DIAN Conference (Singapore): Advancing Social Mobility Through DE&I

Alister is a Goh Chok Tong Enable Awards recipient and Vice-Chairperson of the Purple Parade. Alister volunteers actively in Singapore, with the aim to promote inclusivity for persons with disabilities.
Alister is born with Cerebral Palsy but that has not bound his geographical explorations
Merging valuable experience with a strong background in Bachelor of Economics from Singapore Management University, Alister has spoken in many global organisations with the objective of raising awareness and making positive growth by providing a robust Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy through his lived experience.

Eng Ping Yeo is EY’s Asia-Pacific Tax Managing Partner and Area Operating Executive member. She is responsible for the EY tax practice in markets including Oceania, China, Korea, Japan and ASEAN. She plays an active role in thought leadership and regularly contributes articles on tax. A regular speaker at tax seminars, she is also actively involved with tax professional bodies including the Malaysian Institute of Accountants and Chartered Tax Institute of Malaysia where she was a Council member until 2021.Eng Ping is deeply committed to fostering a strong people culture as well. She chairs the Asia-Pacific Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness (DE&I) Steering Committee, and serves on the Global DE&I Steering Committee. When EY launched the Uplift social equity campaign to highlight the significance of social equity, Eng Ping was spotlighted as a hero storyteller, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and valuing diverse perspectives across cultural differences.

Enabling People and Communities. This is what drives Ernest and what he has continued as his passion since he started his career in HR. He had the opportunity to learn from the best in the public sector early in his career with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), focusing on Talent Attraction, Learning and a hint of Industry Development. Shell and Ernest then found a great, mutual space to contribute to People with a role in Employee & Industrial Relations based in Shell Singapore’s Energy & Chemicals Park. Ernest continued his journey of enabling people and teams in a diverse range of roles including Regional and Global HR Business Partner, Global Leadership & Talent Manager, Head of HR for Shell Singapore and VP HR Shell Energy, before assuming his role today as VP HR Global Lubricants & Customer Operations. A HR practitioner most of the time and an avid learner all of the time. 

Erika is Citi’s Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer and Global Head of Talent, responsible for developing global diversity, equity and inclusion strategy and driving Citi’s agenda on talent planning, succession planning and leadership development. Prior to joining Citi, Erika was Chief Diversity Officer at Goldman Sachs from 2018 to 2021 and Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Bloomberg from 2015 to 2018. Prior to this, she led executive and diversity hiring efforts at Bank of America and Lehman Brothers. Erika's background includes a range of banking and finance roles, including Head of Business Development for Black Entertainment Television, Senior Associate in High Yield Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley and Senior Policy Analyst for Domestic Finance for the United States Department of the Treasury. She began her career as an Analyst in Public Finance at Lehman Brothers. Erika is Vice Chair of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and serves on the Boards of Columbia Business School and the Riverside Hawks. Erika earned a BS in Economics from the State University of New York at Albany and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Holly is a diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DE&I) professional with global experiences and perspectives. She will bring her views from over 10 years of DE&I expertise, as one of Asia-Pacific’s top Diversity and Inclusion thought leaders. Holly’s broad experiences and award-winning programs at EY include accelerating progress across the talent life cycle and client interactions. Holly spearheaded a first of its kind primary research into belonging in Asia-Pacific with the EY Belonging Barometer research paper. Recently Holly was awarded a Masters of sustainability by Hult Business School, she is also an accredited executive coach and has post graduate qualifications from Yale and Cambridge Universities. Holly is the secretary of Interbank Hong Kong, co-founder of Taikoo WIN and recognised as an LGBTQ+ Ally through the Community Business Asia Awards.

Jeiz Robles is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) at Community Business, where she is committed to driving impactful change for underrepresented and underserved communities. With over 10 years of experience in the DE&I field, Jeiz is a subject matter expert in three key areas: the DE&I landscape in Asia, localizing LGBTQ+ inclusion programs and benefits, and creating and sustaining AAA+ employee networks.

As a certified Design Thinking coach, she excels in building empathy and extracting community experiences to inform corporate DE&I strategies. Jeiz has played a significant role in developing important resources such as the Philippine Financial & Inter-industry Pride Playbook, Sasin's Inclusion Toolkit for Thai Businesses, and Open for Business's Economic Case of LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Southeast Asia.

Her approach includes a range of frameworks from strategic advisory (benchmarking, policy review and audit, focus groups, and program design), ideation through empathy mapping, mentoring, workshops, thought leadership (whitepapers, toolkits), and storytelling through speaking engagements.

As a cisgender, bisexual, neurodivergent Filipina, Jeiz brings lived experiences from various intersecting communities. She has had the privilege of collaborating with numerous organizations across Asia to amplify voices that are often unheard. Fluent in both English and Filipino, she is dedicated to fostering inclusive workplaces where everyone can thrive authentically.

