GMP - Diamond Mentor Bios

Adrian Doble

Director of Adrian Doble Ltd UK

Based in London, Adrian is a restructuring professional and has undertaken executive and advisory roles for 17 years, creating certainty, step-change performance improvement, dealing with bank and investor demands and preparing enterprises for growth. Most projects have had an international dimension and have delivered hundreds of millions for management teams and investors. His early career was in Barclays Bank in lending where he developed excellent connections in the European and US funding markets over 22 years.

Adrian was made a Fellow of the Institute for Turnaround in 2002 for his service to the industry. He is a director of Turnaround Management Association UK and a Fellow of the European Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals and also the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Aiying Wang

Vice President & General Manager, Eaton APAC Electrical Components Division

Aiying is a global senior executive with over 20 years of experience in electrical, electronics, automotive, and consumer product industries.
Her key achievements are strategic business growth in APAC, operation performance turn-around, technical material innovation, and team coaching and engagement. She has a solid foundation of experience in the United States, having led R&D innovation and operations optimization including manufacturing relocation. Being located in APAC for the past eight years, she has been focusing on creating an inclusive culture where diversity of talents can flourish. Aiying has also been recognized as a community leader, serving as a professional coach and mentor as well as the AmCham Suzhou Chapter Committee Chair. Aiying has recently completed the Australia Executive Coaching Certification program to further enable her positive influence and help others maximize their professional potential.

Aiying is a proud mother of three children, who are passionately pursuing their dreams to make a difference in the world. Aiying hopes to continue to bring positive impacts to future leaders through mentoring and coaching.

Andrea Conner

President of ATHENA International

Andrea Conner is a change agent and strategic relationship builder. Through her success in global leadership roles spanning four countries, she promotes corporate social responsibility, leadership development, and gender equity. As President of ATHENA International, Andrea leads the organization in its mission to support, develop and honor women leaders. In doing so, she brings an international approach and global awareness of the challenges facing women’s educational and equal opportunity advancement.

A servant to the global community, Andrea serves on the Board of the Sias International University Foundation that supports a private post-secondary school in rural China, and is a Governing Body Board Member for the Raleigh Chapter of the US National Committee for UN Women. She is a consultant for the World Academy for the Future of Women and previously worked on assignment for United Nations Women-Beijing.

Anthony Tyen

Sole Proprietor, Anthony Tyen & Co.

Dr. Tyen has been supportive of the GWC for a few years now. He started his accountancy and consulting practice in 1985, which later merged with Grant Thornton, a major international accounting firm where thereafter he was based in Beijing responsible for the firm’s China practice. Since 2003, Dr. Tyen has resumed his own practice.

Academically, Dr. Tyen holds a Ph.D. degree with his research interest in auditing and cross-cultural psychology, and an MBA degree, both with the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professionally, Dr. Tyen is a CPA in Hong Kong and also holds respective qualifications in China and the UK.

On the commercial side, Dr. Tyen has served on the boards of companies listed in Hong Kong, NASDAQ and Toronto. Over the past decades, Dr. Tyen has also served on various government boards and tribunals as part of his social service.

Anton Duvall

CFO & SVP, Trulite Glass & Aluminum Solutions

Anton is a senior financial executive with experience working in the electrical distribution, building construction and energy markets. Anton is now working in a private equity backed company in the building products space. Prior to his current role Anton worked for much of his career for Siemens in Europe and the USA before entering the private equity arena. His key area of focus has been business improvement and turnaround through performance coaching and organizational change. Anton has spent most of his time achieving this as the CFO of the organization but has also been responsible for leading a team of business consultants and improvement experts where he honed his skills in problem solving, executive coaching and project management. Anton’s success comes from a passion to push businesses for success through a collaborative approach and through coaching and mentoring the team to better performance.

Anton holds a BSc in Accounting and Finance from the University of Salford, UK and an MBA from the European School of Management & Technology, Berlin.

