The 2020 Women Leadership Awards Ceremony is fast approaching, and we cannot wait to celebrate the incredible finalists and award winners who inspire us.
As part of the Women Leadership Awards, IPWS is giving a Lifetime Achievement Award for the third year running. As with all of the award categories, the independent WLA Jury reviewed the nominations for this award and has selected a winner.
It is with great pleasure that we announce Peggy Liu, as the winner of the 2020 WLA Lifetime Achievement Award!
Peggy is a Chairperson of JUCCCE. She has been at the heart of the greening of China since 2007. She has dedicated her life to personal and planetary health. Named the “Green Goddess of China” by Chinese press, she travels the world to consult companies and governments on how to catalyze societal-scale change, scale sustainable innovation, and collaborate with China. Peggy’s superpower is bringing people together across borders and industries to change the world for the better. Peggy works across policy, economic, technical, and spiritual realms.
Peggy led JUCCCE in these China-wide changes: (1) Organized the MIT Forum on the Future of Energy in China from which JUCCCE was formed. This forum was the first public dialogue between US and Chinese government officials on clean energy in China, just as China was just starting to look seriously at greening itself. (2) Introduced Smart Grid to China and catalyzed the revolution of electricity distribution to allow for renewable energies and energy efficiency at scale. (3) Educated 1000 Chinese government leaders (mayors and central government) on how to build sustainable cities. These trainings helped shape eco-city trends in China. (4) Catalysed China’s change from incandescent lighting to energy efficient lighting, the largest leverage point in saving energy. (5) Created the China Dream initiative in 2010 to reimagine prosperity for sustainable consumerism. This became China’s national slogan. Environmental protection is now embedded into the national priority and identity of China. (6) Launched Food Heroes, teaching young kids and parents to eat in a way that is good for themselves and the planet.
Peggy keynotes around the world on lessons from how China is tackling the world’s toughest challenges: pollution, urbanization, epidemics, drought, obesity and diabetes. What can other societies can learn without becoming China? How can one person change the world?
Peggy is the best-selling author of “Mesmerize the Media: Maximize Your Impact With more Press.” She coaches women leaders on personal branding and transformational speaking. She brings about the rise of the Divine Feminine by strengthening the voices of women in the media.
Peggy is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She was awarded the “Nobel” of climate change, the “Hillary Step”. The Economist called her “one of the most innovative thinkers in Asia.” Previously, she was a venture capitalist and founded one of the earliest ecommerce companies in Silicon Valley. Red Herring cover story dubbed her an “Internet Pioneer”.
We asked Peggy to share some insights on her inspiring career:
A Turkish psychologist introduced me to his theory of what shapes our life purpose. Unlike Jung who focuses on childhood trauma, this man says the earliest memories of childhood joy drives us. We strive unconsciously to recreate that moment of joy for the rest of our lives. When I was young, my mother and her family taught me their craftsmanship of and joy in gardening and cooking. The intricate dance of making food and sharing food for them is an act of sharing love. This cycle taught me a deep respect of Nature. As Chairperson of JUCCCE and a lecturer of government officials in China on how to build eco-cities, I give a lot of talks about the rapid rise of urbanization. From that Anthropocene viewpoint, the wholesale taking over the Earth of the virus called “human beings” can be alarming. For me, being an environmentalist means protecting our Mother, nurturing our cells and souls. Since 2006 I have dedicated my life to accelerating the greening of China and spreading the narrative of harmonious prosperity around the world. For this work, I have been awarded with the “Nobel” of climate change leadership – the “Hillary Step” named for the hardest part of climbing Mt. Everest. At the award event, the former Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Nobel Laureate, Rajendra Pachauri, said “What we need is 100 Peggy Liu’s all over the world. If that were to happen, we would be on the path to a sustainable society.”
In my family, I was the first to be born in the United States. My life traveling between worlds, languages, culture made me very sensitive to bridging people compassionately. I dealt with a lot of racism and insecurity about identity that drives me everyday to be a cultural bridge, a connector, and a collaborator. This served me very well in my role bringing international experts and technologies to China to improve the environment. People around the world now turn to me as their window into China. JUCCCE was born out of the first public dialogues between US and China government on clean energy. As we held annual clean energy conferences, more and more countries began to work with us. I believe living this childhood as a global citizen helped me best serve as a cultural translator and bridge for international collaboration. Foreign Policy listed me as one of the “top influencers of US-China relations.” I love being able to show people how we have more in common than sets us apart. I love being able to make good things happen by connecting people from around the world. In a TEDx talk, I said that cultural bridges are the most important service job of this next century. As a child of an immigrant family, I was awkward and alone for most of my childhood. Apart from studying like a true tiger mom’s maniac child, I spent much of my time reading sci fi. My head was filled with imperfect characters who changed the universe.
