Congratulations to the 2018 Women Leadership Awards Winners!
This year the Jury received 60 completed nominations to review during a two week period. Each Juror generously volunteers his/her time to carefully review each nomination and select the finalists. Following the selection of finalists the Jury convenes for an all-day interview process where each finalist is present for a 20 minute interview.
After each interview the Jury discusses the candidates responses and at the end of the day select a winner for each category. During the IPWS Leadership Summit on Friday, May 25th the winners of each category were announced and presented with their award.
Congratulations to all!
Business Leader of the Year:
Heather Smith
General Manager of Shanghai Market, United Family Healthcare
Heather Smith is the General Manager of the Shanghai Market of United Family Healthcare. Heather has over 30 years’ health care experience and leads Shanghai United Family Hospital and Clinics full-service, internationally-accredited facilities with highly qualified medical staff from around the world, to provide comprehensive, integrated healthcare services in a uniquely warm and caring patient and family service-oriented environment 24 hours a day. She has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a Master’s Degree in Healthcare Administration and a Master’s Degree in Public Health. Heather is an American College of Healthcare Executives Fellow, a Fellow in The
Australasian College of Health Service Management and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is the Chairperson for the Healthcare Committee of AmCham Shanghai, serves on the leadership committee of the China Healthcare Executives Group, and is a Director on the Board of AustCham Shanghai. She has worked in the US, Australia, Indonesia, Qatar, UAE, and the UK.
Young Business Leader of the Year:
Fukuko Ayama
Senior Director of People, LearningLeaders
Fukuko grew up going to school in mainland China (Guangzhou and Beijing). Riding a unicycle in Guangzhou as a child (which many Japanese children do), she got her fingers stuck in a door of her apartment. Moving to Beijing, she was the self-admitted ‘bully,’ of another girl, something she never wished to repeat again. Moving to Boston, USA and studying Chemical Engineering at Tufts, she not only graduated Cum Laude, but was a hugely influential sister in her sorority, Chi Omega. She then went on to work in Hong Kong, London, and Tokyo for both Bank of America Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase – bulge bracket investment banks. What she has learned from her international experience is that inclusion leads to diversity and diversity leads to equality in the workplace. Ultimately, she left her work in banking to pursue her passion, education. Fukuko joined LearningLeaders nearly three years ago in Shanghai and has since then been the absolute rock of the team – she joined as the third partner and now the company has grown to 30 partners. In her initial role, Fukuko lead the organization’s online learning strategy. As she demonstrated competence, confidence, and leadership in her role, she was promoted twice in three years to become the Senior Director of People. In this role, Fukuko leads all decisions related to personnel at the company: from recruiting and hiring to compensation and benefits; from leadership coaching and personal development to scheduling and incentivation. In a pro-social organization focused on leadership development, Fukuko is without a doubt the most capable and influential member of the entire Partnership. As Fukuko’s direct manager, I can say confidently that without her direct influence on the organization’s development, we would be an organization with half of the size, spirit, and success that we are today.
Entrepreneur of the Year:
Elizabeth Schieffelin
Founder & CEO, Lizzy’s All Natural
Elizabeth Schieffelin is an American Holistic Health Coach, certified by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. She is the founder of Lizzy’s All Natural, a healthy smoothie business with three shops open in Shanghai. She is also the founder of zenergy, Shanghai’s newest holistic wellness studio offering online and offline meditation, yoga and health classes.
Based in Shanghai, Elizabeth “Lizzy” believes that we can heal our bodies and transform into our best selves through the foods we eat and areas towards which we focus our energies. She is a Holistic Meditation and Mindfulness Instructor trained by the KaivalyaDhama Institute in Lonavala, India. She is also a Reiki Energy Healer and Crystal worker. Lizzy has practiced yoga for over 10 years and is training YA200 with the KaivalyaDhama Institute. She is also certified in sound therapy with Tibetan Singing Bowls from the Kathmandu Center of Healing.
In 2014 Lizzy founded Lizzy’s All Natural, a healthy food and lifestyle brand best known for making 60+ types of fresh superfood smoothies, power bowls and grab-and-go snacks. The zenergy holistic wellness center project started at the end of 2017 to serve as an outlet for Lizzy’s passion to bring likeminded people in the community together to learn and grow.
From 2013-2015, Lizzy served as the Marketing Director for a farm-to-table online grocery delivery service, Kate & Kimi. Previously, she co-founded SafeSource Trading, a firm focused on importing safe American foods to China. Lizzy graduated from the Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in 2013 with a B.S. in East Asian Studies. Lizzy serves on the board of the Aboro Foundation, an organization dedicated to teaching and inspiring local children through the spread of fitness and nutrition. She is also a lululemon ambassador and an R U OK? Ambassador, promoting mental health awareness and suicide Prevention.
