Abstract
This conference focuses on a key issue: how do we attract, support, and retain women in the technology and design sectors so as to ensure greater diversity in these critical realms? Extensive research has been undertaken on issues confronting women in the STEM disciplines to understand how their career advancement may be compromised by various factors at the structural, institutional, and individual levels. The conference features notable academics and industry professionals who will share their rich insights.
The conference discussion will be organised around four themes:
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- Attracting women to join the technology and design sectors
- Supporting girls and women in school as they prepare for careers in technology and design
- Retaining women in these industries through concrete policy and workplace interventions that can mitigate attrition
- Thriving! When women are well supported at every stage of their technology and design trajectory, their chances of having successful and rewarding careers is boosted, and these industries will also benefit from their continued participation.
The conference will be more than a forum for the exchange of ideas. It can also play a critical role in signalling the importance of the issue, as well as providing a mentoring opportunity for the women who participate. In view of SUTD’s strong and consistent efforts to recruit female students, the university has been able to maintain a healthy gender distribution that makes ours an inclusive and diverse technology and design-centric university. To set the agenda on this critical issue, our conference involving academics, industry professionals, and students, and focuses on how we can enhance gender diversity and support women’s advancement in the technology and design sectors. We will also be launching the Women in Technology Special Interest Group of the Singapore Computer Society at our conference.
Alicia Yu, Founder & CEO of Luxe.co, President of Orange Bay University
Alicia Yu, CFA, is the founder of “Luxe.CO（华丽志）”- China’s most authentic and influential business media for luxury, fashion and lifestyle, “Fashion.VC（华丽集）”－No.1 platform to discover and incubate fashion and lifestyle startups, as well as “Orange Bay University（橙湾大学）”－a pioneering institute to revolutionize fashion business and entrepreneurship education, all dedicated to foster the communication and interaction between the forces of fashion, finance and technological innovation. Her team has successfully hosted “InnoBrand Competition” and “Luxe.Co Global Fashion Investment Forum” in the year of 2015 and 2016. Alicia graduated from University of International Business & Economics with bachelor and master degree in economics, and attended the program in film production at University of Southern California. Before starting Luxe.Co, she worked for two Fortune 500 companies for 20 years in corporate finance.
Angelique Mannella, Entrepreneurial Tech Leader
Most recently, Angelique Mannella served as McGill’s first Associate Vice-Principal of Innovation and Partnerships. Before this, she advised corporate clients and venture capital firms on R&D commercialization, investments, and joint ventures. She is also the founder and CEO of Decode Global, a social enterprise that developed mobile games to raise awareness about important global issues. Ms. Mannella has 15 years of experience in technology product design and business development, and has worked for companies such as Cisco Systems and Nokia in North America, Europe and Asia.
Dawn Wendell, Senior Lecturer, MIT
Dr. Dawn is a senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where she teaching classes on design, manufacturing, and instrumentation. Formerly in MIT Admissions, she introduced the MIT Maker Portfolio. In her spare time she knits & builds robots.
Georgette Tan, Senior Vice President, Communications, Asia Pacific at Mastercard
Georgette Tan is Senior Vice President, Communications for the Asia Pacific region at Mastercard. In this role, she is responsible for external and internal communications and corporate social responsibility throughout this region. Ms. Tan has worked to establish Mastercard as a thought leader by leading the development and promotion of Mastercard’s suite of research properties which serve as a benchmark for a myriad of economic, industry and consumer trends. In 2005, she helped launch an index that specifically measures women’s socio-economic advancement in the region.
Grainger Wallis, Vice President, Global Accounts Asia Pacific and Japan, DELL Technologies
Grainger Wallis is Vice President of Global Accounts for DELL EMC Asia Pacific & Japan since the merger in early 2017 and previously led the Global Accounts business for EMC since 2014.
Grainger has 18 years of experience in the IT industry with senior leadership positions specializing in managing sales and operations for large Global Enterprises. Prior to DELL EMC, Grainger was with Cisco Systems for 9 years, 5 of which were with Cisco Global Enterprises as APJ Regional Director, then responsible for managing one of the largest banks in the world, HSBC, as Global Client Director. Other roles in Cisco included Global Alliances and Head of Strategy and Mid-Market for Channels.
Grainger has been an active leader supporting Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace, in particular supporting Women in Leadership and Women Active Networks. Grainger is also the Regional Sponsor of Dell’s Planet Group which has over 7100 volunteer employees.