Calvin Lim

Group Finance & Admin Director, Amazon Papyrus Chemical

Calvin joined Amazon Papyrus Chemical in early 2016 as CFO. In early 2019, he was promoted to Group Finance & Admin Director with his role expanded to cover supply chain, production, IT, admin and investor relations. Amazon Papyrus is a leading specialist chemical provider for the pulp and paper industry and has businesses in 11 markets in Asia spanning from China to Middle East.
Prior to Amazon Papyrus, he worked for Jardine Matheson Group for over 20 years and had held senior management roles in various business units, both listed and unlisted such as Jardine Securicor (now G4S), Jardine Shipping, Tunas Ridean, Astra International and AstraGraphia. He has worked in four different geographies - Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia. Calvin graduated from Warwick University, UK in Accountancy & Financial Analysis, and qualified as a Certified Public Accountant with PriceWaterhouse. He also attended Advance Management Programme in Insead. He is also a Board Member of HK Insead Alumni Association and volunteers as mentor for Global Women Connect. He wants to help the younger generation to excel through mentoring and coaching.

Celina Chew

Former President of Bayer Group Greater China & Former Chairman of Bayer China

Celina has been actively supporting women leadership development, both within and outside Bayer. She is also very interested in encouraging female entrepreneurs and women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

In her own words: “Mentoring is a great way of supporting women who are navigating their way in the world. Mentors can offer the benefit of their experience, share their networks and connections, offer guidance or different perspectives, and be a sounding board or sparring partner. It is a great learning experience for mentors as well. I have personally benefitted greatly from exchanges with mentees, and enjoyed many interesting and inspiring discussions. I believe in GWC’s vision that “Every woman can contribute to create a better world” and I look forward to contributing to this."

Clancey Houston

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Empirik Health

For more than 20 years Clancey has been leading multi-national and cross-cultural teams in building, promoting and protecting brands and businesses in the highly complex and issues-rich emerging markets of Asia Pacific, particularly in the healthcare services, pharma and consumer health sectors. She is a recognized expert in the development of the private healthcare services and senior care sectors in China, having served as China CEO of hospital group Chinaco Healthcare Corporation and as a Managing Director at inVentiv Health (now Syneos) prior to founding Empirik Health (谙康) and becoming a Principal in The China Healthcare Advisory Group.

Clancey is active in guiding future generations of leaders through leadership roles with the China Healthcare Executive Group, offering professional development for healthcare managers; as a founding member of the Middlebury College Asia Council, providing a perspective on Asia for her alma mater; and as a member of the Board of Governors of YK Pao School, a school for tomorrow’s China.

David Sancho

Co-founder and CSO of Re-Hub

Born in Barcelona, lawyer by training, curious by nature, and passionate about business, David has always been interested into personal development and leadership as a way to improve human society.

Through his career path, he has been able to switch from various different roles in fashion industry as well through different regions. As a leader, his main focus is to try to empower people and teams to their next level through self reflection.

For the last decade, David has also had the opportunity to actively been involved in coaching young entrepreneurs in the global startup scene.

David believes that GWC is an amazing platform that allows women members to share insightful experiences and create a better world and he feels honoured to be able to form part of it.

Ednalva Costa Vasconcelos

Finance Director, SAS Latin America

As a senior financial executive, Ednalva redefined her financial role throughout her career to enable business transformation and drive results. She demonstrated communication and intercultural skills in combination with complex analytical and problem-solving abilities that have led to increased revenues, productivity, costs reduction and business risks mitigation.
Ednalva has proven experience in complex and demanding environments in local and multinational companies, providing financial and strategic recommendations. With expertise in leading financial and operational aspects of companies and strategic projects, including corporate finance, sales operations and, people management.

For Ednalva is essential to value and develop talent, outside the people management matrix and guidelines, she is always available to advise and sponsor talented professionals, as well as to celebrate their successes.

Elías Valdés

Chief Financial Officer of Sisamex

With 20+ years as Financial Executive, Elías brings to the GWC his insights of Governance, Controls and Knowledge of International Business Environment and his perspective of the Latin America which contributes to the Global aspect of GWC.

