2021 DIAN Conference - Expanding and Localising D&I Approaches for Tomorrow’s Challenges in Asia

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Christopher A. Ilagan joined Cargill Philippines Inc. last July 2019 as its Corporate Affairs Director. In this capacity, he provides strategic leadership in the company’s corporate communications, government relations, corporate responsibility, sustainable development and branding practice areas. He is a member of the company’s Country Leadership Team.

Over the years, Chris has built his expertise in the government and regulatory affairs space. From 2017 to June 2019, Chris was the Government Affairs and Markets Country Leader for 3M Philippines. Prior to that, Chris worked with Manila Water Company, Inc. – the East Zone Water Concessionaire of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System - where he rose the ranks to eventually become the Group Head for Corporate Regulatory Affairs. His career in the government affairs and regulation space began in the global port operator, International Container Terminal Services, Inc., where he served as the company’s Industry Affairs and Special Projects Officer.

Because of his work in the local water space, Chris has maintained a personal advocacy on water sustainability and governance. He is currently the Chairperson of the Philippine Water Partnership – a non-government organization dedicated to the advancement of integrated water resource management – and continues to be involved in various policy dialogues geared towards improving the management of water resources in the country. One recent example of this is his co-authoring of the Joint Foreign Chambers’ Arangkada Water Policy Brief in 2018 which laid down a situationer and a list of recommendations for the improvement of the Philippine Water Sector and which is often cited various policy dialogues. He also serves as the Vice-Chairman of the Movement for Water Security – a local private sector-led movement advocating for the more sustainable management and development of the country’s water resources.

Chris is also very active in the local business community as a leader and member in a number of associations. He is the current Committee Chair of the Agribusiness and Manufacturing Committees of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Board Member of the Philippine Veterinary Drugs Association, a fellow of the Foundation for Economic Freedom and a member of a number of other local chambers, such as the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines and the Philippine Chamber of Food Manufacturers, Inc.

Chris holds a Masters of Political Economy with specialization in International Relations and Development from the University of Asia and the Pacific, where he also received his Bachelor of Art in Humanities.

Grace is a Chartered Psychologist and a member of Organisation Development Network Europe. She has assessed, coached and facilitated transformations with leaders and teams in Fortune-500 companies, and has partnered with clients in the UK, Europe and APAC across industries. 10+ years of experience in consulting, business development, operations, leadership, analytics, innovation and change. She is a member of Board at atrain, a global consultancy headquartered in Germany. She is passionate about realizing true potential in people, in organizations, and in society.

Cheah Li Wei is GAR Inclusion Program Manager at Global Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Impact (GDIS), at Intel. She has years of experience in driving global and regional inclusion initiatives through stakeholders such as country D&I leads, HR Directors, and Business Unit/Employee Resource Group leaders in Asia.

Li Wei holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Mount Union, Ohio, USA. She believes in the importance of life-long learning and staying healthy. This has enabled her to successfully rotate through various roles over her 25+ years at Intel.

An aeronautical engineer from the University of Glasgow who found his calling in education and lifelong learning. Mo founded his first business, an education events and content company while still at university and sold his second business - a technology education company in 2015. An experienced educator, he's worked with a wide range of K-12 curricula with clients ranging from UNESCO, UNICEF, governments and schools.

At BSD Mo works with regional educators in their learning experience with BSD’s platform, implementation of project-based curriculum and enhancing their teaching practices with 21st Century Skills.

Varshaa Ram Kutik joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch in November 2017 as the Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Asia Pacific. She has twelve years of experience in the D&I space and has worked across several industries. Prior to joining the bank, she led D&I for the APAC & EMEA regions for Cargill, a Minnesota-based global leader in trading and distributing agricultural commodities. Before Cargill she was employed with Goldman Sachs and led their D&I efforts in India. She started her career in the ESG space and was responsible for the publication of the first sustainability report for Infosys, an Indian multinational corporation that provides business consulting, information technology and outsourcing services. Varshaa has a master’s degree in Globalization and Development from Warwick University in the UK.

After spending 12 years in PwC, since April 2020, Winnie Tsien is appointed to lead the human resources function for the leading real estate professional services, JLL, in Hong Kong covering the business in Macao and Taiwan. She is responsible for working closely with market leadership and management to cultivate new people experience by improving work relationship, building morale and increasing employee branding and retention. Winnie is leading the team to focus on driving and solidifying all the initiatives of HR transformation and ensure it creates great impact to both our people and business.

Before moving to JLL, Winnie led a new function within Human Capital at PwC to play a key part in enabling digital solutions with improved processes and enhanced access to data and technology to support business needs and realise the benefits of our human capital technology investments. Winnie was leading a team of experienced professionals to drive digital transformation to improve people digital experience, ensure that our human capital’s current and future systems and technology investment work in harmony to maximise value and impact for the business, our people and the function.