Womenpreneur Asia

From disaster risk management to closet consultant and now founder of a fashion tech startup, Eri Kobayashi wants us to rethink how we wear our clothes and at the same time, wants to give women convenient access to other image and styling consultants. Eri’s story starts in the most unlikely of places - Singapore. That’s where she was living for 10 years before she returned to Japan to start her fa...

Episode 1 of Season 4 is about Jomie Casas from The Philippines who helps other entrepreneurs manage their companies remotely.  As the founder of Just Rent a COO, Jomie and her team help clients run their businesses on autopilot so that they can fall in love with their life (and business!) again. Jomie decided to live the life that she wanted because she started questioning assumptions about life,...

Here's a birthday gift to myself and to you too, yes, today is my birthday - I created a short trailer for Season 4 because I felt that this season is going to be super exciting. If you're new to my podcast, please subscribe or check out the website too. If you're a returning listener, thank you for always being with me as I uncover more Asian women entrepreneurs in Asia and their stories. I am co...

In this bonus episode that caps Season 3, I am speaking to Dianne Lee , a Malaysian-born woman who lives and works in Los Angeles, USA.  Dianne is an executive director with Kitchell Corporation, a construction engineering company.  During the global lockdown last year, she decided to write a book that described her own journey as an Asian woman and how she believes Asian women would do well to le...

In this episode, I am speaking to Debbie Choa, co-founder and chief operating officer of Projek57, a social enterprise in Malaysia that focuses on unity and youth. Projek57 began when its founders were dismayed that racial polarisation and religious tension kept rising in Malaysia and believed they needed to do something and enable Malaysians to stand together as one. Debbie and her husband, Colli...

In this week’s episode, I am speaking to Michelle and Melissa Sin of SKB Shutters Corporation Berhad from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  The business had its roots in Penang but since Michelle and Melissa’s father took over, they relocated to Kuala Lumpur as urbanisation in the 80s saw a growing need for their steel products. Michelle and Melissa had worked for KPMG before joining their parents in the m...

In this episode, I spoke to Tanya Rolfe and Christine Yu, two out of the three founders of Sophia. Sophia is a learning platform made for women who want to learn about money and investing and how to put their money towards venture capital funding and angel investment funding to support other women entrepreneurs.  Sophia was born out of the founders' frustrations experienced in the world of investi...

This episode is all about Malaysian entrepreneur, Fiona Marcus Raja who is based in Kuching, Sarawak. She started five businesses in five years since she came back to Sarawak after being away with her family and caring for her son who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that happens to young children. She is the founder and managing director of Borneo International Exhibition Sdn Bh...

Penny Choong of Malaysia is this week's guest. She is the founder of Penny Essentials, a business that helps people enjoy being healthy. Yet years ago, she was suffering from such severe migraine attacks that she couldn’t even get out of bed!  Her story is quite unique in that she was focused on teaching financial education when she came back from the Middle East. Yet life sometimes throws us curv...

This episode is about Padmaja Vaswani from India who manages 3 businesses focusing on learning and development, organisational development in addition to diversity and inclusion.  Padmaja is the Founder & CEO of Siksha Group, which offers learning and development for companies across India. She is also the CEO of NEWS Navigation that specializes in executive coaching and organizational transfo...

This episode is about Thai entrepreneur, Chalita Hongsakul. Chalita is the Managing Director of Wakingbee Corporation based in Bangkok, Thailand.  She doesn’t call herself a fitness freak but came to start a fitness and activewear clothing brand after quitting as a management consultant. It was a desire to get healthy that put her on the entrepreneurial track. While trying to get to the gym, she r...

This episode of Season 3 is with Saliza Abdullah, the Managing Director & CEO, BG Capital Holdings Group of Companies in Malaysia.  Saliza manages a 100% woman-owned security services business - one which belonged to her late mother. The original business offered physical guarding and security services. Since taking over, Saliza has expanded the scope of business to include training and survei...

Titaporn Tuchinda is this week's guest and she is an executive coach, entrepreneur and investor in Thailand with more than one business! She is the Managing Director of The Growth and Change Co., Ltd, Thailand and founder and board member of Brighton College International School just outside of Bangkok. She has also conceptualised and set up two boutique hotels in Chiangmai from scratch! Titaporn...