Convinced of the key role of the Women to improve society, Elías is keen to serve GWC to create a positive impact to this world.

Elías holds an EMBA, he is a Public Accountant and a high-profile Business Executive based out of Mexico with experience in America, Europe and Asia.

Fanny Chen

Divisional VP, Greater China Supply Chain & Strategic Relations, Abbott Nutrition

Fanny has direct responsibility for all elements of Nutrition's Greater China operations inclusive of in country manufacturing, sourcing, distribution, and dairy farming. She chairs the Abbott China Operations Council and oversight for all operating elements for all divisions in China. She is also the founder of Abbott Global Supplier Social Responsibility (SSR) Program, fostering the safe working conditions, dignified and respectful treatment to employees, responsible manufacturing processes and ethical practices in supply chain.

Prior to joining Abbott, Fanny worked as Controller/Chief Representative for Sealed Air Corporation, China Operation; various positions for McDonald’s Corporation in Oak Brook for its domestics and international markets; she also worked for the International Public Accounting firm in Chicago.
Fanny earned her MBA in International Business and B.Sc. in Commerce from DePaul University in Chicago. She is a Certified Purchasing Manager (C.P.M.); Certified Supply Chain Management (CPSM), and Certified International Purchasing Consultant (CIPC). Fanny also serves at the board of ISM CHINA.

Geeta Thakorlal

President of INTECSEA USA

Geeta is the first female president of INTECSEA, a global business discovering offshore engineering solutions. She has built an international career in professional services, project management, customer relations and leading businesses in the oil and gas industry.

She became a GWC mentor in 2016 because she is passionate about the business development of younger professional women. In her own words, “GWC is rewarding for both mentors and mentees. We learn from each other and progress toward achieving goals.” As a renowned advocate for women in business, her contributions have been recognized by the Houston Business Journal, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy, and Consult Australia. Geeta is a board- member of LeanIn Energy, a non-profit that brings women across the energy value chain together, to connect and learn from each other. She is also a board member of Junior Achievement - Houston, a non-profit educational organization helping young people from kindergarten through high school.

Geoff Hinsley

Director of Geoff Hinsley Ltd UK

Geoff coaches women in business. He has had varied career having worked in the aerospace and automotive component industries，ran his own engineering company and worked for a business consultancy company. He became a trained coach in the 1990's and continues with his training and study to this day.

From observing the success of clients, Geoff has developed models that demonstrate how and why women are essential to the wellbeing and profitability of modern companies. In his own words, “Why is supporting women so important? If the world is going to be saved， it will be saved by women!" Geoff enjoys seeing his client achieve more(sometimes, much more)than they expected, at the same as reducing their stress and increasing confidence.

Ivan Poon

Former President of CBRE China

Having worked at Jardine, Swire, Reebok, Hewlett Packard, Kodak, DHL and CBRE in leadership positions, Ivan has had the opportunity to work with many female colleagues of outstanding qualities. In his own words, “it gives me great honor to participate in the GWC’s Gemstone W Circle program as a mentor. In today’s highly connected and technology savvy work environment, I believe that the relationship between a mentor and a mentee works both ways. As much as I am eager to share with young and upcoming female leaders my considerable corporate experience across a variety of different industries, I have benefited enormously from listening to them, learning from their personal growth stories and exchanging views on mine. By involving more individuals who care about the development of female leadership, the GWC serves as a great platform to make work as rewarding as it is enjoyable”. Ivan is a Hong Kong native, educated locally as well as overseas with degrees from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Jackie Robb

Chief Operating Officer Chemist Warehouse Retail

With over 30 years experience across healthcare and consumer goods in various C level positions, Jackie has vast experience to share with any mentee. Jackie spent the first 25 years of her professional life working in Australia and post that, she spent more than 5 years heading up Staples Greater China where she completely turned around the business, driving exponential growth through innovation and a focus on the customer. Jackie has been the finalist for Executive of the Year, Australian CEO Magazine 2012, and the winner of both the Women in Leadership of the Australian China Alumni Association and the Shanghai Government’s Silver Magnolia Award both in 2016.

