GMP - Sapphire Mentor's Bios

Adriana Herrera

Personal Advisor Services Manager
Vanguard USA

Adriana is a financial services executive with a proven record of transforming businesses into growing, profitable and client-focused franchises. In her 21-year career, Adriana has leveraged her leadership capabilities and innovative approach across multiple roles in Europe, Asia and the Americas. She has held several senior regional and global positions in Operations and Technology, Transaction Services, and Corporate and Investment Bank, including Chief of Staff for the CEO of Latin America, and Chief Operating Officer for Citi’s International Franchise Management. She is currently responsible for Operations and Technology for Vanguard $108B Advice and Wealth Management business.

Adriana serves in the Executive Committee for Young Patrons at Carnegie Hall whose contributions make music education and programs accessible to underserved communities. Her support to Children International has enabled sponsorship of 21 children’s education to date. She is also a contributor to the New York Animal Care and Control and ASPCA.

Ana Queipo Rodríguez

Global Leader and Change Advocate

There is an extraordinary breadth of experiences in Ana’s international executive career. She was China Country manager for a Spanish commercial airline and Asia Pacific Manager for a food additives company before being awarded a full tuition scholarship to complete her MBA at INSEAD. After graduation she worked for Avon Cosmetics where she was Country Manager in Vietnam and later moved to London to join the leadership team at onefinestay — a start-up that redefined the paradigm of hospitality and was successfully acquired by Accor hotels. She has also joined the team at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London.

Ana joins GWC at the start of her journey as leadership coach where she is partnering with companies willing to achieve outstanding results thorough measurable leadership growth. She believes there is plenty of know-how regarding the challenges of woman in leadership but not enough show-how and is therefore excited to join our community of mentors and create a positive impact in the lives of our mentees.

Anita Varshney

Vice President, Strategy and Innovation
SAP Next-Gen

Anita leads SAP Next-Gen program’s strategic pillars to engage with purpose led communities globally, supporting SAP’s strong leadership in the Intelligent Enterprise and Experience Management, across Global Citizen Agendas, UN Partnerships, and platforms linked to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She is also spearheading the strategy for Global Goals House, which is global movement that brings together thought leaders and influencers from industry, government, academia, the startup ecosystem, NGOs, social activism, etc in different settings to share strategic thinking and inspire action to make the SDGs a reality. Anita is passionate about the role of women leadership and sports in accelerating our progress to reach the Global Goals by 2030.

SAP Next-Gen is a purpose driven innovation university and community aligned with SAP’s commitment to the SDGs and supporting SAP’s customers across in 180+ countries. It aims to reimagine the future of industries, enterprise intelligence and the experience economy; seed in disruptive innovation with startups; build skills for digital futures; and use new mindsets through connecting companies and citizens around the world to diverse communities.

Carrera Dionne

Manager of PwC SDC China

An old proverb says “If you think you know it all, you’re a fool for sure; real survivors learn wisdom from others.” Carrera Dionne can honestly say she has been on both sides of the coin, Fool and Survivor!! Her greatest passion is to share her experiences through mentorship so others can gather various perspectives to selecting their own paths. A seasoned professional and entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience, Carrera has an unique combination of organizational change management and strategic business development within the healthcare and life sciences industries. Her dedication and involvement in organizations such as Junior League, Emerging Leaders Program, Roots of Creativity, and Women in Technology has provided her the opportunity to develop into a servant leader. Originally from the U.S, Carrera’s educational background in Communication and Business has allowed her to work with global corporations in China, Russia, Japan, Israel, and the U.K. The values and objectives of Global Women Connect are in alignment with Carrera’s personal vision for how women of the future need to be supported and developed to make the most impact.

Celia Zhang

Head of Finance Operations, Hilton

Celia is a chartered member of FCMA & CGMA, currently based in Shanghai, as the Head of Finance Operations of Greater China & Mongolia area at Hilton. As a seasoned finance professional, she has more than 23 years finance experience with companies such as P&G, Walmart and Cargill. She is particularly good at systematic business decision process; comprehensive short/long term P&L/ Cash flow forecast/ strategic planning; financial analysis; business model identificatio/building block to execution. Celia is passionate about organization and people development, having rich experience in recruiting and training new hires, and being a great mentor and coach for juniors. As a pioneer and role model of new era successful Women Leadership, she is the mentor of Hilton’s popular “Women in Leadership” program. Celia will be a good asset to the GWC community, “to connect women globally and to unleash their potential in different stages of life”.

Christine Wang

Vice President, Human Resources
Greater China & Mongolia, Hilton

Christine Wang joined Hilton in 2016, and currently serves as Vice President of Human Resources for Greater China and Mongolia. In this role, Ms. Wang acts as a strategic business partner, providing thought leadership on strategic and tactical business imperatives, in order to drive short and long term goals for Hilton through effective human resource practices.

