On March 8, International Women’s Day, the Regent Ballroom at the Regent Hotel Hong Kong is jammed with some 450 women and allies of multiple races and nationalities, for an afternoon of fast-paced panel discussions, yoga, and interactive sessions, and an evening of awards and zippy five-minute inspirational Ignite Talks, with musical interludes in between.
This was the twentieth edition of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong’s Women of Influence (WOI) summit and awards ceremony, titled “Celebrating Hong Kong Women: Past, Present and Future.”
Diversity: The occasion lived up to its reputation for diversity. Mid-afternoon, as guests streamed in for a session of panel discussions on the conference theme, Alia Spring Kong sticks her hand out for a handshake and says: “Hi, I’m Alia”. Dressed in a purple Kids Power Society T-shirt, blue tutu and orange paper flower in her hair, Alia later changed into a vibrant mini-tango dress in a red, green and yellow Chinese folk print for the evening. Earlier, she stands next to a table laden with the illustrated books that she began producing age 8, as part of a charity for children suffering from cancer in British Columbia and later for kids living in subdivided flats in Hong Kong.
At 12 years old, Alia and the non-profit organization she set up in 2019, Kids Power Society, are aiming at creating a Multiverse Society based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. “Kid’s ideas should not be shunned away, yet nurtured for kids to ‘grow’ their ideas and be organic initiators to invent futuristic technology and make a better world,” she says.
If that doesn’t make you catch your breath, consider Beverly L.W. Sunn, a Hawaii-born Chinese-American entrepreneur who founded two successful businesses in real estate and relocation services in Hong Kong and mainland China in the 1980s and 1990s, Asia Pacific Properties and its sister firm, APP Mobility.
Along the way, Sunn was the first woman to serve as president of the American Club of Hong Kong in its 85-year history, a founding board member of the Friends of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and a board member of the Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company, that ensures the “integrity, independence and freedom from bias” of the news organization “at all times”.
Alia Kong and Beverly Sunn could not be more different, in age or professional outlook, but are similar in creativity, confidence and passion for their causes. They are sharing oxygen at the summit because of an idea Sunn had in 2003, when she became a founding member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong’s Women of Influence conference. “I just helped seed the idea,” she says. “Others carried it forward.” In winning a one-off Lifetime Achievement Award, the judge described her vision for the awards as “to create a space where women’s contributions to society, business, and community could be celebrated and used to inspire others.”
At the time the WOI summit and awards started, there were few rivals. But one of its successes is the emergence of other women’s organizations and competitions, from The Women’s Foundation to the new Women of Hong Kong showcased by Ignite Talks speaker Sarah Vee, a website that began as a “safe space” for women called “Girls of Hong Kong” that under its current name provides opportunities “for women to collaborate, learn from each other’s mistakes and experiences, and humanize business in a way women could.”
Competitiveness: Historically competition among women was confined to social spaces. No longer, of course, but women often feel constrained from self-assertion whether in the board room or playing field. In the WOI awards ceremony, the audience was able to judge for itself, with finalists for each of the eight awards given a chance to share and assert themselves and their accomplishments before the winners were announced. But in the background, competition was fierce.
Taking off the killer edge, in between the announcements, “Ignite Talks” gave six extraordinary women outside the competition a chance to highlight their journeys, in five-minute out-of-breath segments. The speakers ranged in age from 12, Alia Kong to 68, Felicity McRobb, founder of McRobb Consulting and a 40-year fundraiser for the Hunger Project New Zealand, which empowers men and women in rural villages in Africa, India, Bangladesh and Latin America to end their own hunger by sharing their professional experience.
Other speakers included Sarah Vee, founder of Women of Hong Kong, Jessica Chan, head of investor solutions at JLL about her adventures in sports despite her small stature, Gigi Ngan, a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, and Jenny Quinton, founder of Ark Eden in Mui Wo, Lantau. Jen Flowers, AmCham board member, Group and ASP Head of Customer Intelligence and Partnerships at HSBC, who came up with the Ignite Talks concept kept the two sessions lively and engaging.
Behind the scenes was another exceptional act, by the WOI Committee leaders, chair Belinda Esterhammer, CEO Asia of The Do, a social impact advisory and co-chairs Chelsea Perino of The Executive Centre, a flexible workspace solutions provider – and co-chair Marcia Ellis, partner and global co-chair of Morrison Foerster, the San Francisco-based international law firm. These three organized the summit and gala, as well as the vetting and judging process for over 200 nominations, a record-breaking number.
Each nominee had to submit answers to probing questions about their work advocating for women inside and outside the workplace, while the finalists had to sit for an interview and more questions about their work inspiring and being inspired by other women, and photographs. None knew who would win their categories until the night itself. Those who were disappointed were encouraged to look forward to next year’s WOI summit and awards.
Style: The event was not short on style. The dress code of day-to-night elegance encouraged people to represent themselves through their fashion. From the woman who said her outfit was inspired by a disco ball to another who drifted by in an electric blue dress with floaty skirts and blue patent-leather lug sole loafers, people dressed to impress. Some wore tailored suits and spike heels. But none wore the standard issue dark suit that you would find in the average all-male Hong Kong board room. And one of the evening’s most important issues was contesting that very issue – board room diversity, that is, not fashion. More below.
The winners So, before talking about some of the issues raised at the summit on the past, present and future of women in Hong Kong, we can’t help but share the winners of the eight awards.
