In this week’s episode, I am speaking to Michelle and Melissa Sin of SKB Shutters Corporation Berhad from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The business had its roots in Penang but since Michelle and Melissa’s father took over, they relocated to Kuala Lumpur as urbanisation in the 80s saw a growing need for their steel products. Michelle and Melissa had worked for KPMG before joining their parents in the manufacturing business. At SKB, Melissa heads sales and marketing while Michelle manages the operation...
Dec 16, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Season 3Ep. 12
In this episode, I spoke to Tanya Rolfe and Christine Yu, two out of the three founders of Sophia. Sophia is a learning platform made for women who want to learn about money and investing and how to put their money towards venture capital funding and angel investment funding to support other women entrepreneurs. Sophia was born out of the founders' frustrations experienced in the world of investing towards female entrepreneurs. Tanya and Christine (and another co-founder, Nicole) want to create ...
Dec 09, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 11
This episode is all about Malaysian entrepreneur, Fiona Marcus Raja who is based in Kuching, Sarawak. She started five businesses in five years since she came back to Sarawak after being away with her family and caring for her son who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that happens to young children. She is the founder and managing director of Borneo International Exhibition Sdn Bhd, an events management business that helps other businesses organise large-scale events and expos i...
Dec 02, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Penny Choong of Malaysia is this week's guest. She is the founder of Penny Essentials, a business that helps people enjoy being healthy. Yet years ago, she was suffering from such severe migraine attacks that she couldn’t even get out of bed! Her story is quite unique in that she was focused on teaching financial education when she came back from the Middle East. Yet life sometimes throws us curve balls and she came to a realization that she herself needed to be well first. She couldn’t help oth...
Nov 25, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 9
This episode is about Padmaja Vaswani from India who manages 3 businesses focusing on learning and development, organisational development in addition to diversity and inclusion. Padmaja is the Founder & CEO of Siksha Group, which offers learning and development for companies across India. She is also the CEO of NEWS Navigation that specializes in executive coaching and organizational transformation solutions. She is also the co-founder of WeMantra which enables individuals and organizations...
Nov 18, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 8
This episode is about Thai entrepreneur, Chalita Hongsakul. Chalita is the Managing Director of Wakingbee Corporation based in Bangkok, Thailand. She doesn’t call herself a fitness freak but came to start a fitness and activewear clothing brand after quitting as a management consultant. It was a desire to get healthy that put her on the entrepreneurial track. While trying to get to the gym, she realised all the available brands she looked at didn’t quite fit her need for something fun, feminine ...
Nov 11, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 7
This episode of Season 3 is with Saliza Abdullah, the Managing Director & CEO, BG Capital Holdings Group of Companies in Malaysia. Saliza manages a 100% woman-owned security services business - one which belonged to her late mother. The original business offered physical guarding and security services. Since taking over, Saliza has expanded the scope of business to include training and surveillance. In this episode, we talk about: What it's like running a fully woman-owned business with her ...
Nov 04, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Titaporn Tuchinda is this week's guest and she is an executive coach, entrepreneur and investor in Thailand with more than one business! She is the Managing Director of The Growth and Change Co., Ltd, Thailand and founder and board member of Brighton College International School just outside of Bangkok. She has also conceptualised and set up two boutique hotels in Chiangmai from scratch! Titaporn is also an executive coach with Aberkyn. These businesses seem unrelated on the surface but as we we...
Oct 28, 2021•59 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Jayce Tham co-founded CreativesAtWork with her sister, Fanny, in 2012 and the two sisters couldn’t be more different! Jayce spent years in the corporate world while Fanny was in the creative industry. The two Singaporean sisters created a pool and network of freelancers in Singapore and across the region to help corporate companies with everything media-related and creative-related such as photography to graphic design, from advertisements to short films. Unlike other platforms which offer freel...
Oct 21, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 3Ep. 4
This week I speak to Vietnamese startup founder, Laura Phan, the founder & CEO of iZi Community. iZi Community is an online gamification and AI-based education platform made for learners who need snack-sized learning. Interestingly, Laura is a non-tech founder where she leads her team of programmers in connecting learners and content creators in Vietnam. But this is not her first business. She started her first business at 21 with a team of 30 people because she wanted to prove a point. In t...