Jayce Tham co-founded CreativesAtWork with her sister, Fanny, in 2012 and the two sisters couldn’t be more different! Jayce spent years in the corporate world while Fanny was in the creative industry.  The two Singaporean sisters created a pool and network of freelancers in Singapore and across the region to help corporate companies with everything media-related and creative-related such as photog...

This week I speak to Vietnamese startup founder, Laura Phan, the founder & CEO of iZi Community. iZi Community is an online gamification and AI-based education platform made for learners who need snack-sized learning. Interestingly, Laura is a non-tech founder where she leads her team of programmers in connecting learners and content creators in Vietnam.  But this is not her first business. Sh...

Following your dream. After working for a few years in London, Helen came home to Penang, Malaysia to work in the family business. Yet, her heart was always in the arts. She described how she would visit museums and art galleries in London and found that she was always joyful in these places. And that was how she realised she had to pursue her love for the arts and started her design firm, Blanc D...

Welcome to Season 3! We kick off our third season with Yuka Imanishi who is the founder and CEO of CURIO Japan Inc.  Yuka's business started as a B2C business and soon after, became also a B2B business and now she even has a third business due to the pandemic! Due to her innate curiosity for the world at large, her business is all about fostering intercultural relations between international stude...

For the final episode of Season 2, I spoke to Amita Nandy, CEO and Founder of Tact World, Malaysia. Her story has a twist at the end. TACT World began in 1991 when she had to leave full-time work to take care of her family and for 31 years, Amita has been training, coaching and facilitating. She still works with corporate clients but she also now focuses her energy on women. Amita has a passion fo...

This episode is about a Singaporean mumpreneur, Eve Phua who is the founder of Believe Beauty Academy, a beauty and wellness business where she helps women look their best - using products by Mary Kay.  She was top in her personal sales for the Mary Kay Singapore Sales Director Category last year despite it being a challenging year due to the pandemic. She also leads her own team of beauty consult...

In this episode, I spoke to Michelle Yeo who is the Co-Founder and General Manager of Dandy Modern Food in Penang, Malaysia. She has two outlets in Penang with a third planned for Kuala Lumpur. Dandy is an all-day casual eatery, bakery and café serving a massive 150 items on their menu. These contemporary Mediterranean dishes include pastries and desserts.  Michelle who is from Kuching, Sarawak an...

In today’s episode, I spoke to Boonsiri Somchit Ong who is the co-founder and chief conceptualist of Xtrategize Technologies Sdn Bhd based in Penang, Malaysia.  Boonsiri is of Malaysian Thai-Chinese descent and is well known in the multinational corporation circle where she had spent more than 30 years before she left to join her husband, Tony, in the business.  In her previous corporate role, Boo...

This week, I spoke to Radha Mohan Durbha who is the co-founder and director of Kereses Consulting India Private Ltd, India. She started her business when she was 41 and in looking back, she wished she had started much earlier! Kereses Consulting India Private Ltd is a HR consulting business based in Bangalore, India that Radha started with her friend. As a HR recruiter, Radha is responsible for th...

Jaklin Juanis is the founder of Professional Advancements Resources based in Malaysia. Jaklin was born and bred in Kota Belud in rural Sabah, East Malaysia. Her village didn’t have electricity and as a child she studied by candlelight. In this interview, she spoke about how she kept on moving and having the momentum to get out of her challenging situation, and being smart about the resources she h...

In this episode, I spoke to Malaysian entrepreneur Shamala Hinrichsen.  Shamala is the founder of Hanai, a social enterprise that empowers women to take charge of their health.  Her first app, Hanai Jiwa Ibu, targeted at rural Malaysia provides women with access to information about maternal, mental health and domestic violence in addition to a complete doctor’s directory and information on COVID-...

In this episode, I spoke to Cha-Ly Koh who is the CEO & founder of Urbanmetry Sdn Bhd in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Urbanmetry is a data company that cleans and analyses large amounts of city data, through its proprietary algorithms with the purpose of using data to better inform, plan and develop sustainable urban dwellings.  With offices in Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi, Urbanmetry collaborated with...