Grainger has been based in Singapore for 12 years and is married with 2 children. Born in New Zealand, Grainger has strong cultural diversity having lived and worked in Japan, United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore.
Karen Contet Farzam, Co-founder, Women Who Code HK and co-founder, W Hub
Hailing from France, Karen Farzam moved to Hong Kong in 2010 and set her sights on the digital world. As she was brushing up on new coding languages, she realized that there were few web developer groups for women and set up Women Who Code with Michelle Sun. She also co-founded W Hub, a technology startup that connects passionate entrepreneurs with likeminded engineers, marketing guru and business experts so they can swap ideas and build a team.
Lina Patel, Chief Operations Officer, Code for Australia
Lina is a facilitator and collaboration designer and makes sure all the Code for Australia programs (Fellowship, Academy, Tech for Non-Tech) are humming beautifully. She spends most of her time with people and teams in the Code for Australia community who know where they are headed; who aren’t sure how to get there; and are open to iteration.
Olivia Seow, SUTD Pioneer and co-founder of Ring Theory
Olivia Seow is a computer engineer passionate about enabling commercialisation of new innovations to market with experience in tech, design and product management. She graduated from SUTD with a Bachelor of Engineering (Engineering Product Development) degree in 2015 and as the valedictorian.
Roxane Desmicht, Senior Director Corporate Supply Chain (CSC) Asia Pacific, Infineon Technologies
Ms Desmicht is French, graduated as an engineer with a major in solid state physics and recently completed an Executive MBA program at the China European International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai. She started her career as Product Engineer/Program Manager within the Thales group, worked a few years in Altis Semiconductor as test yield manager, and several years for Infineon China as Supply Chain Director. Prior her current appointment, she was Director for Strategic Accounts at Amkor. Ms Desmicht is the Senior Director of Corporate Supply Chain (CSC) Asia Pacific for Infineon and has been heading the organisation ever since 2012. She is based in Singapore but her team is spread out over the Asia region. Her organisation encompasses functions along the whole Infineon supply chain from planning to manufacturing and customer delivery. Those functions have either a regional focus like warehousing, or a global focus like product planning. As a Supply Chain Thought Leader, she is contributing to supply chain panel discussions in Singapore, delivering career talks at various universities as well as mentoring junior talents.
| 8.15-9.00 | Morning coffee and registration (Guests to be seated by 8.55 am) |
| 9.00-9.10 | Welcome address by Sun Sun Lim, Professor & Head of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, SUTD |
| 9.10-9.20 | Welcome address by Lee Tzu Yang, Chairman, SUTD |
| 9.20-9.35 | Speech by Guest of Honour, Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Home Affairs and Manpower |
| 9.35-9.50 | Launch of Women in Technology Special Interest Group of the Singapore Computer Society Meggy Chung Oi Ping, Director, Citibank Technology Infrastructure & Chairwoman, Women in Technology Special Interest Group, Singapore Computer Society Howie Lau, Chief Marketing Officer, StarHub & President, Singapore Computer Society |
| 9.50-10.30 | Coffee break |
| 10.30-12.00 | The State of Women in Technology and Design Georgette Tan, Senior Vice President, Communications, MasterCard Dawn Wendell, Senior Lecturer, MIT Lucienne Blessing, Professor and Co-Director, SUTD-MIT International Design Centre, SUTD Panel Chair: Dawn Tan, Assistant Professor, Engineering Product Development, SUTD |
| 12.00-1.00 | Lunch |
| 1.00-2.30 | Outreach to girls: Attracting Olivia Seow, SUTD Pioneer and co-founder of Ring Theory Lina Patel, Chief Operations Officer, Code for Australia Karen Farzam, Co-founder, Women Who Code HK and co-founder, W Hub Panel Chair: Lim Seh Chun, Professor and Associate Provost for Student Affairs, SUTD |
| 2.30-4.00 | Industry: Supporting & Retaining Angelique Mannella, Entrepreneurial Tech Leader Grainger Wallis, Vice President Global Accounts, APJ, Dell Alicia Yu, Founder & CEO of Luxe.co, President of Orange Bay University Panel Chair: Roxane Desmicht, Senior Director Corporate Supply Chain Asia Pacific, Infineon Technologies |
| 4.00-5.00 | Thriving! Closing Remarks by Sun Sun Lim, Professor & Head of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, SUTD and Dawn Tan, Assistant Professor, Engineering Product Development, SUTD |
| 4.10-5.00 | Networking tea |
*Kindly note that the program may be subject to changes.
* Registration is by invite only.
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