As a seasoned HR professional of more than 20 years, Ms. Wang has extensive experience working at multinational companies. Her previous experience includes serving as Vice President of Human Resources at DeNA China, Head of Human Resources for the China Technology Centre of Excellence at eBay, and Head of Employee Banking at Standard Chartered Bank (China) Ltd. Throughout her career, Ms. Wang has established and implemented quality and sustainability strategies, policies, systems, and programs at the companies she has served.
Ms. Wang received her Master’s of Commerce with a major in Human Resource Management from the University of New South Wales, and a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language from East China Normal University.

Grace Lin Xu

CEO for vivaNUTRITION
Founder of VIVA global academy

Grace is a seasoned business executive and experienced business connector between China, USA and Europe with studying, working and living experiences in variable countries. She has more than 21 years operation and management experiences in complicated matrix organizations such as Roche Vitamin and Nestle as senior executive. She also has entrepreneurship experiences to build up an organization in China from scratch to its full operation in 4 years time. Her experiences also extend to humanitarian activities, working with key stakeholders in USA and China. Her career path is from feet on the ground position to a senior management role in a large global corporation.

In Grace's own words, “Mentoring is about helping others grow but also self-grow to be a better person, with more love, compassion for all. GWC is a platform to put it into practice with all the great experience and resources we have!”

Jane Sum

Head of Cosmetics at Covestro

Jane Sum has more than 15 years business experience and has held technical and commercial leadership roles mainly in the chemical industry. She has lived and worked in different countries including The Netherlands, China, Thailand, Japan and Germany. She is passionate about bringing out the full potential of people. "One of the most rewarding things as a leader is to see how people develop and grow." She believes that GWC is a great platform where mentors and mentees can share experiences, learn from and inspire each other and make a difference. She is honored to be part of this network.

Jane is a Dutch national with Chinese background, born, raised and educated in The Netherlands. She has a PhD degree in Organic Photochemistry from the University of Leiden. Currently, she holds the position of Head of Cosmetics at Covestro based in Germany and heading a global team to introduce a new technology into the market.

Kitty Liu

China Managing Director, Blackmores

Reporting directly to the CEO, Kitty also sits on the executive team of Blackmores. She has diverse credentials across a wide range of home and personal care as well as nutrition categories in Asian markets. Prior to Blackmores, she has held several senior commercial leadership roles in blue chips companies including Unilever, Yum! China, Reckitt Benckiser, and General Mills. Her experience spins across full business profit and loss responsibility as well as merger and acquisition on top of her two decades of marketing experience.

As a modern career woman with two daughters, Kitty has once struggled to juggle it all but received kind support from sponsors throughout her career. Therefore, Kitty is more than keen to provide mentorship and support to unleash the full potential of young female talents.

Laurence Anjoras

Founder of ANN EVA

Laurence is the Founder of ANN EVA, named after her two daughters (Annabelle and Eva) as for “heritage and continuity”. ANN EVA is a Dutch boutique consulting firm focused on advising and coaching global manufacturing organizations to shift their products and management processes towards positive impact.

Laurence is leveraging three decades of strong business acumen and people management to lead the change, translate complex sustainability issues into understandable concepts and actionable plans, transforming the company from the inside. She has experience of leading remote multi-cultural and functional teams in the Chemical industry. She has worked as a Corporate Sustainability advisor and fulfilled also global functions mainly in Sales and Marketing of ingredients for use in Life Sciences.

Laurence - French by birth - currently lives in The Netherlands, holds a Global Executive MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management/Erasmus University in The Netherlands. As a mother of two young girls, she strongly believes in women economic empowerment as a social stability factor and enjoys sharing the journey with women willing to discover and unleash their potential. She joined GWC in October 2016 as the Secretary General and is also Co-Founder of the Chapter Europe.

Licheng Jiang

Chief Human Resources Officer, Greater China at JLL

As a strategic HR leader and an organization transformer, Licheng is a strong believer and practitioner of living with Purpose, Heart and Fun. She is passionate and committed about empowering women and driving business from good to better by cultivating diversity & inclusion value system.

Licheng currently serves as Head of HR for Jones Lang LaSalle Greater China which has 20,000 employees operating across 16 corporate offices and 1,220 sites to provide full circle of property services.

Before joining JLL, Licheng has a solid track record in financial, service and retail industries. She is highly recognized and proven to be an inspired HR leaders for emerging and mature businesses with large scale.

Licheng is Charted Fellow of CIPD and holds a Master degree from the University of Edinburgh.

