Binu Balan is a business expansion champion and business strategist with over 20 years of experience helping individuals and global brands create lasting brand equity. 

Through her organisation B.Connected Pte Ltd, a B2B business matchmaking consultancy, she drives business partnering and stakeholder management with a unique service offering that combines market intelligence, business model diagnostics and  access to a local and global network of service providers. She is passionate about customer experience and is an avid people connector, ignited by two decades of leading international operations for global fashion brands across the Middle East and APAC. 

Binu volunteers full-time at KeyNote Women Speakers Directory leading  Speaker Placement, Business Development & Partnerships globally for the  300+ speakers in the directory and its partners. 

Born in India and bred in the Middle East, Binu now calls Singapore home; living there with her two daughters. She holds an MBA in Marketing & International Business and is also a trained yoga practitioner and classical dancer.

Dr. Zsuzsanna Tungli is an expert and passionate advocate of global and inclusive leadership, gender equality and cultural intelligence. Over the past 30 years, her work has spanned Asia, US and Europe in consulting, research and executive education. 

She has designed and run most of her programs as the Managing Partner of Developing Global Leaders and as an invited faculty member at the following business schools: INSEAD, IMD, London Business School, University of St. Gallen, National University of Singapore and Singapore Management University.

She is the author of the books The Culture Key between Asia and the West (2020), and The Roadmap to Gender Equality in Organisations (forthcoming), and a regular speaker and facilitator at international conferences and company events. Zsuzsanna earned a PhD in international business at London Business School, UK, and an MBA at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. With her first degree, she graduated as an economist from Corvinus University in Budapest, Hungary.

Elena Liapounova was born in snowy Siberia and raised and lived in the US and Asia. She has built her career on Wall Street in recruiting, working with major banks, hedge funds, biotech companies, and VCs. 

Having come to the US with only $100 in her pocket and working her way through college. AI and technology have become her bread and butter while building C-suite teams – her true passion. Fascinated by the recent technology and scientific discoveries, she decided to launch her own global search firm. 

Elena’s resilience, grit, determination, and positive attitude set her apart and are the reason for becoming one of the few female recruiting firm founders in the world. 

Elena believes anything is possible! Her mantra is, “If I can do it, then anyone can do it.” She dreams of living a happy long life filled with joy.  

Evelyn Obillo is a Filipino migrant domestic worker in Singapore for the last 20 years, a CDE ambassador, Uplifters mentor and a mother of four.

She is an active NGO volunteer. Helping others is her passion. She assists fellow migrant women with their employment issues and integration into the community. She helps them not feel so alone and become happier so that their stay is more tolerable and fruitful. She is also helping Uplifters to facilitate their online classes and mentors the class team leaders.

Evelyn has a friendly, warm and straightforward personality. She is able to connect with her fellow migrant women and make them feel at ease to open up about their employment and personal issues as well as advising them on how to use social media. In her free time she conducts outreach programs and attends workshops that are beneficial to her.

Gina Marescia’s purpose is to be a catalyst. Since 1990 Gina has practised as a transformational leadership consultant, coach, and organisational psychologist. She has lived this purpose since her teens growing up in Apartheid South Africa and for the past thirty years as a global leadership coach and trainer in Asia, NA, Africa and Europe. 

Gina’s regional female leadership programs empower women to define, choose, navigate and find their unique leadership voice at home and on global corporate platforms. She is considered an expert on developing resilience, authentic impact, and presence with her unique CABI™ model (Confidence & Courage, Articulating with impact, Branding, Inquiry). Gina is the co-founder of three companies, including Catalyst Consulting HK. 

She lives in Hong Kong with her husband and is a mother to a son and daughter. 

Chapter Title: The Magic Ring

Nashya Haider (Innotech Consultants) is an internationally experienced (Europe, America and SE Asia) Program Manager within the Healthcare and Health-Tech industries and academic research environments. She is an executive and consultant, enthusiastic about promoting technology-driven business solutions. 

Nashya focuses on internal innovation that drives better customer-facing business processes and external innovation that drives new product adoption with industry key opinion leaders.

She has a proven track record of implementing AI business growth strategies by establishing strong partnership networks, organising international conferences and training events, and developing programs and curricula. 

Nashya is the Program Manager of complex projects involving interdepartmental and multidisciplinary stakeholder groups across ICT/AI, healthcare, health-tech and marketing functional areas.

Pavitar Kaur Gill has been a wife, mother, teacher, tv producer, researcher, and is currently a counsellor. She raised four children aged 26, 25, 20 and 19 while living with Crohn’s Disease, and navigating life as a single mother. 

Her interest in counselling stems from her experiences with parenting, chronic illness, and divorce, and from her desire to help others find their way through life’s difficulties. 

She holds degrees in English (BA, 1990) and Linguistics (MA, 1993) but is a lifelong learner and believes in expanding her knowledge base and skills. 

Pavitar completed her MA in Counselling in 2019 and founded her counselling practice – “Patient Voices”. She is pursuing an online MSc in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health with King’s College London and aims to graduate in 2024. 

One of her many life mottos is “Change is the Only Constant” which has helped her roll with the many punches that life has thrown at her. Pavitar is truly a survivor. 

