Powerful and passionate, this year’s 18 nominees in The Singapore Women’s Weekly’s Great Women Of Our Time Awards are not only making major strides in their respective industries, breaking new ground, they are also using their voice to lift up others.
Powerful and passionate, this year’s 18 nominees in The Singapore Women’s Weekly’s Great Women Of Our Time Awards are not only making major strides in their respective industries, breaking new ground, they are also using their voice to lift up others. Now meet the women across the six categories – Arts & Media; Design & Style; Finance & Commerce; Sports, Health & Wellness; Public Service & Education; and Science & Technology… and vote for the one who most inspires you!
For An Eyelift
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ARTS & MEDIA
Pooja wears Ti:baeg dress, from Society A. Shoes from Pedro. Kheng Hua wears Tory Burch dress. Karen wears blazer and pants, both from Marks & Spencer. Top from Uniqlo. ALL JEWELLERY FROM PANDORA.
FROM LEFT:
Pooja Nansi, 37
Director, Singapore Writers Festival
A poet, teacher and current director for the Singapore Writers Festival, Pooja wants to demystify the literary arts. “A lot of Singaporeans I encounter feel reading and writing or literature is cheem or difficult or not relevant to their lives, but I believe that literature should be accessible and relevant to everyone regardless of gender, class, race or age,” she says. Acutely aware that women writers often get pigeonholed into writing just women’s stories, Pooja encourages those who want to pursue a career in the arts to rock the boat a little, saying “have an opinion about things, and take a seat at that table”.
Tan Kheng Hua, 56
Actress-Producer
Curiosity may have killed the cat but for Kheng Hua, it is what fuels her zest for life. “I am always innately curious about people and why people do the things that they do and make the decisions they make. This curiosity, paired with my interest and love for acting, is a match made in heaven,” says the award-winning thespian who was cast as the fiercely protective immigrant mum, Kerry Chu, in 2018’s breakout hit Crazy Rich Asians. Kheng has since signed to three different international agents who will ensure that audiences both locally and abroad get to enjoy much more of her on the big screen.
Karen Chan, 45
Executive Director, Asian Film Archive
By definition, an archive is a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, an institution or a group of people. The Asian Film Archive (AFA) preserves Singapore’s past on film and to ensure that our cinematic heritage is never lost, Karen has been tirelessly working to promote and preserve the art of Asian cinema since she was appointed AFA director in 2006. “An archive is not built overnight. You must work at it and ensure that it lives beyond you,” says the mum-of-two. “But like many things, only time will tell if what we do will impact a society and its people.”
Love For Beauty
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DESIGN & STYLE
Vivien wears jacket from 8 by YOOX. Top from Marks & Spencer. Xinnatex pants from Society A. Pamela wears shirt from Uniqlo. Mango skirt from Zalora. Cherin wears dress from SEED Heritage. ALL JEWELLERY FROM PANDORA.
FROM LEFT:
Vivien Leong, in her 40s
Consultant, Ipli Architects
Explaining her choice to enter the world of architecture, Vivien describes the process not so much in terms of a light bulb moment, but more like a fog that slowly lifted over time. “Although I can’t say that my years in architecture school were very enjoyable, I did learn to appreciate the process,” says the former project lead of The Hive at Nanyang Technological University. “Beyond the bricks and mortar, I like the human aspect of architecture. It might not have to be an expensive project, sometimes just moving a piece of furniture from one place to another results in a big improvement in the way the space is used or experienced.”
Pamela Ting, 35
Co-Founder, Scene Shang
In 2014, two Raffles Junior College friends decided to invest $100,000 in their bespoke furniture brand influenced by Chinese design but using clean, contemporary forms. Fast forward to today, and Scene Shang has opened its second store at the ultra-luxe Raffles Hotel Arcade. “I love that I get to play a part in giving a voice to contemporary Asian design because our culture is so rich and there is so much to draw from and express,” says Pamela of the brand’s success. “To grow from what was an online brand to what we are today has been extremely encouraging, but we’re still young and have more years to go.”
Cherin Tan, 36
Founder & Creative Director, LAANK
Many interior designers marry form and function, but none do it like Cherin. “Good design for me carries value beyond what you see aesthetically,” she says. “LAANK believes in creating holistic, architectural interiors that create an experience, and also functionality.” Abiding by that philosophy has allowed LAANK to grow from strength to strength since it was formed in 2012, amassing clients like Violet Oon and Resorts World Sentosa along the way. “This industry lets me see and feel so much. I love that I’ve grown to become a designer that doesn’t just make things pretty!"
