Table of Contents
The women of the third annual 50 Over 50: Asia list hail from 14 countries and territories and more than two dozen sectors of work. They’re exerting their influence on fashion, pharma, finance and beyond—and they’re doing so at 54, 68 and even 112. Here are the 50 founders, CEOs and innovators across Asia-Pacific proving that the years after 50 are the new golden age.
View the list: A-G
58 | Founder-Creative Director, Sacai | Japan
Chitose Abe
Abe established the Tokyo-based luxury fashion brand in 1999. Renowned for its geometric and graphic aesthetic, Abe’s unique designs have gained admiration from celebrities like Pharrell Williams, Gwyneth Paltrow and Michelle Obama, and collaborations with brands such as Cartier, Moncler and Nike. Sacai debuted at Paris Fashion Week in 2009, followed by the opening of its Tokyo flagship store two seasons later. Today, Sacai is found in over 90 global boutiques, including Biffi in Milan and Joyce in Hong Kong, and Abe continues to own 100% of her business.
76 | Singer | Japan
Junko Akimoto
In her late 50s, Akimoto released her first record on a major label in 2005 and debuted on public broadcaster NHK’s Kohaku TV program in 2008 at 61, making her the oldest person to make a first appearance on the New Year’s Eve singing contest. Her song “Ai no mama de” (Remaining in Love) hit No. 1 on Japan’s Oricon charts in 2009, making her the oldest singer to top the singles rankings in Oricon history. Akimoto continues to hold live events today.
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photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
68 | Founder-Designer, BINhouse | Indonesia
Josephine Komara
With a history of weaving silk for upholstery, Komara—also known as Obin—is a Chinese-Indonesian designer who began intertwining batik prints with hand-woven silk. She opened the first BINhouse showroom in Jakarta in 1986 and now has outlets in Japan, Bali, Singapore and The Netherlands, along with other global resellers. In 2010, Obin designed uniforms for Garuda Indonesia, the nation’s airline, and her kain panjang (“long cloth”) has been exhibited at Sydney’s Powerhouse Collection since 2012. Showcasing at the 2024 Jakarta Fashion Week stage, Obin’s designs have adorned celebrities like Oka Antara and Miss Grand Indonesia 2020.
53 | Publisher-Executive chair, Stuff Group | New Zealand
Sinead Boucher
After 28 years working as a journalist for The Press in Christchurch, Boucher bought the publication’s parent company Stuff for NZ$1, becoming its CEO in 2020. Since then, she turned the company around, increasing its readership and launching “Our Truth, Our Truth, Tā Mātou Pono,” a project investigating historical events in New Zealand to better understand prejudice against the indigenous Māori and other communities. Boucher recently restructured the company, stepping down as CEO for the executive chair and publisher position, aiming to prepare the company for coming changes from AI. Last July, she was elected chair of New Zealand’s News Publishers Association.
60 | Governor, Reserve Bank of Australia | Australia
Michele Bullock
In September 2023, Bullock made history when she became the ninth governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the first woman to helm the central bank. The appointment came a little less than 18 months after her promotion to deputy governor. Bullock grew up in the regional town of Armidale and earned a master’s at the London School of Economics. She joined RBA as an analyst in 1985. “I am very conscious that I provide [other women] with the realization that they, too, can move up,” Bullock said in an interview last year.
55 | President, Kering Greater China | China
Jinqing Caroline Cai
Since Cai took the helm of Kering Greater China in 2018, she has looked to inject sustainability into the luxury group with projects like K Generation Awards to promote more eco-friendly innovations in fashion. Cai has long been on the cutting edge, including cofounding the PR firm Brunswick Beijing to manage multinational brands and Christie’s auction house’s first China-based managing director. Cai is on the boards of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Teach for China. She left China in 1989 and earned degrees from Wellesley College and Princeton University before returning to start a PR firm in Beijing.
54 | Incoming CEO, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing | Hong Kong
Bonnie Chan
Current co-COO Chan was named the first female chief executive officer of one the world’s top 10 stock exchanges, scheduled to take over in May 2024, as the stock exchange operator requires more female representation on all listed company boards. Chan is a veteran of HKEX, having worked as head of listing since 2020, and led the IPO department a decade before. Chan also has worked as a corporate attorney, serving as a partner in Hong Kong for the global firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.