She feels strongly that ethics in the workplace and in life brings sustainable and long lasting success. She is passionate about giving back to society and loves enabling female leaders to be the best they can be. She is a working mum and understands how to balance work and life to achieve both career and life goals.

Janson So

Commercial Operations Project Director of Ocean Park Corporation

Janson has lived and worked in many countries dealing with various cultures for multinational corporations such as Brunswick International, Maxim’s , Citysuper , and Grand Hyatt. He has acquired numerous years of experience in leadership, especially in Recreation, Retail and F&B industries. Janson enjoys to meet with different levels of female and male leaders.Therefore, it is an honor for him to participate to GWC program, share his experience with young professional women, and listen to their stories and their passionate ideasrelated to their professional life. In his opnion, the GWC platform is an opportunity to learn from each other. Jason is currently dealing with Corporate Sustainability program related to reduce plastic disposable product, promoting MSC certificated seafood in restaurants to protect the earth. Janson received BS in Hotel and Restaurant Management from Northern Arizona University in USA and EMBA from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Lalita Raman

CEO, Executive Coach and Facilitator, Transitions Intl. Limited

Lalita Raman works with leaders when they step into a new role, are asked to lead a critical project /organization, address competency gaps, engage a new team, face new challenges, or just proactively invest in their own development. Lalita brings her 20+ years of corporate work experience to her coaching sessions so she remains practical, anticipates bottlenecks and helps people on their journey of personal and professional development (in this VUCA world).

She has been coaching leaders across various industries for the past 8 years through transitions by building their self-confidence and leveraging their key strengths. Through her own journey of transitions, and leveraging her 2019 EMC INSEAD thesis, on Career Transitions, she has developed a constructive approach to helping leaders discover qualities and capabilities they do not consciously recognize. She is a qualified coach with ICF (ACC) and has a wide array of specializations in C-IQ, ontological coaching, coaching based on neuroscience and appreciative inquiry for positive change. Her coaching style blends being empathetic, and yet challenging you in a way that drives your results.

Liang Schweizer

Co-Founder, President and CEO, HiFiBiO Therapeutics, USA

Prior to her current position, Liang Schweizer co-founded Harbour Biomed and served as its CSO. Before launching her entrepreneurial career, Liang served as Head of Asian Cancer Research at Sanofi, advancing Sanofi’s Asia-Pacific oncology pipeline as well as contributing to global oncology programs from preclinical to clinical efforts. Prior to joining Sanofi, she was a director at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS), heading a group of scientists at Leads Discovery and Optimization (LDO). Liang served on the leadership team of Women in Science and Technology at BMS and is an active champion for women to maximize their potentials and contributions, including providing mentorship and sponsorship throughout the years of her career.

Liang Schweizer graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) majoring in Biology. She received her Master’s degree in Microbial Engineering at the University of Minnesota with a minor in Chemical Engineering. Liang earned her Ph.D in Molecular Biology from the University in Zurich, Switzerland. Her postdoctoral training was with Dr. Harold Varmus, a Nobel Laureate, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York.

Loïs Lebegue

CEO of La Compagnie de Grenelle Pte Ltd

With 25 years of experience as an executive in multinationals leading businesses in all 5 continents, Lois has developed a strong multicultural expertise in B2B and B2C across the world.
Lois is now running his own consulting firm, helping companies to develop new opportunities across multiple segments and geographies. He was the executive sponsor for women development at Eastman Kodak and is also actively supporting charities aimed at developing young people in emerging countries such as Kenya.
According to Lois, “Empowering women in emerging geographies, helping them reach their full potential has always been a critical part of my role as a leader, as well as a key aspect of my own development. Mentoring is a 2 way-street, you get out what you put in”.

