JUDGES

Maria Calibo-Sales
Founder and Chief Advisor
Calmar Corps

Biography

Maria is a proud STEMinist and Zebra Investor. After 23 years working in global multinationals, she founded Calmar Corps – a Profit-for-Purpose Tech Start Up that retrain women transitioning from Domestic Violence Shelters, to have the dignity of flexible and safe employment in the digital economy.    

A woman on a mission, Maria wears many hats. She is an Ambassador for Zonta Foundation for Women, Activator/Investor for SheEO, and Board Director for Disaster Aid Australia. A global contributor to the UN’s #GenerationEquality Action Coalitions, Maria works to transform systems and global policies to dismantle inequity and make room for thriving, sustainable communities. 

James Campbell-Grant
Career Exploitation Opportunist
Centre for Career Excellence

Biography

James spent over 35 years pursuing a Global career in Finance and IT that afforded him the opportunity to explore the world and follow his passion for working with People, embracing continual change and self-development in support of both personal and professional values.

In developing his Coaching practice, James identified what was important to him once leaving the corporate world.  Working with Individuals on their Professional Careers through close partnerships with numerous Mentoring Programs, James has identified key Niche Leadership traits which he has also translated into focusing on Women in Business and driving performance through Organisations.

Li Choo Kwek-Perroy
Managing Director, Life Insurance
AXA Insurance Singapore

Biography

Li Choo Kwek-Perroy is a highly seasoned insurance practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in progressive leadership roles in various core disciplines ranging from Business Strategy & Transformation, Actuarial & Finance, Projects and Tech development & Marketing. She has worked in a mix of roles across Asia, the US and Europe.

Listed in Asia’s Most Influential CMOs by World Brand Congress for 2015, Li Choo last held the role of Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Customer Officer for Manulife.

Li Choo currently sits on the Advisory Board of Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University Singapore.

Irene Lim
Executive Director, Asia Pacific Technology Management Office Singapore Technology Center Manager
J.P. Morgan

Biography

Information coming soon.

James Miles
Director – Asia Pacific Business
Frank Recruitment Group

Biography

James Miles joined Frank Recruitment Group in 2021, bringing with him over 16 years of experience in the staffing industry. Prior to taking on the role of Director (APAC), James was Managing Director at Asia’s leading recruitment service provider, working his way up after joining the company as only its third employee. A graduate of the University of the West of England, James works to develop our service delivery in the APAC region.

Suresh MJ
Senior Consultant
Lee Hecht Harrison

Biography

Suresh MJ is a leadership professional, technology mentor and ICF certified coach with over 30 years of corporate experience. He has coached executives and professionals internally and externally at all levels uplifting their professional aspirations and personal dreams.

Suresh’s motivational encouragement unleashes the inner potentials of individuals enabling them to soar high. He is a passionate Leader who motivates future-proofed sustainable solutions by empowering the team. His service and operations leadership success in technology, government and other sectors, has been accomplished with his focus at people development, people success and people excellence. His “present to listen” approach builds a personal space for the clients to feel the conversational comfort.

Wendy Pryor
Head, Technology Strategy and Delivery
Museums Victoria

Biography

Wendy’s career is characterised by variety. Her many roles across sectors and industries are inspired by digital in its broadest sense, from selecting foundation infrastructure to enabling the hybrid workplace to delivering client services online. Her favourite tools to empower staff and amplify effort are project management in all its guises plus mentoring and encouraging others.

Wendy has found her niche in the cultural sector, specifically at Museums Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. Her values align with those of her workplace – to encourage discovery, build trusted knowledge and nurture a thriving future – where digital enriches onsite visitor enjoyment, expands museum encounters beyond the walls and powers the employee experience.

Swetha Shankar
Director of Software Engineering
Red Hat

Biography

Swetha Shankar has 24+ years of experience leading Product/Project Engineering and Customer Delivery with global/cross functional
teams. She is Director Engineering and Site Leader at Red Hat Bangalore, heading the strategic area of Developer Tools & Product Engineering, which aims to Empower all developers to be efficient, productive & happy using the Red Hat portfolio of products and tools.

Prior to Red Hat, Swetha was Director Engineering of Cisco’s Digital Video Technology delivering products globally for Satellite PayTV market.

She has the versatility to transcend boundaries – from being a strategist and playing an executive leadership role, to that of a technical leader working with the team to implement the laid out strategies.

She has immense experience in building and leading high performing Agile teams and being a catalyst for technology transformations within the organization that  empower delivering successful products to customers globally.

On the personal front, she is a fitness enthusiast and a mother of two boys.

Siew Choo Soh
Managing Director, Group Head of Big Data/AI and Consumer Banking Technology
DBS Bank

Biography

Information coming soon.

Sher-Li Torrey
Founder
Mums@Work

Biography

Sher-li Torrey is the founder & director of Mums@Work (Singapore), which was started in 2010. Trained in various personality profiling tools, she has more than 20 years of corporate experience. Formerly heading the postgraduate team at the Office of Career Services at the Singapore Management University (SMU), she has held various roles in different industries. 

In 2010, following the birth of her daughter, Sher-li started Mums@Work (Singapore) – a social enterprise that supports women. A point of information source for flexi-time work or Mumpreneur business-owners, Mums@Work has more than 41,000 members (end of 2019). In 2016, she started a subsidiary of M@W, Career Navigators – with a focus on bringing women back into the workforce in full-time roles. Through this subsidiary, partnerships with more than 150 MNCs have been established. Under Mums@Work, Sher-li has coached more than 300 Mumpreneur business owners on how to start a small home-based business. 

As founder of Singapore’s first flexible work career portal, Sher-li has spoken to various organisations and local media on Diversity & Inclusion topics, as well as HR-related issues. She is a frequent speaker and article contributor to press and TV on diversity hiring topics. A mother of 2 school-going children, Sher-li strongly advocates a work environment that thrives in allowing employees to have better work-family integration.

Robert Trench
Head of Information Tech
PayPal

Biography

Information coming soon.

Joanne Yang
Global IT Program Manager
HSBC

Biography

Joanne leads the largest and most complex Sub Value Stream for HSBC Life Insurance Company Ltd. Working closely with business and digital transformation partners in an Agile delivery construct, she leads a team of 250+ engineers and delivery leads in delivering the business and technology strategy.  

Based in Hong Kong, she has over 15 years of experience in technology across multiple international insurance companies.  Joanne has a passion for delivering and implementing value at scale, and has worked with start-ups and digital initiatives in Asia, Europe and North America. She is driven by new challenges and an advocate of diversity, change and growth in technology and ways of working.