56 | Chair, Novetex Textiles | Hong Kong
Ronna Chao
Chao assumed leadership of her family’s textile business, Novetex Textiles, in 2010. Returning to Hong Kong after working for U.S. corporations, she noticed how much waste Hong Kong’s garment industry produced. She pushed her family’s company to develop The Billie, a new model of upcycling old fabrics without wasting water. Chao also helms other businesses created by her family, including corporate investor Novel Investment Partners, electronic component manufacturer Novelpark Investments, and the education enterprise Bao Xian Asia Institute.
66 | Cofounder-Vice Chair, Puregold | Philippines
Susan Co
Co is one-half of the power couple (with a combined net worth of $2.3 billion) that founded the Philippines’ affordable supermarket chain Puregold, which has grown popular with the middle class and has more than 300 stores nationwide. Co also is vice-chair of Cosco Capital, a retail holding company with stakes in commercial real estate and liquor distribution businesses, and holds directorship in dozens of other companies. Last year Puregold acquired 14 branches of rival supermarket Divimart, with plans to snap up more of its competitor’s locations.
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photo by Michael Tran/AFP/Getty Images
96 | Actress | China
Lisa Lu
Lu, a Chinese-born actress, boasts a five-decade-long cinematic career, starring in over 300 films, plays and TV shows across Eastern and Western stages. She became the first from the Chinese mainland to conquer Hollywood and the inaugural Chinese member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Lu has garnered accolades, including three Golden Horse Awards and the 2019 Outstanding Achievement in Cinema honor at The Asian Awards. Lu remains vibrant, contributing to a 2022 documentary and voicing a role in the 2023 animated comedy “Rally Road Racers.”
64 | Peace Negotiator | Philippines
Miriam Coronel-Ferrer
For her efforts in conflict resolution and gender inclusivity, Coronel-Ferrer was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in November 2023, the prestigious annual prize for improving life in Asia. During the 1970s, she fought against martial rule and became a key figure in resolving post-dictatorship armed conflicts. She played a pivotal role in the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, a model of gender-responsive provisions and inclusive peace processes. Coronel-Ferrer, a former professor, cofounded the Southeast Asian Women Peace Mediators in 2020. More women at the peace table, she says, “would have a direct impact on their lives.”
54 | Actress | Philippines
Dolly de Leon
Filipino actress de Leon gained international acclaim for her role as Abigail in the satirical 2022 film “Triangle of Sadness.” The Palme d’Or-winning film earned her a BAFTA nomination and she is the first Filipino nominated for a Golden Globe. She is also the first Filipino member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, after acting for three decades while juggling her role as a single mother of four. De Leon recently starred in two U.S.-made films, “Between The Temples” and “Ghostlight,” which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
57 | Chair Professor, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | Hong Kong
Pascale Fung
Fung, chair of HKUST’s electrical and computer engineering department, is a widely-cited expert in conversational AI and ethics surrounding the field. Raised by two professional artists, Fung took to science at a young age with a creative perspective, inspiring her fascination with AI hallucination and combating computer-generated bias. The Columbia University computer science Ph.D. is currently part of the IEEE Working Group to create recommended practices for governing AI and serves as an expert for the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council.
52 | CEO-President, Medilink Networks | Philippines
Esther Go
Go has led the electronic health-tech firm Medilink for nearly 20 years, growing the company to connect more than 200,000 physicians with more than two million patients in the Philippines. She also serves as director of other Philippines corporations, including Equicom Health Services, Equicom Savings Bank, Security Bank, among others. Go earned her MBA at Harvard University and worked as a VP for CitiGroup in New York until 2005, when she returned to the Philippines.
86 | Author | New Zealand
Patricia Grace
Grace is one of New Zealand’s preeminent writers, publishing seven novels and dozens of short stories that capture the country’s culture and society and emphasize experiences of the indigenous Māori people. Grace was one of the first Māori writers to publish, releasing her first work, the short story collection “Waiariki” in 1975, followed by her first novel “Mutuwhenua: The Moon Sleeps” in 1978. Grace was celebrated with the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in 2006 and won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2008.