Lamia Sreya Rahman won the Young Change Maker award, as co-founder and COO of Vidi Labs, and as the inventor of a device, Seekr, that helps visually impaired people to navigate the physical environment. The Leading Woman Entrepreneur Award went to Trilby White, founder of the Creature Comforts Veterinary Group. Luanne Lim, CEO of HSBC, won the coveted Leading Woman Director or Executive award. Jing Lei, APAC head of strategic accounts for PALO IT, won the Award for Woman Change Maker in STEM.
Kirti Lad, executive director of Meraki Executive Search & Consulting Ltd., won the award as Champion for Women, for her work promoting the appointment of women as independent non-executive directors on boards across Asia. Anna Chung Ying Chan, dean of the school of dance and professor at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, was named Leading Woman in Arts, Sports and Leisure. The Woman Champion of Disadvantaged Groups and Minorities was Anita Ma, chair of the executive committee of Playright Children’s Play Association, where she works to ensure that children are supported in playing in schools and the community.
Morrison Foerster, the international law firm, won the award for Best Company Championing Women. According to the judge, “They walk the talk: 46% of their global board of directors are women, and in Hong Kong specifically, 59% of their lawyers (including trainee solicitors) are women, and 50% of their partners are women.”
Who were my personal favorites? They weren’t the winners, finalists or even nominees, but Alia Spring Kong is a name we will hear from again, whether or not we understood what she was saying about Web3 and the Metaverse Society. Another favorite was Ingko Lam, who has studied bamboo weaving with one of two remaining sifu or weavers of bamboo cooking baskets, both well over 80 years old.
Also Jenny Quinton, another of the Ignite Speakers, who has lived in Mui Wo for 34 years and during that time planted 37,000 native trees on Lantau, Hong Kong’s largest island, where reforestation has consisted mainly of imported trees. Finally, Jessica Chan, of JLL, the real estate firm, another Ignite Talks speaker, who talked about her turn from “running with the athletes to running the athletes,” in sports ranging from dragon boating to cross fit to surfing. She imagined her lifetime in boxes, each representing a day. “Whatever you want to do with your life, think of how many boxes you have left. And go for it.”
Issues and The Issue – women’s participation on company boards of directors: The afternoon summit dug into issues facing Hong Kong women in the past and present, while an interactive session on “inside the box” systematic inventive thinking made up the session on the future.
Daisy Ho, chair and executive director of SJM Holdings, gave the keynote address and Gigi Chao, vice chairman of Cheuk Nang (Holdings) and co-founder of Hong Kong Marriage Equality, gave the gala address early in the evening. Daisy Ho talked about her famous father, the late Stanley Ho, and the particular challenges she faced as a woman taking over the reins of SGS, one of the world’s largest casino and entertainment businesses. Gigi Chao, too, talked about family, particularly the influence of her mother and great grandmother, and the importance of marriage as an institution in building resilience, whether the partners are same or opposite gender or transgender.
The women, the themes, and social and economic environments that Hong Kong women face are anything but monolithic, except in one area – the representation of women on boards. In January 2023, Hong Kong became the first securities jurisdiction in the world to ban single gender boards, allowing companies to the end of 2024 to add one or more women. Taking up this cause was Teresa Ko, senior partner Hong Kong and China chair of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Ko was the first woman to chair the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) Listing Committee from 2009 to 2011, and vice-chair for three years before that.
Sharing a photo album of Hong Kong’s leading financial regulatory institutions, Ko showed photos going back to Petrochina’s public listing in 1993 to the HKEx board in 2000, when the board of HKEx was all-male. Today, she reminded the audience, five out of 13 members of the HKEx board are female, and it has its first female CEO, Bonnie Chan, as well as its first female chair, Laura Cha.
Hong Kong remains below the global average of 6.3% of female CEOs, with just 5% in Hong Kong, despite a higher-than-average number of female chief financial officers – 24.2% compared to 18.3% globally. The legal profession is another exception, where 16% was female in 1983 to over 60% today, including trainees.
In terms of women on boards, even with the new HKEx mandate, at 17.7% women company boards in Hong Kong are well below the global standard of 40%, led by the European Union.
“Diversity makes for better decision-making,” Ko said. “Don’t wait to be tapped. Reach out to be more proactive. Hong Kong has 465 women who have to sit on boards to meet the requirement before the end of the year. Squeeze what you can out of the past, and curate your future.”
Sponsors We have to say a word about the sponsors whose contributions made the event possible, starting with platinum sponsor Chubb Ltd. (NYSE:CB); gold sponsors the Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) and Reinsurance Group of America (NYSE: RGA); silver sponsor DLA Piper, the international law firm; bronze sponsors Akin, the international law firm; Century Supply Chain Solutions, the tech-focused global logistics provider; Jardin Matheson Holdings Limited (OTC: JMHLY); J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM); Telstra Group Limited (AX: TLS); and Vobile Group Limited (HK:3738), as well as Regent Hong Kong, the official venue sponsor whose parent company is 51% owned by InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (NYSE.IHG).
Our global risk advisor was Wallbrook, the investigations company and part of Antithesis, the continuous reliability software platform owned by the Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG). Our content creation partner was Hong Kong-based The Executive Centre; our official technology partner was Atiom; our travel partner was Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (HK: 0293); and our media partners were JESSICA and the South China Morning Post. Finally, the Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) were our sponsor for table gifts.
On a rough calculation, the market cap of these 18 sponsors is over $900 billion (including only the listed companies).
If money could talk, one of the things it would say is that in the 21st century, women help drive the global economy. They deserve the support not only of other women (remembering Madeleine K. Albright’s “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women”) men, business, governments, and of course the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.