Previously, Lizzy worked as Nutrition Counselor at The Midwifery Center. In her practice, she coaches entrepreneurs, executives on nutrition, stress and lifestyle management. She also specializes in pre- and postnatal maternal health.
Social Contributor of the Year:
Enoch Li
Founder & Play Consultant, Bearapy
Based in Beijing, Enoch is a social entrepreneur and founded BEARAPY (www.bearapy.me). The mission is to reduce burnout and mental health issues in the community and workplace through helping adults access their inner playfulness. Her unique approach blends the power of playfulness – creativity, stress management, and self-awareness – into her transformation and facilitation work. Enoch also has expertise in using psychodynamic techniques for organizational development and improved team performance. Enoch works with multinationals, governments, and start-ups across Asia-Pacific and Europe, advocating emotional and mental health awareness to prevent burnout, depression, suicides, and related issues. She has helped thousands of people through play workshops, talks, and a free ebook on communicating with depressed people, raising awareness in the society on mental wellbeing. With personal experience in burnout and clinical depression herself, Enoch is able to bring a personal touch and to empathize with those in similar plights. She continues to develop her research and theories in the psychology of adult playfulness, and is a frequent speaker and social commentator on topics of mental resilience, burnout, and women leadership. She has been a TEDx presenter and has been featured and published in Forbes, South China Morning Post, Thrive Global, Women of China and CGTN, in addition to her blog, NochNoch.com.
Innovator of the Year:
R.May Lee
ShanghaiTech University (on sabbatical)
Has led two groundbreaking innovations in higher-education over the last eight years bridging the two largest higher-ed markets, the U.S. and China, at NYU and more recently, at ShanghaiTech University. Has also held a variety of senior positions as an executive on Wall Street, and as an entrepreneur. In all these roles, she has taken initiatives from inception of the vision to execution with particular expertise in the China market. Proven track record of recognizing strategic growth opportunities and realizing them with an intense focus on operational excellence. In her current role, she is focused on innovation, digital transformation, and entrepreneurship within China and globally. May advises a handful of start-ups on strategic growth; and multi-national companies on innovation strategy, digital transformation and leadership. She speaks frequently on innovation, leadership, and women in the workplace.
HeforShe Man of the Year:
Monte Rosen
Founder & Managing Director, ELG Shanghai (Engage-Learn-Grow)
Monte received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he attended the Public Management Program – the precursor to the renowned Center for Social Innovation. He held a variety of senior management positions in technology companies in the US and Asia, moving to Shanghai with his family in 2003. Before working in business, Monte fostered educational programs around special needs. In the early 1980s, Monte ran an educational program targeted to teenagers and adults with developmental disabilities. He began leading trainings for an innovative program that helped special education professionals and parents collaborate on difficult issues. In 2006, when ELG was founded, Monte was finally able to return to his early career. Upon moving to Shanghai and working with both expats and locals, Monte’s wife, Dr. Shari Rosen, realized how desperate the need for special education services in the city. She inspired Monte to change his career of twenty years to co-found ELG. Monte is proud that his work allows him to make a difference in the lives of international and local families. In keeping with the motto of his alma mater, Stanford Graduate School of Business, he aims to ‘Change Lives. Change Organizations. Change the World’ and tries to incorporate it into ELG on a daily basis.
Lifetime Achievement Award:
Michelle Garnaut
Founder and CEO, M Group
Michelle Garnaut began her career as one of China’s most celebrated restaurateurs in 1989, when she opened M at the Fringe in Hong Kong. It swiftly grew into a city institution, and in 1999, M on the Bund opened, the first independent restaurant on the historic Shanghai waterfront. Like its predecessor, it soon became a beloved oasis for locals, visitors and lovers of good food and warm service. In 2009 she opened Capital M on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Today, Michelle’s M Restaurant Group includes M on the Bund and Glam, a chic Shanghai dining lounge. Over the years, in tandem with the restaurants’ exuberant growth, an empire of cultural events has grown up. Michelle founded the Shanghai and Capital Literary Festivals, the Shanghai Chamber Music Festival and Competition and the M Literary Residency. She’s also the co-founder of the Village People Project, which aims to improve the lives and health of villagers in rural China and works to promote Educating Girls of Rural China. In Beijing and Shanghai, she spearheads Mentor Walks, where up-and-coming professional women can seek advice from experienced mentors. Mentor Walks now operates in Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane and continues to spread around Asia. Michelle is the recipient of many international honours, including the inaugural award in Food at the Advance Global Australian Awards. She sits on various boards including the Advance Global Board. In 2015 Michelle was invited to the ‘Legends Hall of Fame’ which pays tribute to the leaders, ground breakers and visionaries of Australia and Victoria’s food and wine industry. She was made an ‘Officer of the Order of Australia’ in the Australia Day Honours List 2018.