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67 | Actor | Indonesia
Christine Hakim
Known as the Grand Dame of Indonesian cinema, Hakim celebrated 50 years in film in 2023, adorned with nine Citra Awards and a Festival Film Indonesia (FFI) Lifetime Award in 2016. Notable roles include “Eat Pray Love” (2010), “Perempuan Tanah Jahannam” (2019), and her latest appearance in episode 2 of the HBO series “The Last of Us” (2023). She has contributed to the Cannes Film Festival as a jury member and assumed the role of FFI Ambassador in 2023. Beyond the silver screen, Hakim served as Indonesia’s goodwill ambassador for UNESCO from 2008 to 2020.
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photo by Ayala Land
54 | President-CEO, Ayala Land | Philippines
Anna Ma. Margarita B. Dy
Dy took the helm at Ayala Land in October, becoming the first female CEO of the Philippines’ second-largest property developer by market value. Her rise comes as the company—the real estate arm of the Ayala Group, a conglomerate controlled by billionaire Jaime Zobel de Ayala and his family—accelerates the launch of residential projects to meet surging housing demand. Before she was appointed CEO, the Harvard M.BA. alum oversaw many of the firm’s luxury housing projects as chief operating officer and head of its residential business group.
80 | Artist | Singapore
Han Sai Por
Han, a renowned Singaporean sculptor, has earned acclaim for over four decades, marking a transformative journey sparked by her mother’s gift of a Michelangelo book at age 10. Despite a long teaching career, she pursued her artistic dream later in life, becoming a pivotal figure in Singapore’s art scene. Awarded the Singapore Cultural Medallion in 1995, her impactful stone sculptures adorn global locations, including Changi Airport, Istana, and Australia’s Parliament House. Han’s contribution to culture and education was recognized in the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame in 2014.
53 | Founding Member, Kiko Network | Japan
Kimiko Hirata
At age 50, environmental activist Hirata became the first Japanese woman awarded the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize, considered the “Green” Nobel Prize. Hirata played a pivotal role in canceling more than a dozen coal power plants and averting the release of 1.6 billion tons of CO2. After college, Hirata quickly transitioned from a publishing career to climate advocacy. She is a founding member and board member of the Kiko Network, an NGO founded in 2018 to combat climate change. She earned a Ph.D. in social sciences from the Waseda University in 1999.
59 | CEO, Team Global Express | Australia
Christine Holgate
Holgate took the helm of Team Global Express in 2021 after Australian private equity firm Allegro Funds bought the logistics company for A$7.8 million dollars ($6 million) from Japan Post. Two years later, she delivered 17% revenue growth for the 2023 financial year. In a move to greener transport, Team Global struck an 11-year A$1.8 billion dollar deal last February to ship freight over the nation’s rails. Born and raised in the U.K., Holgate has been a chief executive twice before, including at the Australia Post, where she was pushed to resign in 2020 and later received a court-mediated $A1 million termination payment.
59 | CEO, Samyang Roundsquare | South Korea
Kim Jung-soo
Kim was appointed CEO of Samyang Roundsquare in August, becoming one of a few female leaders helming a family-owned conglomerate in deeply patriarchal South Korea. Samyang Roundsquare is best known for its $1.2 billion market cap Samyang Foods unit, a Forbes Asia Best Under a Billion company where Kim, who married into the Samyang family, helped make it one of the hottest food makers in the country. At Samyang Foods, where Kim is also CEO, she invented its super-spicy (and super popular) brand of instant noodles, called “Buldak”—which means “fire chicken” in Korean.
56 | Global CEO, SK-II | South Korea
Lee Sue-kyung
Lee leads the renowned beauty brand SK-II, becoming the first female global CEO of the company in 2022. Lee has been with SK-II’s parent company Procter & Gamble for nearly three decades, serving as the group’s first female CEO of P&G Korea in 2012 before moving into SK-II. She has championed women’s leadership in the company, including hiring more women to managerial levels and standardizing maternity leave benefits across Asia Pacific markets.
