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!
Scroll through the gallery to read more on the nominees of Great Women of Our Time Awards 2019.
Executive Director, Asian Film Archive
Category: Arts & Media
In charge of helming the Asian Film Archive since 2006, Karen is currently its Executive Director. Under her leadership, Singapore’s first film collection was successfully inscribed into the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Register. At AFA, she contributes to archiving and library related tasks that ensure the promotion and preservation of Singapore’s cinematic heritage. Her past experiences include teaching English and History, working with the National Arts Council, National Archives of Singapore, and the Natural History Museum in New York City.
Director, Singapore Writers Festival
Category: Arts & Media
A poet, education and current director for the Singapore Writers Festival, Pooja has published two collections of poetry; Stiletto Scars (2007) and Love is An Empty Barstool (2013). She also co-edited SingPoWriMo: The Anthology (2014), and co-authored Local Anaesthetic: a Painless Approach to Singaporean Poetry (2014), a teacher’s resource for Singaporean poetry. She has also participated in poetry projects such as Speechless with the British Council in 2009, where she engaged in a month long tour of the UK to explore issues surrounding freedom of speech.
Actress-Producer
Category: Arts & Media
A well-known and respected award-winning actress-producer in Singapore and Malaysia, Kheng Hua made waves as Margaret in the iconic Singapore sitcom Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, a role that won her Best Actress (Comedy) at the 2002 Asian Film Awards. She then went on to then make history as Kerry Chu in 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians, the first Hollywood production to feature an all Asian cast in over 25 years. Besides film and television, Kheng is also highly respected in Singapore theatre scene where she’s a prolific actress and independent creative producer in Singapore.
Consultant, Ipli Architects
Category: Design & Style
With over 14 years of experience in award-winning architectural practices in Singapore and the UK, Vivien has wide-ranging experience with diverse typologies, comprising leisure, office, transportation, education, mixed-use development and masterplanning. When she was with CPG Consultants in 2011, Vivien led the team to complete the Nanyang Technological University Learning Hub (affectionately known as The Hive) in Singapore, a collaboration with Heatherwick Studio based in London, UK. A showcase for modern methods of learning and teaching, the building employs ground-breaking solutions in sustainable, construction and use of materials.
Founder & Creative Director, LAANK
Category: Design & Style
Cherin has more than a decade’s worth of experience in architecture and interior design, and has done work for a wide array of projects, especially in industries such as hospitality, retail, and F&B. Cherin worked with WOW Architects for three years, and with renowned interior design firm, Asylum, as a designer for six years, where she was responsible for highly notable projects such as Johnnie Walker (Shanghai), Iggy’s, and Escentials. She founded LAANK in 2012, and the company has grown from strength to strength; today, it counts names such as Violet Oon, Resorts World Sentosa, and Bynd Artisan as some of its clients.
Co-Founder, Scene Shang
Category: Design & Style
A banker by trade, Pamela grew up surrounded by beauty and art as her father was a sculptor. She founded Scene Shang in 2012 with her business partner Jessica Wong to flex her creative muscle after being drawn to create beautiful things again. Scene Shang is a contemporary furniture, homeware and lifestyle label based in Singapore with roots firmly planted in a rich Asian heritage. Under her savvy business blueprint, the company has expanded to include two physical stores in Beach Road and Raffles Arcade.
Co-Founder, Empire Eats Group
Category: Finance & Commerce
Together with her husband, Hui Nan spearheads the growth and development of F&B group, Empire Eats. Specialising in operating a diverse collection of F&B concepts including Tanuki Raw, Salmon Samurai, Standing Sushi Bar, The Secret Mermaid, The World Is Flat, and Sumo Bar Happy. With offerings that range from restaurant, cocktail bar, airport kiosk, and fast casual dining, the Empire Eats group has a varied and impactful presences within Singapore’s eclectic dining scene. A lawyer in her first phase of her career, Hui Nan now lends her expertise to understanding how to make a restaurants an attractive venue to guests and fostering a company culture that she can be proud of.
Group CEO, Kingsland Development
Category: Finance & Commerce
The Group Chief Executive Officer of real estate juggernaut Kingsland Development, Shann Sok began her esteemed career at the age of 23 where she spearheaded the industrial built to suit portfolio with her core expertise in land consultancy with the various authorities. After a steep learning curve, Shann gained her footing and helped to diversify the business by focusing on building data centres and industrial park developments amongst others. For the past 10 years, she has continued expand Kingsland’s portfolio to include Multi National Corporations in the marine, oil & gas, logistics, engineering and food.
Founder & CEO, PolicyPal
Category: Finance & Commerce
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 family setback. Founded in 2016, the startup aims to help customers understand their insurance coverage better by allowing them to organise, and track, all their insurance products in one dashboard. To date, PolicyPal has 16 carriers, 50,000 users and manages insurance premiums worth up to $70 million on the platform.