Queenie Wong

Director of Customer Advisory, SAS Institute Malaysia & Vietnam

Queenie currently heads up for Customer Advisory for both SAS Institute in Malaysia and Vietnam. She is also the Business Director for SAS Institute in Vietnam. In her current role, she advises business on how best to monetize their data by leveraging on data analytics for more business insights and decisions. She has more than 20 years of experience in IT and Management, a leader who is able to develop and motivate others to achieve targets and goals.

Prior to SAS Queenie was a Director with Deloitte Risk Division Malaysia serving the ASEAN market, Managing Director for Computer Associates in Malaysia. She also had experience is setting up an IT startup in Malaysia. She holds a MBA in International Marketing from Hull University UK.
According to Queenie, “During the course of my career, I have great mentors and I have benefited from being a mentee. GWC is a great program that allows me to contribute and share our experience and knowledge. In return its also a learning experience for me.”

Rim Jarbouai

Founder, Rim Studio

Rim is a French and Tunisian designer and artist, with a multicultural living and working experience. Along her career, she has taken on varied projects, from founding a sustainable fashion brand to designing large scale textile artworks for interiors and concocting creativity trainings.

Rim loves helping people connect with their inner inventiveness and getting empowered by inspired action. She believes everyone has a special creative gift!

Passionate about continuous learning, she believes that challenges are great opportunities for growth. Those rich and colourful experiences lead her now to mentor and support new generations of women to weave together a more beautiful future.

Sharon Gammon

Human Resource Business Partner at Visy Industries Australia PTY LTD

Sharon is an accomplished, respected and energetic leader with extensive generalist experience in Human Resource Management. Her experience spins across global organisations in multiple industries, such as manufacturing, rail, automotive, telecommunications, logistics and supply chain, and that established her solid and resilient leadership in multiple disciplines of Human Resources to support businesses.

Sharon is customer oriented, a dynamic and tactician practitioner with highly effective communication skills, professional demeanour with a flexible management style epitomized by integrity, fairness and results. Her drive is taking part in organisational change and shaping businesses via a deliberate people plan or approach to support future growth and optimise success.

Sharon's priority is for the evolution of the future workforce in becoming more inclusive and diverse and understanding the barriers and enablers to advance women in the workplace.

Soundari Mukherjea

Co-Founder & Director of TSol and Strategic Advisor for TBSL

Soundari Mukherjea is the Founding Partner of TSol, a Leadership Consultancy focusing on Business Storytelling, Future Work Skills and Transformation projects. She works with leaders and teams to harness the power of stories in a business context to engage, inspire and influence, thus bringing humanity to the workplace.

With over 25 years in the areas of Finance, Operations, Banking and Entrepreneurship with Unilever, ANZ and now, TSol, Soundari has an insider's view on the challenges that organisations and teams face and this drives her passion while working on various capability building projects.

She is an ExCo member, The Amber Foundation EMPOWER program and a Mentor for Aspire For Her, PSE HK. She has been a Mentor for GWC Gemstone W Circle, Hong Kong Unison and The Zubin Foundation.

Soundari has a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, is a Qualified Cost and Works Accountant and has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from a Premier Business School in India.

Veronica Zhou

Senior Leadership Development consultant, Leadership/Executive coach

Veronica is a senior leadership development consultant and leadership/executive coach working with various multinational and local clients. Her focus areas include Organization and Talent, Leadership Development and Coaching, Organization Transformation and Capability Development. She has been working with Corporate and BU level leadership teams on Personal Leadership Effectiveness, Team Performance, Stakeholder Management and Change Management. Veronica also acts as a mentor to China-Europe International Business School (CEIBS) MBA program.
Prior to her consulting career, Veronica worked with a few Fortune 500 companies as Head of Human Resources and other senior HR roles both in China and overseas. Veronica is one of the pioneers in the Organization/Talent & Leadership Development areas focus in China. She has a well balance of high level conceptual thinking and practical on-the-ground experiences to drive sustainable business results.

Veronica is passionate about developing young female leaders to reach their full potential with learning, sharing and growing together.

Wendy Wu

Leadership Coach and Trainer, Hangling

Wendy is an inside-out leadership coach & consultant, who focuses on supporting individuals and teams to be who they are inside out and make impacts to others. Her areas of expertise include Executive Coaching, Business Conscious Coaching, Mindfulness Leadership, Female Leadership, Personal Resilience.

She had 20 years’ Human Resources management experience focus in talent and leadership development in multi-national companies, includes leading world-class leadership programs by partnering with MIT and Harvard Universities for senior management leadership development, and 7 years’ experience of corporate internal coach.

She love what Ralph Waldo Emerson said “What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies within you.” She believe once people live into their dreams with clarified purpose and passion, their life will be remarkable.

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