67 | Chair, Singapore Power Limited | Singapore
Leong Wai Leng
Leong is the chair of Singapore Power Limited, the state-owned grid operator and a leading utility provider in the region. She has previously led Temasek Holdings as chief financial officer and later Temasek International’s Singapore projects. Leong worked at Temasek since 2006 and has significant shareholder status in the company, and before that held roles on different boards, including those of Singapore Health and NTUC Enterprise Co-operative. She also held the title of CEO at Raffles Holdings.
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photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
55 | Artist | Australia
Kylie Minogue
Minogue, the Australian pop icon, became the first woman over 50 to crack the UK’s Radio 1 Playlist. Her 2024 Grammy-nominated single, “Padam Padam,” topped the UK charts, marking her first No 1 in over a decade. Featured in her 2023 album, “Tension,” the song sparked debate from Radio 1 and Capital over its merit and target audience, which were called ageist and sexist. However, Minogue’s devoted LGBTQ+ fanbase declared it the 2023 summer anthem, generating viral TikTok content. Minogue is a Grammy-winning artist with over 80 million album sales.
58 | Cofounder and General Partner, MPower Partners | Japan
Kathy Matsui
Matsui has consistently evangelized for social responsibility in Japan’s corporations. Most recently, at age 56, she cofounded and now serves as a general partner for Mpower Partners, Japan’s first ESG-focused venture capital firm. During her 26 years at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo, she researched diversity in corporate governance, with the late PM Shinzo Abe adopting her “Womenomics” research in Japan’s reform policy. Matsui, a Harvard University graduate, wrote the 2020 book, “How to Nurture Female Employees,” and has advised corporations on diversity.
54 | CEO, Aditya Birla Capital | India
Vishakha Mulye
At age 53, Mulye became the CEO of Aditya Birla Capital Limited, which controls finances for the $65 billion (revenue) Indian conglomerate Aditya Birla. She spent some 30 years in the banking industry prior, predominantly with ICICI Group, where she started in 1993, eventually serving as executive director of the ICICI Bank until she switched workplaces in 2022. Mulye is credited with growing ICICI Bank via a merger in 2002. At Aditya Birla Capital, she launched Udyog Plus, a B2B platform offering credit and services to micro, small and medium businesses, and has promised more support for the growing sector.
61 | Author | Thailand
Veeraporn Nitiprapha
Veeraporn is the first woman to be awarded the Southeast Asian Writers Awards twice, in 2015 and 2018. Her second novel, “Memories of the Memories of the Black Rose Cat,” explores the complexities of Chinese-Thai migration and identity and was translated into English in 2022. Veeraporn’s debut, “The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth,” sold 200,000 copies and became a poignant expression amid Thailand’s political landscape. Veeraporn’s storytelling style has been described as “feverish” and “magical.”
53 | Vice Chair-Joint Managing Director, Vardhman Textiles | India
Suchita Oswal Jain
A third generation entrepreneur, in 2019 Oswal Jain became vice chair and joint managing director at her family’s business, Vardhman Textiles. Under her leadership, Vardhman expanded to over 1,500 looms and 18 facilities, with over 30,000 employees producing 240,000 metric tons of yarn and 220 million meters annually. As India’s second-largest textile business with Rs 9,847-crore ($1.18 billion) FY22 revenues, Vardhman exports to nearly 60 countries, serving clients like GAP, Uniqlo and H&M. Oswal Jain’s accolades include the Outstanding Woman Leader 2021 award and ET Inspiring Women Leaders 2022 North. She was educated at Panjab University, London Business School and INSEAD Paris.
84 | Entomologist | Thailand
Rampa Rattanarithikul
Rampa is a Thai entomologist renowned for her work in mosquito biology. Beginning as a lab technician for the United States Operations Mission (USOM) malaria control program, Rampa has discovered nearly two dozen mosquito species. Notably, two species bear her name: Anopheles rampae and Uranotaenia rampae. She was awarded the American Mosquito Control Association’s John N. Belkin Memorial Award in 2011. Rampa and her husband established the Museum of World Insects and Natural Wonders in Chiang Mai in 1999.