Glow Getter
Lancôme’s Advanced Génifi que Youth Activating Serum is a must-have first step to every beauty routine. The iconic anti-ageing serum, with Microbiome science, accelerates skin recovery for stronger, younger-looking skin. The new formula is enriched with a complex of seven prebiotics and probiotic fractions selected and transformed to deliver essential nutrients to skin and its Microbiome. This strengthens the skin’s fundamental youthful functions: Defense and recovery. In just seven days, skin looks youthfully radiant and smoother. After one bottle, skin recovers faster. All major signs of ageing are visibly improved: Radiance, fine lines, face firming, uneven skin tone and uneven skin texture. The self-loading dropper dispenses the ideal dosage of the oil-free and lightweight serum, which is quickly absorbed without leaving residue.
SPORTS, HEALTH & WELLNESS
Nurshahidah wears jacket and shoes, both from H&M. Top and pants, both from Topshop. Gillian wears dress from In Good Company. Shoes from Pedro. Cheryl wears dress from Bora Aksu. Shoes from Pedro. ALL JEWELLERY FROM PANDORA.
FROM LFET:
Nurshahidah Roslie, 32
Professional Boxer
Overweight as a teenager, but active and very fit, Nurshahidah found her stride when she discovered boxing in 2006. Her love for the sport grew the more she practiced and by 2016, she decided to turn professional. “I never thought that I’d be a professional boxer when thinking about my career growing up,” says Nurshahidah. “But along the way, I developed my athleticism and saw it as an opportunity to spread the message to other women that strong can be feminine. Many people expect me to be muscular and manly as a female boxer, but I am directly the opposite.” To date, the 32-year-old has 13 wins, two losses and six championship titles to her name.
Gillian Tee, 37
Co-Founder, Homage
United Nations’ projections show that by 2030, one in four Singaporeans will be aged 65 years and above, up from one in eight today. Enter Homage, a start-up co-founded by Gillian Tee in 2016, which aims to make it easier for caregivers and patients to connect. “Homage is a caregiving platform operating in both Singapore and Malaysia providing home and community-based care services to those who need it to enable independence and wellness,” she explains. “It’s an incredible privilege to be a mission-oriented company where every hour of care means as we help someone we are also working towards the company being more financially sustainable.”
Cheryl Tan, 32
Director, Singapore Mental Health Film Festival
“I remember feeling suicidal from a young age but I wasn’t provided with the proper tools in my youth to cope with my mental and emotional issues,” Cheryl confesses. “Back then, mental health wasn’t a topic widely spoken about or taught in school but those suicidal tendencies were real.” Since then, Cheryl has been a strong advocate for promoting mental and emotional well-being and educating people on mental health issues through her non-profit social organisation, The Breathe Movement. She is also Festival Director of the inaugural Singapore Mental Health Film Festival that highlights various mental health conditions through movies as a medium.
Love For Stories
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FINANCE & COMMERCE
Val wears dress from Sandro. Shoes from Pedro. Hui Nan wears jacket, top and pants, all from Topshop. Shoes from Charles & Keith. Shann wears jacket from Sandro; and Iris & Ink top, and Diane von Furstenberg skirt, both from THE OUTNET. ALL JEWELLERY FROM PANDORA.
FROM LEFT:
Val Ji-Hsuan Yap, 31
Founder & CEO, PolicyPal
A former whiz in the finance world, Val left all of that behind to start PolicyPal and PAL Network because of a passion to make insurance protection simple and accessible to everyone following a personal hurdle. “The idea behind PolicyPal first came about when my family faced a series of adversaries. The experience made me realise the importance of having a well-organised digital folder of all my policies,” explains the 31-year-old. “When PolicyPal took off, I also started an affiliated block chain entity called PAL Network in 2018, which bridges the gap between financial products and customers. Nothing is more fulfilling than knowing that something I have created is helping to make people’s lives better.”