Oct 14, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Following your dream. After working for a few years in London, Helen came home to Penang, Malaysia to work in the family business. Yet, her heart was always in the arts. She described how she would visit museums and art galleries in London and found that she was always joyful in these places. And that was how she realised she had to pursue her love for the arts and started her design firm, Blanc Designs. Helen loves to incorporate art as 3D forms for homes and offices rather than have art within...
Oct 07, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Welcome to Season 3! We kick off our third season with Yuka Imanishi who is the founder and CEO of CURIO Japan Inc. Yuka's business started as a B2C business and soon after, became also a B2B business and now she even has a third business due to the pandemic! Due to her innate curiosity for the world at large, her business is all about fostering intercultural relations between international students with the local Japanese. It started with a simple premise - tutoring services. Later, she also sa...
Oct 01, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 1
For the final episode of Season 2, I spoke to Amita Nandy, CEO and Founder of Tact World, Malaysia. Her story has a twist at the end. TACT World began in 1991 when she had to leave full-time work to take care of her family and for 31 years, Amita has been training, coaching and facilitating. She still works with corporate clients but she also now focuses her energy on women. Amita has a passion for working with women using women circles and retreats, incorporating storytelling and coaching and g...
Jul 08, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 13
This episode is about a Singaporean mumpreneur, Eve Phua who is the founder of Believe Beauty Academy, a beauty and wellness business where she helps women look their best - using products by Mary Kay. She was top in her personal sales for the Mary Kay Singapore Sales Director Category last year despite it being a challenging year due to the pandemic. She also leads her own team of beauty consultants. But more than that, she spoke about how she saw herself transforming from a timid person to som...
Jul 01, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 12
In this episode, I spoke to Michelle Yeo who is the Co-Founder and General Manager of Dandy Modern Food in Penang, Malaysia. She has two outlets in Penang with a third planned for Kuala Lumpur. Dandy is an all-day casual eatery, bakery and café serving a massive 150 items on their menu. These contemporary Mediterranean dishes include pastries and desserts. Michelle who is from Kuching, Sarawak and her husband Jamal who is from Lebanon were already running a security systems business when they ha...
Jun 25, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 11
In today’s episode, I spoke to Boonsiri Somchit Ong who is the co-founder and chief conceptualist of Xtrategize Technologies Sdn Bhd based in Penang, Malaysia. Boonsiri is of Malaysian Thai-Chinese descent and is well known in the multinational corporation circle where she had spent more than 30 years before she left to join her husband, Tony, in the business. In her previous corporate role, Boonsiri was a finance and operations professional leading a global team that delivered business accounti...
Jun 17, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 10
This week, I spoke to Radha Mohan Durbha who is the co-founder and director of Kereses Consulting India Private Ltd, India. She started her business when she was 41 and in looking back, she wished she had started much earlier! Kereses Consulting India Private Ltd is a HR consulting business based in Bangalore, India that Radha started with her friend. As a HR recruiter, Radha is responsible for the planning, budgeting and operations of recruitment and training, and engages with organizations to ...
Jun 10, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Jaklin Juanis is the founder of Professional Advancements Resources based in Malaysia. Jaklin was born and bred in Kota Belud in rural Sabah, East Malaysia. Her village didn’t have electricity and as a child she studied by candlelight. In this interview, she spoke about how she kept on moving and having the momentum to get out of her challenging situation, and being smart about the resources she had around her. She has certainly done well for herself. Since 2008, as a corporate trainer, Jaklin h...
Jun 03, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 8
In this episode, I spoke to Malaysian entrepreneur Shamala Hinrichsen. Shamala is the founder of Hanai, a social enterprise that empowers women to take charge of their health. Her first app, Hanai Jiwa Ibu, targeted at rural Malaysia provides women with access to information about maternal, mental health and domestic violence in addition to a complete doctor’s directory and information on COVID-19. Inspired by her own grandmother, Shamala who now lives in Germany with her husband and two childre...
May 27, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 7
In this episode, I spoke to Cha-Ly Koh who is the CEO & founder of Urbanmetry Sdn Bhd in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Urbanmetry is a data company that cleans and analyses large amounts of city data, through its proprietary algorithms with the purpose of using data to better inform, plan and develop sustainable urban dwellings. With offices in Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi, Urbanmetry collaborated with ThinkCity to publish a book in 2016 titled The Secret Atlas of Greater Kuala Lumpur which offers insig...