57 | Film Director-Founder, Current Pictures | Malaysia
Tunku Mona Riza
Riza won Most Promising Director for “Redha” at the Malaysia Film Festival 2017. Inspired by a true story, the film depicts the challenges of raising an autistic child and was selected as the country’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards. Riza established her production house, Current Pictures, in 1999. Her 2023 film, “Rain Town,” is Malaysia’s first Chinese-language film by a Malay female director. Premiering in February 2024, it was screened at last year’s Vancouver Asian Film Festival and the International Film Festival of India in Goa.
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photo by Kosuke Okahara/Bloomberg
63 | CEO, Suntory Beverage & Food | Japan
Makiko Ono
Last March Ono became the first woman to take the reins at Suntory Beverage & Food, the listed arm of storied drinks maker Suntory Holdings. Her move makes her the first woman to head a Japanese company with a market cap of over one trillion yen, according to the company, and a role model for Japanese women seeking top corporate positions. “I hope that women will not give up and will seize whatever chances come their way,” she said in an interview last December. Ono joined Suntory in 1982 straight out of college, where she studied Portuguese. As CEO, she says her goal is “high-quality growth as a truly global beverage company.”
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67 | Cofounder-Architect, SANAA | Japan
Kazuyo Sejima
Sejima has won numerous accolades with fellow architect Ryue Nishizawa, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2010, and was appointed the first female director of the Venice Architecture Biennale that same year. In 1995, the pair cofounded the Tokyo-based architectural firm SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates), known for its minimalist, airy designs. High-profile commissions include New York’s New Museum of Contemporary Art (2007) and the renovation of the La Samaritaine department store (2020) in Paris.
62 | Artist | India
Dayanita Singh
In 2022 Indian photographer Singh became the first artist of South Asian descent to win the distinguished Hasselblad Award and its 2 million Swedish krona ($195,000) in prize money. She is celebrated for her elegant black-and-white style, representations of human connections and hybrid “book objects.” Boasting a three-decade career, she’s published 14 books and has been featured in global exhibitions, including her largest to date which toured Europe last year and served as a Jury Member for the Serendipity Arles Grant in 2020.
55 | President Director-CEO, XL Axiata | Indonesia
Dian Siswarini
Siswarini has literally climbed to great heights throughout her career at the $1.9 billion in revenue telecommunications firm XL Axiata. She started at the company as a radio network designer in 1996, and was occasionally required to climb cell towers for her job. She continued to rise above stereotypes about women in STEM, becoming president of XL Axiata in 2015, one of the first female executives in Indonesia’s tech industry. Siswarini presided over important partnerships for the company, including acquiring Indonesia’s PT Link Net and landing a joint venture with Singapore’s Princeton Digital Group.
64 | Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs | India
Nirmala Sitharaman
Sitharaman was appointed to lead India’s Finance and Corporate Affairs ministries in 2019, and has had a hand in leading the country to become the fifth-largest economy in 2022. Sitharaman joined India’s ruling group, the Bharatiya Janata Party, in 2006. She has served as a parliamentarian as well as defense minister, where she led during the controversial Balakot airstrike against Pakistan and then faced accusations of accepting kickbacks on an aircraft deal. As finance minister, she has attempted to combat corruption in India.
67 | Attorney | Malaysia
Ambiga Sreenevasan
This past year, Sreenevasan, a prominent Malaysian lawyer and human rights advocate, earned the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Medal of Honor and the Gandhi Memorial Trust Public Service Award. As the second female president of the Malaysia Bar Council, she orchestrated the influential “March for Justice” and chaired Bersih 2.0, advocating for free and fair elections. A founding member of the Women’s Aid Organisation, she now serves as President of the Pure Life Society, a charitable home for orphans and the underprivileged. She holds a law degree from the University of Exeter, UK.
