Credit: IDG
Channel Asia is proud to announce the winners of the inaugural Women in ICT Awards (WIICTA) in 2020, recognising and celebrating female excellence within the ASEAN channel.
More than 160 individuals tuned in live to celebrate the achievements of a talented group of female front runners who have become influential technology figures across Southeast Asia, reflective of IDG’s increasing commitment to the region.
Zoë Routh delivered the opening keynote - a leadership expert specialising in the "people stuff" - showing leaders and teams struggling with office (or remote working) politics and silos how to work better together.
English-born, Canadian-raised and Australian-adopted, Zoë spent the last 30 years outlining how to navigate the wilderness of "people stuff", working with individuals and groups internationally from the wild rivers of northern Ontario to the remote regions of Australia.
Aligned to 5 Archetypes for Smart and Savvy Leadership, Zoë advised leaders how to select and leverage crucial archetypes for maximum influence, in any context; avoid the shadow archetypes and their destructive patterns and bring your archetypes to life for increased confidence and conviction as a leader.
Specific to the awards, WIICTA honoured the industry across six categories, spanning: Rising Star; Shining Star; Innovation; Technical; Community and Achievement.
After receiving more than 150 nominations, 91 individuals made the final shortlist, spanning Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar, representing more than 40 unique organisations at partner, vendor and distributor levels.
The winners were selected by an executive panel of more than 50 industry judges, acknowledging creativity, innovation and excellence.
WIICTA was launched to operate as a dedicated platform to champion and showcase female excellence across Southeast Asia, from outstanding leaders to emerging talent, including technical experts, innovative thinkers and those holding an unrivalled commitment to the industry.
As outlined during the virtual ceremony, WIICTA represents more than an awards program, evolving into mentorship, alumnae gatherings and executive networking sessions - designed to continually shine a spotlight on diversity and inclusion irrespective of company or location across Southeast Asia.
Leading this charge in ASEAN will be Cherry Yumul - Commercial Director of Channel across Asia Pacific at IDG - building on similar momentum in Australia and New Zealand.
Channel Asia congratulates all finalists, highly commended and winners, and thanks all organisations and individuals for taking the time to submit nominations.
Shining Star
The Shining Star award recognises candidates with eight years or more experience within the industry. This candidate recorded notable achievements during a successful career, evident through promotion or successful project / company initiatives.
Presented by Vicki Batka - Vice President of Partner Organisation, APJC, Cisco
COUNTRY:
Finalists:
- Putri Ayu - Abyor (Indonesia)
- Zoe Shang - AvePoint (Singapore)
- Cherlyn Koay - VMware (Singapore)
- Mary Kristine Morales - Check Point (Philippines)
- Donnabelle Macalino - Delaware (Philippines)
- Feng Mei Yee - Malifax (Singapore)
- Joanna Velez Rodriguez - Microsoft (Philippines)
- XiongLing Cheong - NTT Data (Malaysia)
- Yuna Yeh - Sourced Group (Singapore)
- Tran Thi Phuong Hong - TechX (Vietnam)
- Jaclyn Leong - VMware (Malaysia)
Highly Commended: Mary Kristine Morales - Check Point (Philippines)
Winner: Tran Thi Phuong Hong - TechX (Vietnam)
Ms Hong wins this award in recognition of building an AWS managed services business from the ground up in Vietnam, scaling from 0-50 employees within the space of four months, 39 of which now carry deep cloud specialisation expertise. Drawing on almost 20 years of engineering and management experience, Ms Hong has deep expertise within the Vietnamese enterprise market, recognised for delivering exceptional leadership both at corporate and entrepreneur levels.
REGION:
Finalists:
- Ichita M. Puspa - Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (Indonesia)
- Aileen Tang - Commvault (Singapore)
- Pamela Lim - Dell Technologies (Singapore)
- Kaylee Fung - Google Cloud (Singapore)
- Seet Yan Lin - Hewlett Packard Enterprise (Singapore)
- Garima Singh - Informatica (Singapore)
- Joan Loo - Insight (Singapore)
- Louise Co - NTT (Singapore)
- Rachel Barger - SAP (Singapore)
- Mohita Hattangady - Schneider Electric (Singapore)
- Neema Okal - Google Cloud (Singapore)
- Prachi Shah - Software AG (Singapore)
- Aka Ri - VMware (Myanmar)
Highly Commended: Louise Co - NTT (Singapore)
Winner: Rachel Barger - SAP (Singapore)
Rachel wins this award in recognition of her work combining customer, partner and ecosystem development with female mentorship and coaching at SAP. In addition to driving digital transformation adoption across Southeast Asia, Rachel continues to mentor female rising stars across the industry, whether youths, colleagues or women with technical or non-technical backgrounds.
Rising Star
The Rising Star award recognises candidates with less than eight years experience within the industry, who demonstrate commitment to continuous career advancement with a proven desire to reach the next level of professional development. This candidate is fast growing in importance within the industry, through demonstrating outstanding business acumen and professional integrity.
COUNTRY:
Finalists:
- Thet Phu Lwin - Delaware (Singapore)
- Doreen Goh - Hewlett Packard Enterprise (Singapore)
- Mei Fern Lee - Insight (Singapore)
- Fatin Fatihah Zahari - Microsoft (Malaysia)
- Noemi Encarnacion - NTT Data (Philippines)
- Sheila Marie Graza - Palo IT (Singapore)
- Tish Wong - Sourced Group (Singapore)
- Shirley Zhang - Veeam (Singapore)
- Shruthi Bhaskar - Palo IT (Singapore)
- Emmanuela Hartono - ViBiCloud (Indonesia)
Winner: Fatin Fatihah Zahari - Microsoft (Malaysia)
Fatin wins this award in recognition of her unwavering commitment to self-improvement and enhancement, evident through her approach of completing at least one new certification each month at Microsoft. And such an approach to up-skilling is paying dividends, with Fatin winning two worldwide strategic development awards and two local sub-awards for outstanding work in a cyber security project with a leading oil and gas organisation in Malaysia, delivered during her first 15 months of employment at Microsoft.
REGION:
Finalists:
- Lynette Lim - Cisco (Singapore)
- Tiffany Choong - Google Cloud (Singapore)
- Miracle Lim - Hewlett Packard Enterprise (Singapore)
- Eunice Tan Yar Kiun - Microsoft (Malaysia)
- Boram Kim - Cisco (Singapore)
Winner: Tiffany Choong - Google Cloud
Tiffany wins this award in recognition of her success in switching industries from management consulting to technology three years ago, and excelling at a regional level across Southeast Asia. Motivated by a desire to become an industry leading Chief Operations Officer, Tiffany spearheads multiple large-scale and complex engagements in addition to creating a robust Sales Excellence Program to coach employees on strategic selling, boardroom pitches and customer problem solving.
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