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*Translations are unofficial and provided by Google translate
UN Women 2024 Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards:
Meet the Regional Judges
2024 Regional Judges
Ehsan Malik
CEO & Director, Pakistan Business Council
Ehsan Malik is the Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan Business Council (PBC), a research based business advocacy body representing the leading businesses in Pakistan, including the larger multinational companies from 14 countries. PBC’s objective is to lobby for the transformation of policies and operating environment to achieve sustainable growth, employment, exports and import substitution.
Prior to joining PBC in January 2016, Ehsan was the Chief Executive Officer of Unilever Pakistan for nine years, a period in which the business quadrupled in size. In a 24 year career with Unilever, Ehsan served as CEO of Unilever Sri Lanka, led the consolidation of Unilever’s regional businesses in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria and spent several years in the head office in the UK. Before joining Unilever in 1991, Ehsan worked for a Pakistani conglomerate with interests in media, pharmaceuticals, hotels, tractor assembly and oil lubricants in partnership with Wyeth Laboratories, Intercontinental Hotel Corporation, Ford and Gulf Oil.
Ehsan is Member of the Board of Directors of Abbott Laboratories Pakistan Limited, National Foods Limited, Gul Ahmed Textiles Limited and Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan Limited.
A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, Ehsan is an alumni of the Wharton and Harvard Business Schools.
Harpreet Kaur
Business and Human Rights Specialist, UNDP Asia-Pacific
Harpreet is a Business and Human rights Specialist at UNDP. She provides technical and advisory support to governments and businesses on how to mitigate and address human rights risks and impacts in operations and supply chains in Asia. Previously, Harpreet led Genpact Centre for Women’s Leadership at Ashoka University where she steered the Women, Workplace & Rights agenda and designed cutting-edge programs that enabled women to lead with equality and dignity. At the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Harpreet highlighted corporates’ human rights impacts through her research and writing. In her early years, Harpreet led governance projects in the conflict-ridden Jammu and Kashmir in India using media and communication and supported the track-II diplomacy process. Harpreet serves as a Council Member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Human Rights.
Luis Marquez
Director of Advisory Services, Value for Women Ltd
Luis Marquez has been working for over 15 years in promoting gender equality in the public and private sectors through his work with organizations like the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, United Nations, and dozens of investors and corporations across Asia, Africa and Latin America. At Value for Women, Luis leads projects that provide impact investors, banks and governments with gender-lens advisory support. Luis holds a BS in Business Administration from Boston University and an MA in International Relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
“Applying a gender lens to the workforce, market and value chains of businesses is not rocket science. It is the right and smart thing to do. The WEPs help us by giving us a common language to speak to each other about how to take gender action and learn from each other.”
Neha Das
Neha Das is the Head, Asia & Oceania region at the United Nations Global Compact.
In this capacity, she leads UN Global Compact’s Regional Hub based in Bangkok, Thailand. A seasoned sustainability professional, she has extensive experience in sustainable development within the Asia & Oceania region. In her current role, she has fostered strong collaboration between 15 UN Global Compact Country Networks and offices, and the UN Global Compact Headquarters, while catalyzing partnerships and joint projects with regional stakeholders. She also leads the governance and Quality Standards portfolio for UN Global Compact Country Networks globally. She was previously managing the Anti-Corruption portfolio at the UN Global Compact for several years and has fostered various private sector collective action initiatives around the world.
Neha has also practiced law in India and the State of New York, United States, advising on corporate laws, compliance, and CSR. She holds a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School, USA and a B.A. LL.B (Hons.) degree from National Law Institute University, India.
Samantha Hung
Samantha Hung is Chief of Gender Equity Thematic Group at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) where she provides leadership for advancing gender equality across all aspects of ADB operations. A dual Australian/British national, Samantha has over 20 years of experience in gender equality at project, program and policy levels in the Asia Pacific. Before joining ADB 11 years ago, Samantha held gender specialist roles for the New Zealand Agency for International Development, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, UNICEF, Australian Government and UK Institute of Development Studies.
Maya Juwita
Executive Director, Indonesia Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (IBCWE).
Maya Juwita is the Executive Director of Indonesia Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (IBCWE). Along with the board members, she initiated the establishment of IBCWE in October 2016.
Maya has master degree in business law from University of Gadjah Mada in Indonesia and she is an HR professional with more than 20 years of experience, both in private sector and development sector.
Prior to IBCWE, Maya joined WWF Indonesia as Head of People Development and Management where she developed 3-years roadmap for people development program including internal trainer group for the organization. She spent 4 years as Southeast Asia Regional HR Manager for the World Agroforestry Center and initiated the Junior Scientist Forum, the development program for junior scientist.
Maya Juwita has experience in facilitating various training program such as leadership, people management program, gender bias, anti-sexual harassment and discrimination. As HR practitioner, she has the experience in managing overall people processes including organizational design, diversity & inclusion and change management.
With her experience, Maya is leading the assistance program to IBCWE members in transforming their policies and practices using the gender lens, including diversity and inclusion aspects.
In collaboration with UN Women, Maya is currently seating as judge for Women Empowerment Principles (WEP) Award, for Indonesia and Asia Pacific region.
