion & Allyship Co-Lead, Accessibility Co-Lead, and her latest involvement, AI Lead of Code Without Barriers program.
Learning from previous initiatives, Fatin crafted the AI Lab under the Code Without Barriers program that helps women across various communities to upskill and reskill according to updated cloud computing requirements. This includes demos and case studies at events in collaboration with universities, enterprises, and government agencies in Malaysia. Currently, over 100,000 individuals participate in Microsoft outreach programs in Asia. From a small town herself, Fatin aims to reach women in marginalized communities through other AI skilling initiatives and achieve Microsoft Malaysia’s target of doubling outreach numbers in a two-year period.
Most recently, Fatin spearheaded the first Women in AI Malaysia Summit in September 2021, where Fatin aimed to improve internal awareness at Microsoft on allyship in the tech industry and spearheading diversity in innovation as the end goal.
Nestle Malaysia
Nestle Malaysia actively drives interventions to improve gender balance within their organization. Key areas where Nestle Malaysia has implemented gender-specific policies include their hiring process; women are integral to the long-term succession of talent at the organization and line managers are trained on unconscious bias to ensure hiring and training practices are inclusive. In preparation for senior leadership roles, women talents are given equal opportunities and exposure to different Nestle markets to deepen their functional competency and enhance leadership skills whilst increasing adaptability and agility. Nestle believes in the power of collaboration to promote awareness on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Nestle Malaysia has partnered with Women Will by Google Malaysia for the MAGGI® Program Mentor Wanita Cukup Berani, a nationwide programme organised to support confidence enhancement, digital upskilling, cooking, and basic entrepreneurship skills.
An indicator of success includes Nestle Malaysia’s Employee Engagement Survey which showed great improvement on how the organization has enabled employees to balance their work and personal life (e.g., increase in scoring from 66% (2016) to 81% (2020)).
An indicator of success includes Nestle Malaysia’s Employee Engagement Survey which showed great improvement on how the organization has enabled employees to balance their work and personal life (e.g., increase in scoring from 66% (2016) to 81% (2020)).
Deloitte SEA
With a global shortage of cocoa farmers on the rise, Deloitte SEA’s initiative, GROW, in collaboration with Barry Callebuat, empowers women and youth in cocoa farming communities in Malaysia through skill development and employment opportunities. Through GROW’s 5-week program, Deloitte SEA aims to increase women’s representation in business and encourage youth to create their own employment opportunities through entrepreneurship training. Key objectives of Deloitte SEA’s initiatives include: 1) encouraging entrepreneurial development and collaboration between youth through access to seed capital, 2) generating sustainable revenue models for youth enterprises related to cocoa farming, and 3) building and retaining youth leaders in cocoa farming businesses; a key metric of progress being women’s participation and ownership of such enterprises.
Deloitte GROW is supported by more than 15 Deloitte participants from ASEAN as the program management team, program facilitators, business coaches/mentors, as well as 10 to 15 people from Barry Callebaut, and the teachers and community members. A key result of GROW includes business coaching; many youth participants found business coaching to be helpful, and some grew their revenue by 400%.
Deloitte GROW is supported by more than 15 Deloitte participants from ASEAN as the program management team, program facilitators, business coaches/mentors, as well as 10 to 15 people from Barry Callebaut, and the teachers and community members. A key result of GROW includes business coaching; many youth participants found business coaching to be helpful, and some grew their revenue by 400%.
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Yuki Aizawa
Co-Founder, RINNE Technologies
Yuki Aizawa, Co-Founder of RINNE Technologies, is an advocate for gender equality and promoter of women in leadership in the technology industry. Recognizing the lack of representation of women in technology, particularly in leadership, Yuki embodies three core principles at RINNE: 1) inclusion; strengthening the role of women in the technology sector by promoting financial inclusion of marginalised individuals and MSME-s, 2) innovation; addressing economic inefficiencies and supporting digitalization efforts, and 3) sustainability; promoting sustainable solutions within RINNE’s business model.
RINNE has launched specific IT solutions to aid in workflow automation, which has enabled digitalization and empowered women who were traditionally excluded from the workforce to engage in remote work at home. This includes increased representation of women hired for remote IT roles through RINNE, in addition to the introduction of gender-inclusive hiring practices and workplace policies to promote and retain women talent. Other IT solutions specific to sustainability and inclusion include RINNE’s project specific to underserved and marginalized segments of Malaysia’s population and the blue ocean sector.
Yuki has led in advancing RINNE’s projects through active engagement with investors interested in women’s empowerment, in addition to initiating dialogue with stakeholders at government agencies and associations to promote partnerships and collaboration specific to women’s empowerment.
Yuki Aizawa, Co-Founder of RINNE Technologies, is an advocate for gender equality and promoter of women in leadership in the technology industry. Recognizing the lack of representation of women in technology, particularly in leadership, Yuki embodies three core principles at RINNE: 1) inclusion; strengthening the role of women in the technology sector by promoting financial inclusion of marginalised individuals and MSME-s, 2) innovation; addressing economic inefficiencies and supporting digitalization efforts, and 3) sustainability; promoting sustainable solutions within RINNE’s business model.
RINNE has launched specific IT solutions to aid in workflow automation, which has enabled digitalization and empowered women who were traditionally excluded from the workforce to engage in remote work at home. This includes increased representation of women hired for remote IT roles through RINNE, in addition to the introduction of gender-inclusive hiring practices and workplace policies to promote and retain women talent. Other IT solutions specific to sustainability and inclusion include RINNE’s project specific to underserved and marginalized segments of Malaysia’s population and the blue ocean sector.
Yuki has led in advancing RINNE’s projects through active engagement with investors interested in women’s empowerment, in addition to initiating dialogue with stakeholders at government agencies and associations to promote partnerships and collaboration specific to women’s empowerment.