Marc Groenewegen

ItemManaging Director/SVP Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA), Unilode Aviation Solutions

Marc is a senior executive and has worked for the last 15 years in an international B2B environment, mostly aerospace. His key areas of expertise are business growth and turnaround, change and team management, and complex and strategic commercial opportunities. He possesses multi-year experiences in Western Europe, Middle East, US as well as Asia. He creates and realizes opportunities through which the organization he works for grows revenue and improves profitability significantly, builds strong relationships with customers and team, puts things in motion and deliver. Marc attributes his main successes to leading and being able to motivate his teams to excel, which was always during significant business and/or organizational changes. Marc holds a Master’s degree from the Erasmus University Rotterdam and an MBA from the OneMBA of the Rotterdam School of Management.
According to Marc, “I am happily married and a proud father of two beautiful daughters, whom we try to bring up as strong, confident and independent women and will strive for what they really want. My motivation to wholeheartedly support GWC as mentor, is to contribute to unleashing the potential of women, leading to a more diverse and as a consequence better world.”

Martin Birch

CEO and President, ibml

As an experienced international business leader, Martin has led Global businesses in Europe, Asia, and the United States of America. Born in the UK, Martin considers himself as a citizen of the world and is a passionate champion for the benefits of diversity in the workplace.
Martin is a strong believer in reciprocal mentorship where the most effective mentor/mentee partnerships enrich the knowledge of both mentor and mentee. According to Martin, the mentor may well have a greater professional experience, however the mentee also brings their own unique insight, life experiences and talents to the exchange. Martin is proud to be able to support Global Women Connect and to contribute to helping women reach their potential. “Helping one person may not change the world but it may change the world for one person”, Martin said.

Martin Kolkman

Entrepreneur, former VP of Hyva International & Western Europe-Middle East-Africa

As a global business leader and pioneer with 20+ years of experience in leading companies and doing business around the world by connecting and build the trust between different cultures, organizational levels, companies, teams and female and male leaders in the world, Martin developed a great passion for leadership. He likes to support, inspire, share experience and guide leaders in this fast-changing world.

In his opinion, "GWC is a great initiative, organization and inspiring platform for this with new insights, ideas, and learnings for female leaders and the challenges they are facing to develop every day." Seeing the relationship between mentor and mentee as value for life, he thinks to build the relationship in line with the expectations of the Mentee. The questions, listening, sharing and trust from both sides are the fundaments. The ultimate goal for him in mentoring is being the “entrepreneur and leader in her/our life’s”, which gives them the energy and creativity to develop and achieve excellence in leadership.

Martin lives in Dubai, UAE with his wife and 2 sons since 2011 and experience how the world can live together with leadership, listening and long-term strategy all based on respect and appreciation.

Mike Liu

Former Managing Director, DXC Technology Greater China region

Mike Liu is an accomplished executive with 30+ years of professional experience in digital transformation, market growth strategies, merge & acquisition, operational excellence, cross culture leadership development and change management with leading technology multinationals. His experience spans Greater China, US, Singapore, and India where he has demonstrated his unique capacity to accomplish the growth agenda for the organizations he has served. He is recognized as the Top 10 Figures in China Outsourcing Industry and Top 100 Figures in China IT and Service Industry.

Keen on giving back to the industry and society, Mike is a frequent speaker at various industry forums. He was invited to participate the Summer Davos in 2017, the Business Summit of BRICS in 2017, and Qingdao Multinationals Summit in 2019.

In addition to holding an MBA from University of Miami in Florida and a bachelor’s degree in CIS from Renmin University in Beijing, Mike also completed the executive education at Stanford University.

Sandeep Bahl

Chief Airline Advisor for Q&A Business Advisory and Director for US-India Aviation Program (ACP)
Former Regional GM Asia Air New Zealand

A global citizen Sandeep has worked and lived in many countries for various multinational corporations. He is currently spending his time between India and China and has been GWC’s Gemstone Diamond Mentor for 3 years.
“Generally speaking, people don't actually know themselves that well. And it is important for individuals to know about their strengths and weaknesses. When I joined GWC’s Gemstone W Circle program as a mentor, my first thoughts were that I would like to have my mentees to leverage their strengths and improve on their weaknesses. By providing guidance and insight to the mentee seeking advice, I myself also experienced new perspectives at the same time." Agreed to the mission of GWC, Sandeep loves working together with his mentees and eagers to assist the GWC platform.