Julienne Loh is a distinguished global financial leader with a career that goes beyond the traditional corporate boundaries. As the former Executive Vice President of Mastercard Asia Pacific, Julienne played a pivotal role in shaping the financial landscape from 2005 until her departure in December 2022. In 2009, she made history as the first Singaporean female country head at the firm. This milestone was followed by her appointment as the first Asian female Group Executive to lead the Asia Pacific Products and Innovation Group in 2016, followed by global roles as the Group Executive for Enterprise Partnerships and Mastercard Transaction Services before she stepped down in 2022. Since early 2023, Julienne has been immersed in executive leadership coaching and business mentoring, with a special focus on empowering women and high-capacity leaders. She is a brain-based results as well as Clifton Strengths’ coach certified by The Neuroleadership Institute and Gallups respectively. This unique experience has enriched her coaching approach, making her a practitioner who blends neuroscience expertise with a strengths-based philosophy. She also guides her coachees through the transformative Soundwave™ methodology. Currently, Julienne serves as the Board Chair of Kampung Kakis, a ground-up charity committed to creating resilient communities by integrating technology for good and supporting isolated and frail seniors in Singapore. She is also the Board Chair of Junior Achievement, Singapore, which is in line with her commitment to prepare young adults for the new future of work in the ever-evolving global economy. Julienne holds a Master of Arts in Marketing from the University of Westminster, UK, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the National University of Singapore.

Kathy is a prominent business leader advocating for LGBT+ diversity and inclusion throughout her career in marketing and entrepreneurship. In 2019, she led the Red Dot for Pink Dot campaign to encourage businesses to support Pink Dot SG, promoting acceptance of the LGBT+ community in Singapore. Kathy is the organizer of the Inclusive Careers Fair and serves on the Board of Outright International as Co-Chair. In 2022, she co-founded Q Chamber, Singapore’s LGBTQ+ and allied chamber of commerce. Kathy has been recognized in the OUTstanding Top 100 LGBT+ Executives Role Model List from 2019 to 2021 by INvolve and Yahoo Finance.

Dr Mathew Mathews is Head of IPS Social Lab, a centre for social indicator research and a Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies. To date, Mathews has been involved in over fifty research projects, most of them addressing social policy issues. These have included research using both quantitative and qualitative methods on race, religion, immigrant integration, family, ageing and poverty.

Minnie Venkatachalam is Regional Director for WEConnect International. She has close to 20 years' experience of bridging the gap between unmet social needs and service providers, giving large corporations, government agencies, community organizations and social enterprises the platform to create measurable social impact for better gender responsive outcomes. She speaks regularly about the role that gender equity plays in achieving a more sustainable world for everyone.  Minnie has been awarded the Singapore Women’s Weekly’s Great Women of Our Time Award in the Public Service and Education category and has been nominated as one of Cleo Singapore’s 2016 top ten Changemakers.

Saranta is the Senior Programme Manager for DIAN. She is responsible for driving the development and execution of DIAN across the region.

Prior to Community Business, Saranta was working with founders and leaders committed to building authentic work cultures and workplaces that empower their teams. Her experience brings together a unique blend of workplace strategy, learning & programme design and leadership coaching.

Passionate about the future of work, Saranta launched The Working Capitol, a co-working space in Singapore to re-imagine the way work, wellbeing and inclusion can co-exist. She was also the Head of Learning for a private network of female leaders, spearheading the programme design & delivery and member experience across events, workshops & networking opportunities, to advance the role of women in leadership. Saranta is a strong believer in the power of community to drive transformation and create impact and is a champion of diversity & inclusion practices in and out of the workplace.

Saranta was born in Belgium and raised in Singapore. A graduate from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts, International Studies & French, she worked in the US and Southeast Asia representing global brands in her early career before exploring the world of entrepreneurship. Saranta is a coach-in training, supporting especially female founders and working mothers. She is fluent in English and French, conversational in Italian and learning Indonesian.

Sarah joined Munich Re in June 2023 to lead the global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) strategy for the Group. Sarah is a seasoned HR leader with 20 years experience in the financial services industry, the last 15 of which has been leading DEI teams globally. Prior to joining Munich Re Sarah led global DEI team at Northern Trust, AIG and Barclays Wealth. 

Sarah has a BA in International Management and Business Administration with German from Reading University, including one year spent at Düsseldorf Universität. She also has an MSc in Human Resources Management and an MBA, both from the Open University. She is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development), the professional body for Human Resources in the UK. 

Sarah is also a Magistrate (a level of judiciary in the UK) and serves across two Magistrates courts in east London (one day per month). 

In her spare time Sarah enjoys dressmaking and quilting and has recently also started to learn how to knit. She lives with her husband on the outskirts of London. 

Sophie Guerin is the Head of Diversity & Inclusion for Asia Pacific at Johnson & Johnson. She is a bilingual, GTM, customer centric diversity & inclusion professional with extensive experience building localized strategies for international clients in Asia Pacific. Sophie is skilled in leveraging strategic partnerships with multiple stakeholders to achieve measurable, business driven results.

Currently residing in Singapore, Sophie is a recognized expert on diversity & inclusion in Asia and speaks frequently at industry and thought leadership forums. She is co-author of "Examining Diversity & Inclusion from an Asian Perspective" and “Developing Dependency” which explores special economic zones in the Greater Mekong Sub-region. She is a member of the Diversity & Inclusion in Asia Network Advisory Council and a Founding Member of the American Chamber of Commerce Singapore Women's Steering Committee. Sophie is the first recipient of the American Chamber of Commerce China Committee of the Year Award and is the Founder of Women in International Public Affairs based in Paris, France.