The long-awaited moment is almost here – the IPWS Women Leadership Award winners will be announced on May 29th.
The WLA is the longest running international award in China for women leaders, and was the only such award for over a decade. The WLA recognizes professional women who have emerged as leaders in their field. As leaders, these inspiring women – and since 2016, men supporting women – have made a marked difference in our community and have forged paths for others to follow. The WLA recognizes leadership in women (and men) from all nationalities and across all industries.
After careful consideration of all completed nominations, the independent WLA Jury has selected the following professionals to be our WLA 2021 Finalists!
Read more about these incredible finalists, and get your ticket to the awards ceremony now, as seats are limited!
Business Leader of the Year
Hongfei Zheng
President, Cargill Animal Nutrition China
Hongfei Zheng is currently President of Cargill Animal Nutrition China. She leads a team of 2000+ employees and manages a $1B animal feed and nutrition business in China. She led the team to grow the business by 50% in a year and doubled earnings. Before her role at Cargill, she served as Vice President, Strategy, Knowledge & Insights for Coca-Cola in Greater China and Korea from 2018-2020 and was responsible for corporate strategy and business planning, consumer and competitor insights & intelligence as well as M&A and alliance. She successfully built Coca-Cola’s 2025 Greater China strategy.
Prior to Coca-Cola, Hongfei worked at Cargill Greater China as Head of Corporate Strategy and Development from 2016-2018. She is a member of Cargill China’s leadership team and has worked closely with global CEO, executive team members and board members to develop APAC and China strategies and investments and has successfully established five-year strategies for Cargill China, leading multiple investments and acquisitions.
Hongfei also previously worked at Hilti Ltd., a European engineering solution company as Head of Oil & Gas and Chemical Business in China from 2013-2016, and Marketing Director of APAC. She successfully managed to double the business income and triple profit growth in two years. Before that, Hongfei worked at Bain & Co. for eight years as a case team leader and board manager, offering strategy consulting services to multinational and Chinese enterprises.
Hongfei obtained her Bachelor and Master of Economics degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, with a Master at Ecole Centrale de Lyon Diplôme d’Ingénieur France and an MBA from INSEAD (France).
Jacquelien Brussee
VP & GM, Labbrand Group
Jacquelien Brussee, VP of Labbrand Group, and the GM of the leading China-originated global branding agency Labbrand. She is a seasoned executive with 15+ years’ experience, of which 11 spent in the midst of China’s rapid development towards becoming a main global hub of innovations.
At Labbrand Group Headquarters in Shanghai, she represents the Group vision and is actively involved in Corporate Branding, HR, and Office team operations and champions the agency’s competitive advantages and consistently builds the overall brand’s equity.
Jacquelien is interested and inspired by the 4th Industrial Revolution and how new and emerging technologies, like blockchain and AI, fuel the blurring of the real and the technological world. Impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, she is keen to understand how these technologies specifically have an impact on brands, their brand equity and on the branding practice as a whole. She feels that to look at China is to see the future and the limitless possibilities within the digital space.
Prior to joining Labbrand, Jacquelien managed the Marcoms APAC for a leading Dutch technical system integrator, after being at Nike EHQ Brand Connections team, leading in addition a pilot with a global telecom player on NFC and its ability to become an effective digital tool leveraging the brand experience by relevant brand actions.
Jacquelien is currently a Global Executive MBA candidate at CEIBS and holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA), a Master of Arts in International Business Management (MA IBM) and a Bachelor (BA) in International Communications. Has lived and worked in The Netherlands, United Kingdom, United Arabic Emirates, Hong Kong and most recently in China. She is a fluent Dutch and English speaker and has intermediate Mandarin and Spanish skills.
In addition, she is a passionate foodie, a true coffee-lover, a casual runner and an active and devoted mother of two great little minds.
Entrepreneur of the Year
Nanou Gimonet
Founder, Baluchon & Manager of Contaminated Land Services for China GOLDER ASSOCIATES
Nanou Gimonet is a French environmental engineer, entrepreneur, and mother of two, who has been living in Shanghai for 11 years.
Trained as a geologist in France and specialized in environmental sciences, Nanou is currently the manager of a team of environmental consultants investigating and remediating polluted industrial soil, and groundwater all over China. She has been at the head of a team of Chinese male engineers since 2015, based in Shanghai.
Raised in a small town at the seaside in Normandy, Nanou has always been passionate about nature and animals from a young age and grew deep care for the state of our planet over the years. In her field for more than 13 years, Nanou has witnessed firsthand the impact our consumption habits have on the planet, landfills at overcapacity, illegal waste dumps, human health impacts on fragile communities, and more.
