Please note that lunch will be provided. FWA thanks National Australia Bank for their kind sponsorship of the venue and lunch.

THIS IS A MEMBER AND INVITE ONLY EVENT. To join membership, please follow this link https://www.fwasg.org/Membership/IndividualMember.aspx

“Started by the Suffragettes in the early 1900’s, the first International Women’s Day was celebrated in 1911. International Women’s Day belongs to all communities everywhere – everyone can play a purposeful part in pressing for gender parity.

Collective action and shared responsibility for driving gender parity is what makes international Women’s Day successful.” https://www.internatonalwomensday.com

Embracing collective action, FWA IWD 2018 seeks to PRESS FOR PROGRESS – TAKING ACTION TOGETHER

In 2017, the FWA IWD event successfully featured the ground-breaking pledge by our Male Champions to target 30% of women in senior leadership roles in Singapore by 2020.

Once again, FWA considers the IWD theme for the year and makes it relevant to our members – female and male members in the financial services industry.

Women comprise one half of the world’s population and talent pool, yet gender parity is over 200 years away (World Economic Forum 2017 Global Gender Gap Report). Some of us feel that the pace of progress, with more men and women taking action together, should be faster. There is no better time than now to press forward and progress gender parity and inclusion.

Gender Parity cuts across the economic, education, health and political arenas. Empirical studies have shown that improving global gender parity could increase global GDP.

In the financial services industry, press for progress continues for gender pay equality, fair promotion of women and women representation in senior leadership roles.

What further progress are we pressing for? How can we engage more men and women to care? What can we do together?

This event shall highlight how Singapore, in terms of gender equality, compares to the rest of the world and how the latest data is analysed and prioritised to take appropriate action. The panellists will explore why gender gap issues persist, the initiatives that are working and how we can collectively build alliances to further empower women in the workplace.

Gender Parity will take time and it will certainly happen quicker by all of us Taking Action Together!

Event Agenda

SPEAKER PROFILES

FREDDIE ALVES

Managing Director, Talking Talent

Freddie is one of the most experienced leaders and consultants in the field of inclusion and diversity (I&D). For nearly 20 years he has been helping organisations make sense of how their specific business is affected by diversity. He helps them use that knowledge to build strategies for better performance in key areas such as customer satisfaction, market share or talent retention and engagement.

Freddie’s early career as a scientist and business manager in the Energy industry highlighted the challenges created by differences among the individuals, cultures and systems. Yet it also highlighted the business value of understanding and managing diversity well. 

While he grew up and was educated in the UK, Freddie has spent most of the last 20 years living in Asia, America and other parts of Europe. Most recently he lived with his partner in Singapore for 4 years while working as an in-house I&D leader – for Credit Suisse and then as Global Head of I&D for the Rio Tinto Group. This in-house experience ensures that Freddie has a pragmatic view of how to approach I&D in challenging business conditions and fast-moving cultures. 

CHRISTY TAN

Head of Markets Strategy & Research, Asia, National Australia Bank

Christy Tan is the Head of Markets Strategy and Research for Asia within the Corporate & Institutional Banking department in National Australia Bank (NAB).

Since joining NAB, Christy has built the Asia research platform and is an active contributor to NAB’s expansion drive into China and the region. Christy spearheaded Asia research and publication related to Asia, China and the RMB.

Christy joined NAB in July 2014 from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where she held the Senior Director role within the Asia fixed income and currencies team. In the nine years with BAML, Christy was based in Singapore and has developed strong clientele relationships including key corporates and MNCs, as well as financial institutions. Christy has a Master of Business Administration from University of Manchester and a Bachelor of Science (Economics) from the National University of Singapore.

Christy is a proud mother of a seventeen year old boy and a six year old girl and the family enjoys travelling together. Christy is an active member of Connecting Women Asia in NAB, which is an employee-led women networking platform and has led some initiatives, for instance Cherish Food project, when she was based in HK for 3.5 years.  

NG CHIANG LING

Asia CEO, M&G Real Estate

Chiang Ling Ng is Chief Executive Officer of M&G Real Estate Asia.

Chiang Ling joined M&G in 2014 and was a director of acquisitions prior to taking on her current role in 2016.  She started her career in real estate investing in 1998 with the real estate principal investment division of Goldman Sachs and brings to M&G broad experience in investing across property sectors and the capital structure, including real estate-related debt and pre-IPO investments in key markets of Asia Pacific.

Chiang Ling is a graduate of Princeton University, U.S.A and holds a B.S.E. degree in Electrical Engineering.

VIKRAM NAIR

Head, India Desk, Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP

Practice Area: Commercial Litigation, International Arbitration, Construction & Projects

Vikram is qualified in both Singapore and English law and specialises in international arbitration and commercial and corporate litigation with particular experience in handling complex, multi-jurisdictional disputes in sectors such as banking, finance, oil & gas, manufacturing, mining, construction and property development.

Vikram has previously worked as a management consultant in McKinsey, in the dispute resolution team of an international law firm and the litigation team of another major Singapore firm. His work experience has focused on the South East Asian region, especially in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

As a student, Vikram was educated at Trinity College at Cambridge University, where he won the Lizette Bentwich Prize for law in 2002. He was also Director of Debating at the Cambridge Union Society and ranked amongst the top debaters at international competitions.

Vikram is also Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC. He is Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Defence and Foreign Affairs and Chairman for the Parliamentary Friendship Group for India.

BOBBY MOLU

Chief Financial Officer, Asia Pacific, Mastercard

Bobby Molu currently serves as Chief Financial Officer, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. He is responsible for all financial functions in the Asia Pacific region, including Corporate Planning, Financial Analysis, New Markets and Investments, Accounting, Controls and Regional Finance.

Before joining Mastercard, Mr. Molu was Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Aruba Networks. After HPE’s acquisition of Aruba in May 2015, Mr. Molu led the finance division as the global Chief Financial Officer and completed the integration of the acquisition while driving efficiencies and growth in the organization.

Prior to this role, Mr. Molu was the Chief Financial Officer/Vice President at APJ Enterprise Services where he lead the region towards the largest ever year-over-year profit improvement plan of 500 basis points and restructuring of the workforce to significantly increase the offshore labor mix. Mr. Molu also spent time in ANZ, successfully leading the turnaround of the largest sub-region in AP. 

In a career spanning close to two decades, Mr. Molu has worked in numerous financial roles. He has been a key force behind the financial and operational performance of the organizations he has worked in.

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:

Seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Please sign up early to avoid disappointment. Deadline for RSVP: 1 March 2018. We apologise that requests for places after the deadline will not be entertained.

Members:

FWA members attend free of charge. Please login 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).

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 login 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 please contact events@fwasg.org