Lim Hui Nan, 36
Co-Founder, Empire Eats Group
Tanuki Raw, Standing Sushi Bar, Salmon Samurai, Sumo Bar Happy, The World Is Flat and The Secret Mermaid. If you have ever dined at these establishments, then you have Hui Nan and her husband, Howard Lo, to thank. Together, they spearhead the growth and development of F&B group, Empire Eats. “I was a lawyer previously but in my second life as a restaurateur, I thrive on understanding how to make a restaurant an attractive venue to guests, how to create a strong brand and foster a company culture my partner and I are proud of,” shares Hui Nan. “I love that I get to feed people well.”
Shann Sok Aixuan, 38
Group Chief Executive Officer, Kingsland Development
Having learnt the ins and outs of real estate while helping out as a teenager in her family’s business, Shann joined Kingsland Development when she was just 24. “It was difficult initially and because this is a male-dominated industry, people were sceptical of me because I was a young girl,” says Shann, whose background is in accountancy and business. But two years of steep learning, she gained her footing and helped to diversify the business by focusing on building data centres and industrial park developments alongside traditional commercial developments. “The beauty of business entrepreneurship is in learning something new every day.”
Puff Off
Lancôme’s Advanced Génifi que Eye Cream is a wake-up call for your eyes. By brightening and smoothing out lines, it is like a sleep concentrate in a single application. Ultra concentrated with probiotic fractions, it strengthens delicate skin around the eye area to eliminate signs of fatigue. It awakens and brightens the eye area and restores its youthfulness, like a full night’s worth of sleep.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Yaozhang wears top from Bimba Y Lola. Skirt from Marks & Spencer. Shoes from Pedro. Claudine wears dress from Tory Burch. Shoes from Pedro. Andie wears jacket from 8 by YOOX. Top from Uniqlo. Skirt from Tory Burch. Shoes from Pedro. ALL JEWELLERY FROM PANDORA.
FROM FAR LEFT:
Dr Pan Yaozhang, 37
Head of Data Science, Shopee
A strong believer that women are crucial to the future growth of the tech industry, Dr Pan heads up the Data Science team at e-commerce giant Shopee. “I joined the company in 2016 and built up the data science team from scratch,” shares the working mum-of-two. “We oversee how Shopee uses artificial intelligence and technology to drive e-commerce business and better serve our customers.” Part of her role also includes recruiting the next generation of data scientists to cope with our increasingly data driven economy, and she says she “hopes more young women will take an interest in and consider pursuing careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics”.
Dr Claudine Pang, 38
Medical Director, Asia Retina Eye Surgery Centre
When asked what she does for a living, Dr Pang gets straight to the point. “I make blind people see again. Yes, literally,” says the eye surgeon. “I have a vision to bring eye care technology and innovation to communities-at-large and underprivileged societies. I strongly believe that technology can help improve awareness on eye health and give better eyesight for all.” Part of this vision saw Dr Pan create Singapore’s first mobile app focused on eye health. The Asia Retina app is free to download and allows users to assess basic visual functions that include visual acuity check, colour vision check and dry eye tests.
Dr Andie Ang, 34
Research Scientist, Wildlife Reserves Singapore Conservation Fund & President, Jane Goodall Institute (Singapore)
Passionate about protecting the endangered Raffles’ banded langur, a species of leaf-eating monkey found only in Singapore and southern Malaysia, Dr Ang chairs the Raffles’ Banded Langur Working Group to study and conserve the species. In her spare time, she also volunteers as the president of the Jane Goodall Institute to facilitate educational outreach, raise awareness and promote appreciation for our local wildlife. “Studying monkeys is not monkey business, it is serious business,” she shares with a laugh. “At times I wonder if anything that I’m doing is actually making a positive change for our environment but I always find myself wanting to do more to help.”
Love For Nature
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PUBLIC SERVICE & EDUCATION
Janine wears dress from In Good Company. Shoes from Pedro. Adeline wears top from Marks & Spencer. Pants from Sandro. Shoes from H&M. Elizabeth wears blazer and skirt, both from Marks & Spencer. Top from Zalora. ALL JEWELLERY FROM PANDORA.
FROM FAR LEFT:
Janine Teo, 37
Founder & CEO, Solve Education!
An advocate for making education to accessible to everyone regardless of status, Janine started Solve Education! with the
hope that she could make an impact on the fortunes of the next generation. “Poor access to quality education entrenches cycles of inequality by preventing disadvantage youth from attaining the skills to change their economic situation,” she laments. Breaking this cycle needed a radical idea and Janine found one by utilising technology and gaming to tackle inequality into the education system. Together, her team developed Dawn Of Civilization, a mobile learning platform that enables people across diff erent ages to learn on the go for free.