In her spare time, while still working full-time following the birth of her daughter in 2017, Nanou decided to act at another scale: raising awareness in the community, empowering people to take little steps towards a more sustainable lifestyle. She launched her green startup Baluchon in December 2017, proposing cloth alternatives to single-use paper, plastic, and cotton in people’s daily life. Nanou believes in raising awareness positively, with fun, colorful products, showing that style and sustainability can (and should!) co-exist.
Becoming an entrepreneur while still working full-time, and raising her 8 months old daughter, Nanou is living proof that with motivation, passion, and a good support system, you can do it all!
She discovered Shanghai 12 years ago while on a two-week holiday in China, met her now-husband Guillaume who made such an impression on her that she decided to leave everything behind in France to meet him here and start a life together. They were married in 2015 in Bali, and now have two young children that they raise with sustainability values in mind!
Cheri Xiaoyu Wang
CEO, Shanghai Li An International Freight Forwarding Co. Ltd
Cheri Wang, Founder and CEO of Coshipper, a Supply Chain and logistics company servicing Ecommerce sellers across the world. Involved in China’s Ecommerce ecosystem since the age of 17, Cheri has extensive experience in Global Ecommerce and Consumer product supply chain, including the founding of her own global logistics company, Coshipper, in 2018.
Coshipper ranks 1st among Amazon’s recommended Global Logistics Service Providers, serving cross-border sellers around the world. Cheri has over 10 years of product experience, 8 years of cross-border e-commerce experience, and 4 years of logistics experience. Cheri obtained her Masters in Luxury Brand Management at Polimoda in Italy, and worked for Prada.
Young Business Leader of the Year
Ashley Dudarenok
Founder, ChoZan & Alarice
Ashley is a renowned China marketing expert, entrepreneur, bestselling author and vlogger. She’s a LinkedIn Top Voice in Marketing, a Holmes Report Top 25 Innovator, and made Thinkers50’s Radar Class of 2021 as a China digital marketing and trend guru.
She’s the founder of a China-focused social media agency Alarice and China insights and digital training company ChoZan. Her top-rated YouTube business vlog, Ashley Talks, covers the China market, consumers and social media. She’s also an active supporter of women in business and is the creator of the self-development program FIRE. Ashley is a contributor to Jing Daily, TechNode, The Next Web, the SCMP, Forbes and has been interviewed by the BBC, Bloomberg, CGTN and CNBC.
Susie Liu
Head of Marketing Strategy, OnePlus
As an Economics graduate from The University of Cambridge, Susie’s career began in investment banking. At the end of 2016, Susie quit her job, bought a one-way ticket to Beijing (a place where she knew no one, and no one knew her), and immersed herself in the Chinese economy. In 2017, Susie joined Huawei to help expand the overseas presence of the tech giant’s sub-brand, Honor. Upon joining OnePlus in 2019, Susie has helped former co-founder Carl Pei to launch a new OnePlus smartphone line (OnePlus Nord), headed the development of the world’s first AR launch, and is now working closely with global partners like Google, Snapchat, and Amazon to explore ways of using technology to create innovative experiences and products.
Susie is also a contributing writer for Hacker Noon, an independent tech publication with over 5 million monthly readers.
Social Contributor of the Year
Seema Ahluwalia
Chairwoman and GM, Mifanmama
As a philanthropist and International campaigner, Seema works closely with various International healthcare foundations/hospitals, NGO/ONGO and corporates to help prevent avoidable Blindness by designing programs for prevention, treatment and smooth rehabilitation. Her vision is to see Blindness prevention as a movement in societies, starting from infancy stage or earlier, as Statistically Blindness is the most neglected disability in the world and largely irreversible.
She has been actively participating in various workshops, as speaker in German and Amcham business chambers in Shanghai, and contributes by knowledge sharing for reshaping CSR strategies, as due to her corporate background, it is easier to comprehend CSR needs of organizations. In March 2018 her Project illumine – an eye care outreach program has been a recipient of AMCHAM Beneficiary Charity 2018 as best children welfare focusing on education and health benefits. Continuing to Amcham, under her leadership Mifanmama was awarded as best CSR from German chambers under the category of “passion and potential”.
As an automobile engineer with 25 years of working experience in automotive and engineering with companies like Volvo JV , Tata, Spire etc. Currently she manages her own technical and strategic consulting companies in Shanghai & HK to increase bilateral growth amongst India and China for various EV and engineering industries. She is part of the business delegation with Indian consul general and also is a panelist on various topics of EV value chain.
Heather Bowie Kaye
Co-Founder, Loop Swim
Heather Bowie Kaye is the co-founder of Loop Swim, founder of the Shanghai Eco Warriors Summit, PaoCham YK Pao business community, and co-creator of the “Plastics are Forever” impact project with Green Initiatives. She is a frequent speaker, panelist, contributing writer and educator on empowering female entrepreneurs, circular fashion, and plastic pollution.