65 | Executive Director, APEC Secretariat | Malaysia
Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria
In 2019, Sta Maria was appointed the executive director of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Secretariat, the first woman to lead the 21-member inter-governmental economic advisory body. Before promoting the whole region, she spent a decade shaping Malaysia’s contributions to the global economy, serving as deputy secretary-general, and then secretary-general and lead trade negotiator for the country’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry. She has also represented the region at the World Economic Forum and previously was a non-executive director for RHB Bank.
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67 | Cofounder-Chief Technology Officer, C.E. Info Systems | India
Rashmi Verma
Since cofounding C.E. Info Systems in 1995 Verma has helped map nearly 18 million locations and 6.6 million kilometers of roads countrywide. The $1.4 billion company (market cap) behind navigation app Mappls, the Delhi-based firm—better known as MapmyIndia—provides users with directions, traffic updates and poor road conditions. The consumer app is free, with over 10 million downloads, although Mappls also licenses its data and software to automotive, banking and e-commerce clients.
Customer numbers grew over 40% in the past fiscal year, while revenue and net profit nearly doubled to 2.8 billion rupees ($34 million) and 1.1 billion rupees, respectively, in the two years ending March 2023. “We are bringing out better products by incorporating newer tech,” says Verma, including drone services and Traffic AI, a way to convert movement data to traffic analytics.
Verma studied chemical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee and has a master’s in operations research and computer science from Eastern Washington University. Before launching the company with her husband, Rakesh, Verma worked as a systems engineer and database specialist at IBM.
59 | Group CEO, Dusit International | Thailand
Suphajee Suthumpun
Suphajee is driving the Thai hospitality group’s 46-billion-baht ($1.3 billion) project to redevelop the prestigious Dusit Thani Bangkok hotel into a modern mixed-use development. Located in the heart of Bangkok, the Dusit Central Park project will comprise a hotel, luxury residences, retail and office spaces when it fully opens in 2025. Since Suphajee became Group CEO in 2016, Dusit’s hotels and resorts have grown from 27 properties in eight countries to about 340 across 20 countries. She also established new lines of business, including food production and catering, and aims to list Dusit Foods by early 2025.
112 | Environmentalist | India
Saalumarada Thimmakka
Thimmakka is lovingly referred to as the “mother of trees.” Diagnosed with infertility at 40, a humble initiative to build a legacy with her husband grew into planting over 8,000 trees in India, including 385 banyan trees lining the highway between Hulikal and Kudur. Thimmakka’s environmental dedication earned her India’s National Citizens Award in 1995 and a Certificate of Honour from the World Book of Records in 2022. Despite widespread recognition, she lived in poverty until the Karnataka State government built her a house in 2014.
93 | Pharmacologist | China
Tu Youyou
In 2015, Tu became the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize. She’s renowned for her discovery of artemisinin, a potent drug combating malaria. Tu’s journey began with a personal mission to study medicine after overcoming tuberculosis at 16. Leading a project against chloroquine-resistant malaria in 1967, Tu turned to ancient Chinese texts, ultimately extracting artemisinin from sweet wormwood. Her pharmaceutical invention has saved millions of lives and is described as one of the most important discoveries in the last half-century.
78 | Singer | Vietnam
Bach Tuyet
Nguyen Thi Bach Tuyet (full name) is a household staple in Vietnam, known for “Cai luong” – a modern form of traditional opera. She earned a philosophy Ph.D. in 1985 and, in her 60s, was recognized as a People’s Artist, the nation’s highest recognition for people in the creativity industry. She won the TikTok Awards Vietnam in Music of the Year in 2022 for “Về Nghe Mẹ Ru – Coming home to listen to Mommy’s Lullaby.” Her collaborations with contemporary art forms such as hip-hop has generated nearly 20 million views, and she is now working on a 2024 game show.
68 | Chair, The Mall Group
Supaluck Umpujh
Supaluck leads one of Thailand’s largest mall operators, aiming to elevate the levels of luxury in the country’s sprawling commercial structures and attract more foreign tourists. She has a net worth of $2 billion according to Forbes’ analysis, driven by her majority stakeholder position in the group founded by her father, Supachai Umpujh. Her family’s properties include the Siam Paragon mall, The Emporium and Bluport Hua Hin, among others. Her newest commercial and luxury residential complex, Emsphere, opened in Bangkok in December with an estimated project value of $572 million.
