With the Women Leadership Awards nominations for 2018 coming to a close, we wanted to take a look back and honor previous winners of the Women Leadership Awards. We spoke to the 2017 Social Contributor of the Year, and the 2016 HeforShe Man of the Year about what the Award meant to them, and how it impacted their work.
Social Contributor of the Year: Shari D. Rosen PhD, Program Director – The Essential Learning Group (ELG)
Can you give a brief introduction of yourself and what you do?
I am trained as a speech language pathologist and have a PhD. I am a Founding Partner of ELG [Engage-Learn-Grow], a social enterprise based Shanghai, China. I spend much of my time providing hands-on training for local Chinese teachers and parents in evidence based autism interventions, and creating content for a Chinese training platform.
You were a past recipient of a WLA, how would you describe what the award means?
I was so honored to receive the Social Innovator of the Year Award. It’s always nice to be recognized for the work you do. It represents more than my work alone, however. Everything I have accomplished could not have been done without the strong support of my team and the entire company for that matter. I may have the ideas but every single one of our employees delivers the service.
How did winning this award affect your work?
For ELG the award brought public awareness to the work we do to support the community in the areas of developmental, educational and mental health and the ongoing need to provide quality education and training for local families.
What would you say to someone considering filling out a nomination application (for either themselves or someone else)?
I would encourage everyone to participate! There are many individuals who are doing small but extraordinary things that they, themselves are not aware of (that’s why I have nominated my husband for the He for She award!).
HeforShe Man of the Year: Richard Chenghao Lin, Managing Director, Korn Ferry International
Can you give a brief introduction of yourself and what you do?
I am a proud and blessed husband to an incredible woman, Cindy Lin (who is also a past WLA recipient) and father of two bright, beautiful, and well-behaved (sometimes) children. I am an investor in real estate and startup companies and also lead the Cross-straits Practice for Korn Ferry based out of Shanghai and Taipei.
You were a past recipient of a WLA, how would you describe what the award means?
I was incredibly honored to win the He for She Man of the Year Award for some of my past work in speaking about women leadership advocacy. But I felt a bit like Obama (who was a bit mysteriously awarded a Nobel Peace Prize) in that I needed to do more to truly deserve this recognition. So I have since helped to organize a panel of like-minded men to contribute to women advocacy events and have spoken as an individual at other events.
How did winning this award affect your work?
Winning the award has not affected me greatly at work other than as a fresh and important reminder of the many things we all still need to do together to continuously and consistently help enable women to emerge as leaders in our work and communities. Many of us take for granted the many opportunities now available to women and fail to realize that the world is still very much an uneven playing field for most women.
What would you say to someone considering filling out a nomination application (for either themselves or someone else)?
I would suggest to anyone applying for this award to really take stock of what they have done to help help the cause of women but even more critically determine what he can contribute in the future as a truly He for She advocate. I’d love to work with the most recent winners and past winners on He for She.
We encourage everyone to take a moment to nominate yourself or a deserving friend, colleague, boss or mentor for the Women Leadership Awards. Winners will be announced at the IPWS Leadership Summit on May 25th, 2018. The nomination deadline is Friday, April 20th at 8pm.