Transferring from Kate Spade’s (then Liz Claiborne) New York design offices to China’s manufacturing frontlines in 2006 for a one-year assignment proved to be the beginning of a fifteen-year (and counting) odyssey in apparel design, sourcing and production. In 2010, Heather and Itee Soni co-founded FINCH Designs with the goal of upending the most unsustainable aspects of the fashion industry: fast fashion cycles, body negativity, throw-away quality and environmentally damaging raw materials.
In April 2019 FINCH Designs became Loop Swim, focusing on eco-swimwear made exclusively from recycled PET plastic bottles. Loop swimwear is responsibly made in China, and retails globally with value-aligned hotel, resort and specialty boutique partners. Recognized for their timeless, singular textile prints, Loop Swim has become the premium resource for the eco-conscious global traveler and a key player in raising ocean plastic pollution awareness.
Innovator of the Year
Linian Li
Country Manager of Modern Water and VP China Business of Deep Verge
Linian Li is managing and developing Modern Water’s business in China and formulating the company’s strategy. She has double master degrees, MBA in Natural Resources Energy & Environment from University of Alberta, Canada and Master in Management, Grande Ecole Programme from EDHEC Business School, France. An executive with more than ten years of management experience in sales, marketing, business development, project management, corporate strategy, personnel, P&L and general management in international companies, including JCDecaux, GM Europe GmbH, Carat, Rouse & Co., International. A self-motivated strategic thinker with determination and effective leadership skills, she possesses extensive real life experience in the business and social cultures of Asia, Europe and North America.
Linian Li has worked as EDHEC and University of Alberta Ambassador for ten years since 2010, organizing various alumni events and building the EDHEC brand in China. She is passionate about public welfare and alumni activities, building platforms and helping others create value. Take the latest donation as example, the EDHEC Shanghai Alumni Association, together with the united public welfare foundation, launched a campaign to help fight the epidemic, raising money to purchase various supplies in short supply and distribute them to the affected areas in February 2020.
Linian Li is the Executive Committee Member of British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai and sponsor of Small & Medium Enterprises Focus Group. She organized British Chamber Mentor Walk and was a Mentor to help young females.
She also sponsored multiple graduate programs such as the 2019 Practice Track project with Bath University Engineering Management master students and 2020 Meet the Future Liverpool Boot Camp.
Wenjing Zhao
Founder, Shanghai Goodcycle Environmental Technologies Com.,Ltd
Wenjing was in the textile and apparel industry for more than ten years. From internationally traded apparel production, to domestic brands; from working for big brands, to creating a whole new brand by herself, Wenjing tried different career paths and almost got the whole industry mapped out. As Wenjing accumulated more and more knowledge about the industry, she also started to wonder, where is the next revolution going to lead this industry to? How could that happen? How would that impact her?
In 2017, the word “plastic pollution” hit her. She learned that in 2050, there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Carried by rivers, plastic wastes usually end up gathering in the ocean. Even worse, the current of the ocean carries the wastes all around the world. Therefore, no matter where these plastic wastes are from, they have caused serious threats to the global marine ecosystem. 54% of the 120 endangered marine mammals have been observed entangled by plastic wastes. The impacts from a physical way are horrifying, nor to mention the toxic chemicals it can release to the environment. As a mother of two kids, Wenjing felt great sorrow that they might not be able to inherit a healthy and gorgeous planet as she had.
However, being in the textile industry, Wenjing said to herself, plastic “waste” is merely a kind of special resource that has not been put on the right spot. If the waste can be recycled correctly and make more use of through a new business model, not only the pollution to the environment would not have been generated, but there would also have been less consumption of virgin resources; in addition, the cost of solving this problem for the whole society would be minimized.
Wenjing suddenly knew the answer to the questions that had been in her mind for so many years: Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) being the most widely used raw material in the textile industry, why not recycle and reuse the wasted plastic bottles so that more raw materials can be saved and less wastes would be created. Therefore, she started this venture: Shanghai Goodcycle Environmental Technology Co. And she made the name of the brand also P.E.T, standing for Plastic Ecological Transformation.
HeforShe Man of the Year
Emmanuel Dean
CEO & Founder, BOOMI
Born in Indonesia, Emmanuel Dean was never really known as a sustainable person, but after graduating from college (Colgate University, US) in 2018, he was guilt-tripped by his sister to go into sustainability. She simply asked him, “”why are you still using a plastic toothbrush?” Little did he know, this single question would lead to the founding of BOOMI.
After graduating, he had no job, no goals, no mission, and really no idea. All he knew is that he wanted to go to Shanghai, China. So purely out of gut feeling, he decided to fly to Shanghai to start his career.