Adeline Thong, 40
Co-Founder, The Last Resort
For over a decade, the joy of seeing someone being able to have a good night’s rest, help, some respite and stability to do what they needed to do lead Adeline and her husband, Kenneth, to open up their home to complete strangers. They dubbed their little haven The Last Resort. “We were inspired by how the early Church lived and shared with one another such that no one had a need,” explains Adeline, who has helped around 35 youths to date. “It’s easy to look at what we do not have and overlook the opportunity to share what we do have, even if it doesn’t look like a lot.”
Elizabeth Tan, 33
Co-Founder, Sight To Sky
Pulling double duty as the CEO of home-grown shoe brand, Heatwave, and the Co-Founder of non-governmental organisation, Sight To Sky, Elizabeth has always wanted to help those in need. “In 2010, I took a two-month trip to India to teach English and settled in Ladakh for a while where my students and the villagers would ask me for all sorts of medicines,” she recalls. “They didn’t have access to basic healthcare and many had eye problems because of the high altitude.” Upon returning to Singapore, she started Sight To Sky, which has organised annual mobile eye clinic to remote areas in the Himalayas for the past eight years.
EXCLUSIVE GIVEAWAY
WHO INSPIRES YOU MOST? VOTE & WIN!
You’ve read about the 18 outstanding women in this year’s Great Women Of Our Time Awards, and we’re sure they have inspired you with their stories and accomplishments.
Each year, we let you, our readers, weigh in on a special category winner, that of The Most Inspiring Woman*. All you have to do is cast your vote and you’ll stand to win a Lancôme beauty hamper and PANDORA necklace, worth over $400!
MEET 2019'S NOMINEES
Arts & Media
1. Karen Chan
Executive Director, Asian Film Archive
2. Pooja Nansi
Director, Singapore Writers Festival
3. Tan Kheng Hua
Actress-Producer
Design & Style
4. Vivien Leong
Consultant, Ipli Architects
5. Cherin Tan
Founder & Creative Director, LAANK
6. Pamela Ting
Co-Founder, Scene Shang
Finance & Commerce
7. Lim Hui Nan
Co-Founder, Empire Eats Group
8. Shann Sok
Group CEO, Kingsland Development
9. Val Yap
Founder & CEO, PolicyPal
Sports, Health & Wellness
10. Nurshahidah Roslie
Professional Boxer
11. Cheryl Tan
Director, Singapore Mental Health Film Festival
12. Gillian Tee
Co-Founder, Homage
Public Service & Education
13. Elizabeth Tan
Co-Founder, Sight To Sky
14. Janine Teo
Founder & CEO, Solve Education!
15. Adeline Thong
Co-Founder, The Last Resort
Science & Technology
16. Dr Andie Ang
Research Scientist, Singapore Wildlife Reserves Conservation Fund
17. Dr Pan Yaozhang
Head of Data Science, Shopee
18. Dr Claudine Pang
Medical Director, Asia Retina Eye Surgery Centre
One lucky reader will get:
● Lancôme Advanced Génifique Light Pearl ($120)
● Lancôme Grandiose Wide Angle Fan Effect Mascara ($50)
● PANDORA Moments O Pendant with Queen & Regal Crown Dangle Charm and Necklace Chain ($237)
Visit www.womensweekly.com.sg to vote now!
Closing date: October 6, 2019.
*The winner of The Most Inspiring Woman Award will be determined by 40 percent of the unique votes, and 60 per cent of the judges’ decisions. The winner will be announced at The Singapore Women’s Weekly’s Great Women Of Our Time Awards and Cocktail Reception on October 24, 2019, and will be featured in a future issue of The Weekly.
PHOTOS: VEE CHIN & TAN WEI TE
FASHION DIRECTION: AARON KOK
ART DIRECTION: IVY CHOONG & XU MEI YAN
STYLING ASSISTANTS: JULIET SUEN & AN LYN CHEE
HAIR: JASON WONG/SALON NU GREGO & ASH LOI/SONDER SALON
MAKEUP: KEITH BRYANT LEE / HONGLING LIM / RINA SIM / WEE MING & JYUE HUEY (FOR SHANN SOK)
LOCATION: 89NR / THE WORKING CAPITOL / BOTANICO AT THE GARAGE / THE SUMMERHOUSE