Maya is appointed as one of advocates for G20 EMPOWER Program, representing Indonesia in G20 forum, along with other business leaders from Indonesia. She also assists the B20 Secretariat to develop policies recommendation from business perspective.
Julia Abad
PBCWE Executive Director.
Ms. Abad has about 20 years of experience working in the fields of politics, public policy, and social development. At present, she is the Executive Director of the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (PBCWE), which advocates for the increased participation and advancement of women in the workplace. She also sits at the Board of Advisors of the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), and at the Board of Trustees of PHINMA Cagayan de Oro College (COC) and Araullo University.
She was the former Head of the Presidential Management Staff from 2010-2016, and Chief of Staff of then Senator Benigno S. Aquino III. Prior to her stint in government. She worked as an educator, lecturing in political science and helping to develop a citizenship curriculum for young children. She has also worked in the non-profit sector as a research and communications specialist. She was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2014 and recognized as one of Manila’s 40 under 40 Leaders in International Development by devex.com in 2013.
Farid Tadros
Senior Operations Officer, WeFi
Farid Tadros joined the World Bank in 2006 and has extensive experience in private sector development working in both regional and global teams. His work has focused on women’s entrepreneurship, climate entrepreneurship, investment climate, and market creation, with the aim of unlocking the potential of the private sector to catalyze growth and create jobs. Since 2019, Farid has been a Senior Operations Officer with the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) Secretariat, housed in the World Bank, where he is leading on We-Fi’s knowledge and research agenda, engagement with global signatories of the WE Finance Code, and developing We-Fi’s priority themes for its call for funding process. Farid has over fifteen years’ experience working with the private sector, intermediaries, and governments to design and implement programs, mobilize stakeholders, and improve development outcomes. Farid has a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Oxford.
Wita Krisanti
Executive Director, IBCWE
Wita Krisanti is an international development professional with more than 20 years of experiences working with public and private sectors in managing and implementing programs for development and private businesses. She spent 13 years in the Australian Aid program, managing a diverse budget portfolio in multi-sector initiatives.
Wita has also held senior roles in managing community development program, managing emergency and post-emergency programs, green partnership initiative and women's economic empowerment. Wita holds a Master degree in Social Anthropology from Monash University, Australia. She is also a certified professional trainer in people's management.
Sarah Twigg
EAP Regional Lead, Gender and Economic Inclusion
International Finance Corporation
Sarah is a distinguished private sector development specialist with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. With a background spanning almost two decades in private sector operations and international development, Sarah has made significant contributions to organizations such as the International Finance Corporation, World Bank, United Nations Development Program, and as a commercial lawyer in New York and New Zealand.
Sarah is currently based in IFC’s Hanoi office, where she leads IFC's gender and economic inclusion work across East Asia and the Pacific. Her work focuses on bridging gender gaps to improve business outcomes and fostering economic development. Sarah spearheads collaborative projects with private sector partners, with a specific emphasis on enhancing women’s employment and corporate leadership opportunities, promoting women's access to financial services and non-financial resources, and supporting women-owned businesses to grow and thrive.
Siriporn Rathie
Gender and Inclusive Development (GID) Advisor at USAID/RDMA.
Siriporn Rathie is the Gender and Inclusive Development (GID) Advisor at USAID/RDMA. In this role, she provides expert guidance on the integration of gender and inclusive development across all phases of the program cycle, including strategic planning, activity design, procurement, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. She also collaborates closely with technical teams to implement the USAID Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Strategy and other GID-related priorities, supporting capacity building, training, and external engagement.
Siriporn holds an MSc in NGOs and Development from the London School of Economics, an MA in Language and Communications from NIDA, and a BA in Western Languages from Chulalongkorn University.
Her previous roles include Thailand Program Manager for UN Women's economic empowerment programs, WeEmpower Asia and WE RISE Together, and Head of Scale at Teach for Thailand. At UN Women, she coordinated projects on women's economic empowerment and migrant workers. She has also worked with development agencies like UNDP and the National Democratic Institute on women's political participation, education, and rights.
Dr. Seema Bhatia Panthaki
Director, Gender Equality Platform, AVPN
Dr. Seema leads the gender equality platform at AVPN, including its strategic direction and the delivery of its gender programming portfolio. This includes engagement with AVPN members, funders, and other impact partners, creation of new partnerships, and bringing unique Asian perspectives and approaches to build on and to further strengthen gender equality outcomes in the region.
Over the last two decades, Dr. Seema has worked in different roles across the public and private sectors, primarily in Africa and South and Southeast Asia. As a grantmaker, she led the design and delivery of program portfolios on economic development, governance, and climate and energy in India, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa with the UK’s FCDO and on strengthening evidence-based policymaking in South and Southeast Asia with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). She has previously worked on research projects in India, Libya, the UAE, and the UK. Most recently, she led projects on gender inclusion in business, finance, and investing in Asia and Africa supported by investors, philanthropic organizations, and other impact partners at Value for Women.
Dr. Seema holds a MSc in Economic Development and Policy from the University of Reading and a PhD in Economics and Business from the Henley Business School, University of Reading. In her voluntary capacity, she also engages with social and impact organizations in India to increase women’s economic and political representation in the country.
2020 Judges
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