89 | Cofounder-Co-owner, TOGA Group | Australia
Charlotte Vidor
Vidor’s observations about the lack of comfort in hotels inspired her and her husband Ervin to create Medina Serviced Apartments, their first successful venture. The Vidors, both Holocaust survivors, entered the property business in the 1960s in Sydney, which evolved into TOGA Group’s chain of apartments, hotels and other property services. The couple, whose net worth is now estimated at AU$1.28 billion ($858,000), employ more than 2,000 people across Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Last year, Vidor’s property empire partnered with Singapore’s Far East Orchard, opening an 88-unit complex on the prominent Orchard Road.
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52 | Managing Partner, AC Ventures | Singapore
Helen Wong
Wong has spent more than two decades with her finger on the pulse of China’s startup and tech industries, quickly identifying successful entrepreneurs. At age 50, Wong joined AC Ventures in Singapore as a managing partner after working for prominent Chinese VC firms Qiming Ventures and GGV Capital. She is credited with leading investments into some of China’s most dynamic internet companies, including China’s Mobike and Tudou/Youku. With AC, she spotted Indonesia’s fintech platform Akulaku, a unicorn that recently obtained $200 million in funding from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
Wang Laichun
Factory worker-turned-billionaire Wang is now giving her former employer a run for the money. She chairs Luxshare Precision Industry, a $30 billion (market cap) iPhone and AirPods assembler and parts supplier that has snatched market share of Apple’s supply chain from Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn). Wang, who spent a decade working at Foxconn’s factory floor in Shenzhen before founding Luxshare in 2004 with her brother, Wang Laisheng, told Chinese state media last September her company had won contracts to assemble Apple’s mixed reality Vision Pro headset. A month later, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that Luxshare is also making the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
53 | CEO, ANZ Bank New Zealand | New Zealand
Antonia Watson
Watson became acting CEO of ANZ’s New Zealand operations in May 2019 following the sudden departure of the former CEO amid an expenses scandal. She was made permanent that December and has since been a steady hand at New Zealand’s largest bank (by assets). Watson held senior roles at the bank for a decade after joining in 2009 from Morgan Stanley. In 2021 ANZ NZ published a nationwide “Watch Women Win” report. This year it was renamed “Watch Wāhine Win” (women in Māori) to emphasize the company’s “commitment to work for a better future for Māori,” Watson wrote.
66 | Artist | Taiwan
Mali Wu
After returning from studying in Germany in 1985, the “godmother” of Taiwan’s socially engaged art blended Western concepts with Taiwanese culture. In 2016, she became the first woman to receive Taiwan’s National Award for Arts and later co-curated the 11th Taipei Biennale in 2018. Her 2022 ongoing project, “Food First–an art-based research project,” during a Rockefeller Foundation residency, utilized food to uncover Taiwan residents’ migration narratives. Wu is an associate professor at the National Kaohsiung Normal University.
63 | Film Director | South Korea
Yim Soon-rye
Trailblazing South Korean film director Yim has directed 13 movies over three decades. In 2023, her film “Point Men,” fictionalizing the 2007 Korean hostage rescue in Afghanistan, broke ground as the first mainstream blockbuster helmed by a woman with an $11 million budget. Beginning her cinematic journey in 1996, Yim’s acclaimed films include “The Waikiki Brothers” and “Little Forest.” In 2023, she was featured in an exclusive series by The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and received the Étoile du Cinéma award at the 2023 Busan International Film Festival.
62 | Founder-CEO, Hansoh Pharmaceuticals | China
Zhong Huijuan
Zhong left her job as a middle school chemistry teacher to found the Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group in 1995, which has since grown into a leading developer of generic drugs for central nervous system disorders, cancer, infections and diabetes. Zhong, the controlling stakeholder, became the wealthiest self-made woman in Asia, with a net worth of around $10.5 billion, after her firm listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2019. Zhong and her husband, Sun Piaoyang, Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine’s founder, are among China’s richest power couples.