May 20, 2021•55 min•Season 2Ep. 6
In this episode, I spoke to Shadaitul Intan, the director of Profound Learning Solutions Sdn Bhd, a training consultancy based in Malaysia. Intan, as she is fondly known, grew up in a small town of Batu Gajah, Perak but was encouraged by her father to be who she wanted to be. She admitted she once drove a Ferrari that wasn't hers and she even set up a daycare centre prior to setting up this training consultancy business. She was 33 and a single mother of 2 daughters when she started her business...
May 13, 2021•56 min•Season 2Ep. 5
In this episode, I am speaking to Sophie Ha Tu Nguyen from Vietnam who is the co-founder and CEO of Skabella, a children's clothing business. Sophie's business was hit particularly hard by the pandemic as hers was a retail business, dependent on foot traffic in the mall. What was supposed to be the worst possible year for her turned out to be a year of possibilities and renewed hope. She had to make some decisions but by making these decisions, she grew a new business that was particularly suite...
May 06, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Episode 3 is where I speak to Susan Chee who is the founder and director of Criteria & Connections in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her business helps companies create memorable events, launches and conferences. Some of her noteworthy events include: Managing the itinerary of the richest man in the world who was visiting Malaysia but she didn't even have time to gawk at him or request a photograph! (In case you didn't know, the man in question was Bill Gates.) Organising a 600-delegate conference ...
Apr 29, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Episode 2 of Season 2 features Rowena Morais who is a Malaysian entrepreneur with a strong communication slant to her work. Rowena is the editor, writer, publisher and programme director at Vertical Distinct with offices in Malaysia and Australia. She started her entrepreneurial journey in the most unusual way - she got herself a working visa to New Zealand which later landed her in Australia which turned into work for a startup! That startup experience during the heady days of the dotcom boom e...
Apr 22, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Welcome to Season 2 of Womenpreneur Asia! For the next 13 weeks, we will feature 13 incredibly inspiring yet down-to-earth women in business across Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and India. A new episode airs every Friday. In this first episode of Season 2, I am excited to present to you a smart and successful Malaysian entrepreneur, See Wai Hun. Wai Hun is the CEO and co-founder of Juristech, a Malaysian fintech company that provides banking solutions. Since acquiring iMoney in 2020, she is also ...
Apr 15, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 1
This is a bonus episode where Anushia Kandasamy (of Episode 4) decides to reverse the roles and ask me questions! She did a brilliant job as she made me talk about what mattered to me the most and how I ended up doing what I do now. I also had many a-ha moments during the course of our interview as I realised how stories have been a major influence in my life even from a young age. I spoke about being uncomfortable, bored, angry and curious and these emotions catapulted me into starting life-cha...
Apr 08, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 14
This is the episode where I will tell you more about who I am and why I am doing what I am doing right now. I never wanted to be an entrepreneur; all I wanted to do was to do well in my career. I never thought I was a risk-taker. I've been truly blessed and grateful for the amazing opportunities that have come my way. I've co-founded the business I am and I really enjoy helping our clients. I've also co-founded a women entrepreneur organisation in Penang, Malaysia where we grow and nurture women...
Jan 15, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Anja Juliah Abu Bakar is the founder of Athena Holdings Sdn Bhd (formerly Blubear Holdings Sdn Bhd), a Malaysian social enterprise that sells washable cloth pads and other earth-friendly products. Her journey as an entrepreneur has many twists and turns, some hilarious and others quite heartbreaking. But Anja never gives up. She is one determined woman. She was so determined that she decided to go to Paris to pitch someone she didn't even know. In this interview, she also talks about what it mea...
Jan 08, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Rina is a Malaysian entrepreneur who started out as a computer scientist and the classic example of a woman who is able to spot opportunities and turn them into success. Presently, she is an angel investor with investments in businesses across Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. She also serves on several business advisory boards, NGOs & universities. She is also on the board of MATRADE. In this episode, she talks about how she grew up in Rifle Range, Penang and learnt entrepreneurship ...
Jan 01, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Ooi Lay Pheng is the CEO of Berjayapak Sdn Bhd in Penang, Malaysia. She is in the business of providing wood packaging solutions such as pallets, crates and boxes to multinational corporations that need to ship and send their precious cargo all over the world. This is a multi-million ringgit industry but it is also a rough-and-tough business. The wood packaging industry is a challenging industry as sustainable timber resources need to be managed while competitors are aplenty. The factory is usua...
Dec 25, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 10
