Facilitators from:            

Do remember to wear Purple, the official colour of the IWD to the event!

Gender inequality in the workplace has persisted for far too long. There is no shortage of research that shows female participation in the workforce is beneficial to the economy and in shaping the minds of our future generation. The gaps in labour force participation between men and women remain large. This uneven playing field comes at a significant economic cost, hampers productivity, and weighs on growth. The implications last far longer than most can see – including implications on retirement inadequacy of women and the role modelling for future generations of our women, and men.

Gender diversity matters. Women and men bring different skills and perspectives to the workplace, including different attitudes to risk taking and collaboration. Studies have shown that the financial performance of companies improves with more gender-equal corporate boards.

IMF research has found that men and women complement each other in the production process, creating an additional benefit from increasing women’s employment on growth. Shockingly, the IMF finds that closing the gender gap could increase GDP by an average of 35%! Whilst four-fifths of these gains could come from adding workers to the workforce, but fully one-fifth of the gains are due to the gender diversity effect on productivity.

In Singapore, women are fortunate to have access to good healthcare, education, support networks and pro-family policies. Still, gender inequality in corporate ranks is persistent and rife. Why is this so?

To address this question, and to examine the fundamental reasons and potential solutions to level the gender imbalance, we have invited a team of esteemed panellists to share their views on this topic.

We look forward to a lively debate. More so, we seek feedback from YOU, our member, to share your views on this topic, and potential solutions, at our annual IWD celebration!

THIS IS A MEMBER AND INVITE ONLY EVENT. Members, please log in and click "Register".

Event Agenda

12.00 pm:     Registration, lunch & networking

12.30 pm:     Opening speech by HSBC

12:35 pm:     Opening speech by FWA

12.40 pm:     Moderator Jennifer Lewis, Managing Director and Head of Communications, GIC introduces the event dynamics

12:45 pm:     5 minutes TED Talk-style presentations by panellists:

                     Panellists:

                     -- Supriti Bezbaruah, Independent Consultant & Researcher on Gender                

                     -- Deanna Ong, Chief People Officer, GIC

                     -- Jalil Rasheed, Chief Executive Officer, Invesco Asset Management Singapore Ltd

                     -- Alan Turner, Managing Director and Head of Commercial Banking, HSBC, Singapore

1:05 pm:      Breakout into smaller groups of 10 for a 10-minute discussion on the chosen topic led by facilitators

1:15 pm:      Two-minute presentation of 2 actionable points by each group

1:40 pm:       Wrap-up by Jennifer Lewis and speakers

1:55 pm:       Event closing

2:00 pm:      Close of event                   

Speaker and Moderator Bios:

Speakers:

Supriti Bezbaruah, Independent Consultant & Researcher on Gender

Dr Supriti Bezbaruah has decades of experience in gender issues. Her book, ‘Banking on Equality: Women, Work and Employment in the Banking Sector in India’ was published by Routledge in 2015. In 2018, she co-edited the book, ‘Financial Security of Older Women: Perspectives from Southeast Asia” published by the Tsao Foundation, Singapore.

Deanna Ong was appointed Chief People Officer in April 2017 to oversee human capital strategy, talent management, leadership and organization development in GIC. She has been responsible for Human Resource & Organization and Corporate Governance since 2012. Ms Ong was Director, Finance from 2009 to 2014, during which she headed the Finance Group responsible for financial management across GIC’s portfolio, covering financing arrangements for assets, tax planning, investment holding structures, accounting and management of group revenue and expenditure. Prior to joining GIC in 1994, she was a tax accountant with Arthur Andersen. Ms Ong is currently a board member of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds.

Ms Ong holds a Bachelor of Accountancy from the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and has completed the Stanford Executive Program.

Jalil Rasheed joined Invesco in 2013 as Chief Executive Officer. Based in Singapore, he leads the Singapore investment team, managing an ASEAN Equity strategy & leads Invesco’s overall business in South East Asia. Prior to joining Invesco, Jalil was with Aberdeen Asset Management. Jalil joined Aberdeen as Graduate Trainee, and in 10 years was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Aberdeen Asset Management in Kuala Lumpur.  Besides managing money, Jalil’s experiences include setting up two greenfield asset management operations, and acquiring and restructuring another.

 

Jalil is a regular commentator on equity markets, having undertaken investment visits to 30 countries. Jalil is a Malaysian national and has lived in 7 countries. Jalil earned his Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics & Political Science in 2003.

 

 

Alan Turner, Managing Director and Head of Commercial Banking, HSBC, Singapore  

Alan is responsible for the Commercial Banking business in Singapore. Banking over 5,000 companies, the division provides products and services across cash management, FX, lending, liquidity management, trade finance and receivables finance for a wide range of businesses from SMEs to large local and multinational corporates.

He joined HSBC from Barclays where he was latterly Global Head of Product – Corporate Banking. Prior to that, he performed a number of capital structuring and origination roles in London, Hong Kong and Sydney (including the formation of Barclays Capital’s leveraged finance business in Asia Pacific) arranging debt and equity transactions for over 100 issuers from 14 different countries.  

Alan has over 25 years of banking experience, having joined the industry as a graduate trainee in 1991 with a degree in Medieval & Modern History from University College London.

Moderator

Jennifer Lewis, Managing Director & Head of Communication, GIC

Ms Jennifer Lewis is responsible for the strategic management of GIC’s internal and external communications activities. She joined the sovereign wealth fund in 2007 after more than twenty years as a journalist with television, print and online experience. She was the founding Editor of both Straits Times TV, Singapore’s first television news organisation owned by a newspaper, as well as STOMP (Straits Times Online Mobile Print), a news website that leveraged online tools to change the way news was received and distributed in Singapore. Jennifer serves on the board of the Singapore International Foundation and has been a Governor since 20007.

RSVP Details:

As we expect this event to be very popular, seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Please sign up early to avoid disappointment. Deadline for RSVP: 1 March 2019. We apologise that requests for places after the deadline will not be entertained.

Members: 

FWA members attend free of charge. Please log in on the website before registering.

Institutional Members: 

Diamond members - Registration at FWA member rates for up to 15 persons per Institutional Member.

Platinum members - Registration at FWA member rates for up to 10 persons per Institutional Member. 

Gold members - Registration at FWA member rates for up to 5 persons per Institutional Member. 

Please click 'RSVP Now' and register using your Institutional Codes (please check with your respective coordinators for your Institutional Code).

THIS IS A MEMBER AND INVITE ONLY EVENT. To become a member, please follow this link.

NO SHOW POLICY

We understand that with busy schedules, there may be times when you cannot make an event after you have registered for it. In the event that you cannot make an event, we appreciate that you use our new tool now available to cancel the event. To do so, please log in to the FWA website, under “My Account”, select “My Events”, you can cancel the event registration under the “Cancel registration” column. For members that no-show for 3 consecutive events, we regret to inform that you will be barred from attending any FWA events for the next 3 months. We hope you understand this policy as our events are often in high demand and your co-operation will allow those who can and wish to attend our events to do so. 

For enquiries, please contact events@fwasg.org