Today, Emmanuel is the CEO and Founder of BOOMI, one of China’s first sustainability platforms. BOOMI is currently home to 50+ local, credible, and eco-friendly brands with over 200 products covering people’s sustainability needs. Our mission is to empower people to make a difference every day. Prior to BOOMI, Emmanuel worked as a research analyst in a block-chain company called Red Pulse but left the company in 2019 to pursue his entrepreneurial dream.
Emmanuel loves to go to networking events and to listen to founders’ stories. He is highly passionate about entrepreneurship and advocates for dreaming big, starting small, and starting NOW! In his downtime, he loves playing board games and has a collection of over 30 games.
Nitin Dani
Director & Founder, Green Initiatives & Seeds of Change
Nitin is an architect by professional qualification and an environmentalist at heart. He received his Bachelors in Architecture, from Bangalore, India and Masters in Strategic Design from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He was raised and educated in India and has previously worked in Bangalore, Singapore, and Milan.
In Shanghai he started his China journey working with a branding agency in 2010, and later moved on to form an entrepreneurial venture facilitating clean technology solutions for the Chinese market, while also founding Green Initiatives (started as ‘Green Drinks China’) – an environmental nonprofit-turned-social enterprise that facilitates learning and solutions on local & global issues, and collaborates with companies on employee engagement activities. Green Initiatives has organized 1000+ events since its inception in 2009 attended by over 45,000 people, including Shanghai’s longest running monthly sustainability forums. In November 2016, it was awarded Shanghai’s Most Innovative Nonprofit by AmCham Shanghai, an organization that has a 100-year history in the city, for reducing barriers for organizations to participate in CSR. Over the last 3 years Nitin has also spearheaded the creation and development of Seeds of Change, a community-driven tech-platform that aims to make health, wellbeing and sustainability more accessible to more individuals.
As of March 2021, the platform is nearing 10,000 users, having hosted & promoted 400+ community events in the past year featuring nearly 180 community ‘experts’, most of them individuals or SME’s sharing their expertise with the community on a wide range of topics, including mindfulness, yoga, diet, nutrition, emotional intelligence, positive parenting, plant-based food, family therapy workshops, and more. Nitin also works as a Project Director at GIGA, an independent third-party combining building material research and cloud software. GIGA’s software and algorithms are used to manage and connect the material data of some of the world’s largest developers, design firms and certification bodies. GIGA is also the founder of RESET; world’s first performance-based building certification focused on health and regeneration, designed to plug-in to other certification systems such as LEED, WELL and Fitwel. RESET combines material health data and continuous indoor air quality monitoring.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Jessica Gleeson
CEO, BrighterBeauty and Founder, Experiential Retail
Jessica Gleeson, CEO of BrighterBeauty, is an experienced international executive with a passion for building and scaling brands.
A 20-year veteran of Starbucks, Jessica held a variety of leadership roles as the company grew from 50 stores in the US to 55 countries globally. This included Starbucks’ original market entry into China and initial expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.
Driven by her fascination with the rapidly changing retail landscape, Jessica relocated to China and helped grow three iconic brands – Starbucks, The Walt Disney Company and Claire’s Accessories. She served as International COO for Zambero and Pacific Springboard.
Founder of Experiential Retail, a global consulting firm that helps purpose-driven brands scale with integrity. Jessica serves in advisory roles for Planet O, Urban Tuk-Tuk, Cindy Reid Global Golf and WhiteSpace. She is the Leaping Bunny Ambassador for China. Jessica serves on the boards GloCoach and Flave.
Jessica is passionate about the responsibility of women in leadership roles to engage and amplify other female business leaders.
Jerrie Ueberle
Founder and Chairman/Managing Partner, The World Academy for the Future of Women
Jerrie Ueberle is the Founder of the World Academy for the Future of Women (WAFW), a program of Global Interactions, Inc., a non- profit organization whose purpose is to connect international professionals to share best practices, research, and technologies that will further worldwide communication and understanding.
Jerrie served as President of the Sias University Foundation Board, and a consultant to two major U.S. Department of Education Projects of National Significance, the U.S. Manpower Project and the Comprehensive System for Personal Development. She was employed by the Chicago Board of Education, Clinics, Schools, and the Arizona Department of Education.
Jerrie has received the World Network of Entrepreneurs Award for Global Community Service and the Women’s International Network Leadership Award.
Congratulations to all finalists, as well as to the many incredible nominees!
This year, the winners will be announced at the IPWS Women Leadership Awards Ceremony, a celebratory and festive evening event at the Langham on May 29th, 2021.
We invite the finalists together with ALL nominees and everyone in the IPWS community to celebrate another incredible year of the Women Leadership Awards, and to join us at the WLA Ceremony.
Our warmest congratulations to the finalists, and good luck in the next step of the process!
2021 WLA Representative Organizations