I went to MIT to study electrical engineering and computer science because I wanted to build robots. My early career was focused on how technologies (networking, Internet) could improve people’s lives for the better. In the last 13 years I have been focused on sustainable technologies – ways that people can live in balance with the rest of our natural world. As a young-looking Asian female, becoming an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley was filled with unspoken gender biases. After realizing that only 1 out of 5 talking head experts on media were women, I wrote a best-selling book “Mesmerize the Media: Maximize Your Impact with More Press” based on my experiences as a public figure “China’s Green Goddess” to help other women leaders develop a stronger personal brand presence and use media as a transformational tool. I came to the realization that I had unique experiences to share when the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders asked me to teach media workshops, and the amazing women in that group all requested more. Helping women succeed, whether mentoring, being a public role model, or providing tools like Mesmerize the Media books, online course, and workshops, is one of the most fulfilling things I do. I feel rewarded when I hear from women, even a decade later, tell me how one of my talks, or working with me, changed their life. In college, I started to practice a lineage of Qigong energetic practice that has been handed down for 20 generations in secret. That knowledge of how energy creates reality has subliminally affected my entire view of the world, down to a quantum physics level. I didn’t realize until recently how this understanding helps me bring people together collaboratively to better the world.
Now I have started to teach my theory of change. I use as a basis of my teachings my experience at JUCCCE in changing China 5 times over, from introducing clean energy technologies, the China national slogan, to revolutionizing the electrical grid, to changing lighting standards, to teaching over 1000 mayors and central government official how to build eco-cities. I share my theory of change as a public speaker around the world, to government leaders, company executives, and students. The Economist called me “one of the most innovative thinkers in Asia” and asked me to do several keynotes where I blended this knowledge from China and how to apply it to innovating at scale. On a spiritual level, I have realized that I am a bridge for ancient knowledge to the modern world. Today I serve as a Master Teacher of Quantum Manifestation at 13 Temples for priestesses, and as a Peace Ambassador for the World Peace Forum in Lumpini, Nepal- the birthplace of Lord Buddha. At 51 years old, I am turning much of my attention to packaging my unique experiences and knowledge so that I may pass it on to the people who will lead the change in our world – women and children. Now I know that to transform the world, I had to first transform myself. I am now on a quest to help other women learn how to do just that.
Congratulations to all finalists, as well as to the many incredible nominees!
This year, the winners, including the WLA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, will be announced at the IPWS Women Leadership Awards Ceremony, a celebratory and festive evening event at Cotton’s in the heart of Shanghai on Friday, June 5th, 2020.
Our warmest congratulations to the finalists!
WLA Nominations Sponsor
For the fourth year in a row IT Consultis is the exclusive sponsor of the WLA Nominations.
We are delighted to work with the IT Consultis (ITC) team who has gone above and beyond to ensure a smooth experience for all applicants. IT Consultis will manage the technical side of the entire nomination process, right up until the announcement of the winners at the WLA Ceremony, on June 5th.
IT Consultis is a leading independent digital production company, empowering the most ambitious brands on their digital transformation in China and across other Asian markets. With a team of 80 experts in three countries, ITC leverages martech, e-commerce and omnichannel solutions to maximize client’s ROI.
IT Consultis was established in 2011 and in only 8 years, it has rapidly expanded to 3 offices in Shanghai, Singapore, and Ho Chi Minh City, while working with some of the largest brands in the world including GAP, Zara, Porsche, Decathlon, Swatch, Leica and many more. The company serves both B2B and B2C clients.
ITC invests every year into selected NGOs to help them make a difference and was proud to help IPWS during the nomination process for the Women Leadership Awards in 2017, 2018, 2019 and is delighted to support IPWS again in 2020.
Visit it-consultis.com to learn more about the IT Consultis team and their services or contact Aurelien the Co-Founder at aurelien.rigart@it-consultis.com or aurelien-r on WeChat.