Professional Boxer
Category: Sports, Health & Wellness
Singapore’s first professional female boxer, Nurshahidah won the Asian featherweight championship belt from the World Boxing Council in 2017 and was one of the finalists of the World Boxing Organization’s Asia-Pacific super bantamweight title. Nicknamed ‘The Sniper’, she was also awarded with Asia’s Female Champion of the Year 2017 from the World Boxing Council and was the highest-ranking female featherweight boxer from Asia as of May 2018. To date, the 32-year-old has 13 wins, two losses and six championship titles to her name.
Director, Singapore Mental Health Film Festival
Category: Sports, Health & Wellness
Cheryl is the Founder of The Breathe Movement, and Festival Director of the Singapore Mental Health Film Festival, which had its inaugural run in February 2019. She has dedicated her life to uncover the dark and light within herself, constantly expanding her inner awareness to observe the intricate stories that surface with each layer. Her passion in social justice and mental health drives her to serve the society at large. She founded social enterprise, The Breathe Movement, to promote emotional and mental wellbring through the art of yoga.
Co-Founder, Homage
Category: Sports, Health & Wellness
As the co-founder and CEO of Homage, a one-stop senior home care solution, Gillian believes that everyone has the right to grow old with grace and dignity. The Singapore-based start-up aims to make it easier for caregivers and the patients that need them to connect. By using technology and integrating it into an elderly care model, Gillian and her partners offer expert, flexible and personalised home and nursing care so the elderly can continue to live independently at home. In 2017, Gillian was given a shout-out by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally speech.
Co-Founder, Sight To Sky
Category: Public Service & Education
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. A two month trip to Ladakh in India to teach English in 2010 provided her with an avenue to make a social impact so she started Sight to Sky in 2015, a non-profit organisation that brings primary eye care and vision to the most remote parts of the world. Having impacted more than 15,000 people across the Himalayan region, Elizabeth currently leads the organisation’s transition into a social enterprise model by building a micro-eye clinic chain to solve the rural eye care challenge.
Founder & CEO, Solve Education!
Category: Public Service & Education
Passionate about leveraging technology to solve social problems in a systemic, scalable and sustainable way, Janine founded non-profit, Solve Education!, in 2015 with the mission of delivering quality education to everyone. With a particular focus on the BOP (Bottom of Pyramid) demographic, Janine and her team created Dawn of Civilization, a mobile learning platform that enables people across different ages to learn on the go for free. She is also the first Asian to receive the International Intellectual Benefits to Society Award 2018 by Mensa International.
Co-Founder, The Last Resort
Category: Public Service & Education
A former part-time external school counsellor, Adeline, has opened up her home to complete strangers to stay for free for more than a decade. Alongside her husband Kenneth, she helped provide a safe shelter to around 35 youths since they started the initiative after they got married in 2007. These young adults could be unwed mothers, teenagers who lived on the streets or those with mental problems. There are five bedrooms in their rented Seletar four-storey terraced house called The Last Resort. The youths can stay for as long as they have to.
Research Scientist, Wildlife Reserves Singapore
Category: Science & Technology
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. She also studies Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys, Indochinese silvered langurs and black-shanked doucs in Vietnam, and has previously studied white-handed gibbons in Thailand. In her spare time, the half Thai-half Singaporean primatologist volunteers at the President of the Jane Goodall Institute to facilitate educational outreach, raise awareness and promote appreciation for our local wildlife.
Head of Data Science, Shopee
Category: Science & Technology
Dr Pan is the head of data science at e-commerce giant, Shopee Singapore. In her time there, she has built up the data science team from scratch and taken the department from strength to strength by recruiting more than 60 full-time data scientists and machine learning engineers. Committed to introducing the most advanced technologies of machine learning and artificial intelligence into industrial and commercial applications, she has worked for South-East Asia’s largest ride-hailing platform, Grab, and a US start-up, Greenwave Systems.
Medical Director, Asia Retina Eye Surgery Centre
Category: Science & Technology
As the Medical Director of Asian Retina Eye Surgery Centre, Dr Pang has the immense satisfaction of making blind people see again. She has more than 15 years of ophthalmology experience and has performed thousands of cataract and retinal surgeries making her one of the experienced cataract surgeons in Singapore. She strongly believes that technology can help improve awareness on eye health and with that belief she created Singapore’s first mobile app that allows users to assess basic visual tests.
[Formstack id=”3573370″ viewkey=”1ef8s7O0pK” ]
Scroll below to see what’s in the gift set!
Read more on the nominees of Great Women of Our Time here.
The Great Women Of Our Time 2019 is presented by Lancôme and co-presented by Pandora.