Sandra Yu

Non-executive Chairwoman of RB China Advisory Board
Former President of Mead Johnson GC

As an executive expatriate ever worked in Thailand, US and China, Sandra has been a change catalyst with a track record in driving the transformation of businesses and global brands. In her opinion, the lack of female leaders in global business organizations is not due to their so fore said shortcomings nor limitations in abilities, but the lack of their networking and sometimes confidence. While organizational and social barriers do exist in the process of female leaders breaking the ‘glass ceiling,’ it is also important to consider that very few mentoring and effective sponsors are available to support them to thrive in different life and career stages. "GWC is a great platform established by amazing people. I am proud to be part of the changing force. Women, who take action in improving themselves and are strongly determined, deserve to be given more opportunities. I was benefited from the help of others as well. It is crucial to understand the importance of supporting each other, and moreover, to not underestimate the power that lies within us,” Sandra said.

Vivian Tian

Global VP & General Manager, eBay China Centre of Excellence

Vivian is the first female general manager and VP of eBay China Tech Center with rich management experience in various R&D leadership roles. She has been intensively engaged in promoting and supporting women leadership development. In her own words, “I enjoy being part of the GWC program and it gives me utmost pleasure to stay connected with the young and passionate female leaders due to their diverse cultural and professional backgrounds. It is a very meaningful contribution to GWC’s Gemstone W Circle Mentoring Program by inspiring women leaders to drive for excellence and facilitate them to fulfil their commitments to both career and family. While I devote myself to sharing my management experience and leadership skills, I benefit tremendously from my mentees’ professional expertise and growth stories the other way. GWC is a marvelous platform where women leaders share and learn, and empower themselves to further develop critical business and leadership skills. ” Vivian received a BS and MS in Computer Science from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, and MBA from Peking University.

Xiangwei Gong

Asia President, Member of Executive Committee, AptarGroup (NYSE: ATR)

Xiangwei is Asia President and an Executive Committee member of AptarGroup (NYSE: ATR),
and serves as a non-executive director on the board of Oterra - a world leader of food natural
colors.
Xiangwei grew up in Hunan, China, and lived and worked extensively in numerous world
locations with a rich career of 20+ years spanning Beauty, Personal Care, Nutrition and Pharma
industries and different functions in Asia, Europe and America.
With a track record of successfully creating and growing large B2B and B2C global businesses,
Xiangwei is recognized as a passionate and dynamic leader, who prides herself in her ability to
think and act cross-culturally and to find win-win solutions in even the most difficult situations.
Xiangwei has been working and living in Shanghai in the past 8 years, and playing an
instrumental role in building new businesses by creating a vision, building cultural bridges, and
developing teams.
Xiangwei received her Bachelor of Economics from the University of International Business &
Economics in Beijing, and her EMBA from Columbia Business School in New York.

Xuemei Bennink-Bai

The Global Partner, EgonZehnder

After graduating from Cambridge University in 1991 with a PhD in Heat Transfer, Xuemei Bennink-Bai became the first-generation mainland Chinese Vice President at Unilever. She later joined the global Executive Board of Rentokil Initial, a FTSE100 company in the U.K. As a corporate executive, she has worked in China, Singapore, Vietnam, The Netherlands and the U.K. She is currently a Global Partner of EgonZehnder and a trusted advisor for global and Chinese clients on their top leadership issues. Xuemei is passionate about supporting female leaders on the world stage. Apart from these, she also coaches senior executives. She has mentored numerous leaders throughout her career and enjoys supporting the development of high potentials at all levels.

Global Mentoring Program

Mentors

Meet Our Diamond Mentors