Sadhna Upadhya is a Yogi based in London, United Kingdom, with 2500 hours of teaching experience. She comes from a professional background in hospitality and management with 15 years of experience.

Born and bred in Singapore, she has travelled extensively in the last few years pursuing her passion for teaching and has amplified this by a wanderlust of exploring European cities simultaneously. Her portfolio includes working with many luxury hotel brands such as the Far East Hospitality Group, Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton and many other corporate organisations providing yoga training services.

She is actively engaged in bringing her own wellness app, “Shunya”, to life, which will be launched in the latter part of the year. Her purpose is to give back to the community through yoga. Sadhna firmly believes that one’s quality of life is determined through daily habits with discipline in place.

Sandra Roe is a Canadian-born author now living in Hong Kong. Her nickname is “The Princess”.

She has had cancer four times, major heart surgery, double pneumonia along with many other health issues. 

Sandra had eight cycles of industrial-strength chemo over six months when she was diagnosed with CNS Lymphoma – brain cancer. After the chemo treatment, she wrote 15 children’s books. The first book she wrote is called “The Farting Princess”. Sandra has now written 22 children’s books about funny things that occurred during her chemo treatment for brain cancer, as well as when she had a mastectomy and reconstruction for breast cancer and major heart surgery.

Sandra wrote her books to make children and their parents laugh as laughter is the best medicine. She donates 50% of her net profits to cancer research, prevention and cure.

She has lived in Hong Kong with her husband for 17 years.

Vinti Mittal is the Clinical Director at SACAC Counselling and a registered counsellor and clinical member of the Singapore Association of Counselling with 15 years of experience.

In her current role, she is heavily invested in the well-being of her clients and the practice’s clients. She spends considerable time consulting with her clients and providing staff supervision. Vinti also offers clinical supervision to other upcoming therapists in the field.

Vinti is passionate about the roles of physical health and lifestyle in an individual’s well-being. She sees herself as a restless soul in the gym, walking in nature or out in her free time. She sees life differently after being trained as a counsellor.

She is a very involved mother of three boys. She learns a lot from life, her kids, and her clients. 

Ana Lucia Lind is an international banker, financial advisor, asset/wealth manager and investor. She is an entrepreneur and strategic advisor to Governments and devoted philanthropist. 

She is recognised as a leading expert in finance in the emerging markets Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. She builds bridges between emerging markets and industrialised countries. 

Anna Lucia has worked in leadership positions at the UBS Bank Head Quarter in Switzerland, UBS Bank Frankfurt-Germany, Julius Baer and Metzler Bank Frankfurt and at Swiss Capital Engineering AG Zurich before Co-founding Swiss Financial Engineering AG. 

In her role as asset and fund manager for the UBS Bank Frankfurt, she has managed over US$2.5 billion. She started her career in investment banking in Germany and has been a guest speaker at various economic forums worldwide. 

She devotes her life to more than seven thousand children throughout the world.

Patrizia Bonandini is the Managing Director/Owner of Bonandini Consulting, a company she founded after her last employer passed of COVID in 2020. In 2021, her company was awarded Top Women, Top Gender Empowered Company.

 She is also the Co-Founder of Sofinaa (Social Finance using Applied Analytics), a company that uses AI tools to measure how effective organisations are in their social impact to help the disadvantaged.  

She is a Mentor and Board Advisor to Y:WAIT (Young women in AI Technology). She was recently one of the speakers at Womenverse – a global event for young women.

She aspires to become a great global entrepreneur. Social and community development are so important to Patrizia as, she knows what it’s like to have nothing and wants to do all she can to help those in need. 

Heather Barker is the Global VP of Regulatory at consumer goods company Reckitt in Amsterdam. She is also the VP, Board of Directors for A.I.S.E. (International Association for Soaps & Detergents). In 2020 she was selected for one of ten industry seats on the EU Commission High-Level Roundtable for the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.

A curious systems-inspired leader, Heather is the Executive sponsor for the LGTBQ+ ERG as an ally, a member of the Inclusion Board at Reckitt and volunteers with the Netherlands chapter of LEAD (Leading Executives Advancing Diversity). 

She is often invited as an industry speaker, coach and mentor. She finds joy in helping others fully realise their potential as their authentic selves. “Be a better human” is her motto. 

Heather has a BSc in Biochemistry (Minor in Nutritional Science) and an MSc in Toxicology. She also holds an Organizational & Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC™) certification from Schouten University.

Juliette Ledoux started doing Sales Training and Consulting as a freelancer, delivering Proactive Sales and Customer-centric Workshops after spending 10 years in Business Development. During that time, she worked on four different continents (South America, Africa, Asia and Europe) in the process engineering industry.

Her mission is to equip engineers with key techniques to improve their sales and business development skills. Her pragmatic approach uses a mix of soft and hard skills, such as situational intelligence and active listening.

The workshops are specifically designed for Technology experts, Field Service Engineers and Sales Area Engineers to generate new customer leads as well as increase customer loyalty to secure repeatable sales for a growing order intake. Her workshops are conducted in English, French and German. 

After living four years in Singapore, Juliette now lives in Cologne, Germany, where she co-founded The Sparkle Academy GmbH.