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Laetitia Mergui
Managing Director APAC of ChloéLaetitia Mergui is the Regional Managing Director APAC for Chloé, a brand founded in the 1950’s by a visionary woman, Gaby Aghion, and directed by some of the most successful creative names in the Fashion world (Karl Lagerfeld, Pheobe Philo, Stella McCartney, and today Natacha Ramsay-Levy) to dress elegant, free-spirited women with inner-strength. Laetitia’s mission at Chloe is to amplify the values, sales and brand awareness of the brand in the APAC region, making happy customers, with the support of her team.
Before moving to the luxury industry, Laetitia started her career in London as an M&A lawyer, then in Hong Kong, advising companies such as Balmain’s majority shareholder on many of its commercial operations across Asia. She took over as COO of Balmain for 6 years to build their regional office and develop their retail business in Asia. For a year and a half after, she served as CEO Asia for The Kooples, a Parisian brand in the accessible-luxury segment, expanding their footprint in the APAC region.
Born and raised in Paris, Laetitia holds an MSc in Management and Business Law from HEC Paris. She is a registered lawyer both in France and England & Wales. Laetitia has been living and working in Hong Kong for 11 years with her husband and two children.
In addition to her professional role, Laetitia has been the President for HEC Hong Kong Chapter since 2016 and a Trade Advisor to the French Government since 2018.
Alisa Camplin
Olympic Champion, Mindset-Resilience-Performance Consultant at Alisa Camplin ConsultingAlisa Camplin-Warner is a respected leader in Australian business, sports administration and corporate governance. Best known for winning Australia's first ever female Winter Olympic Gold Medal in Freestyle Aerial Skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Alisa was also a 2 x World Cup Overall Title Holder, World Champion, World Record Holder and the Bronze Medalist at the 1006 Turin Olympic Games. Suffering multiple broken bones including back to back knee reconstructions, Alisa is still regarded as one of Australia's most strategic, hardworking and mentally tough elite athletes.
Alisa currently lives and works in Hong Kong with her husband and young family, where she is an in-demand keynote speaker and corporate consultant, assissting both small and large organizations to achieve repeatable sustainable success through a focus on resilience, mindset and improved human performance. Alisa is a highly experienced Non-Executive Director working across the sectors of Sport, Health, Government, Education and Philantrophy. She is presently a Director of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia and the Royal Children's Hospital Foundation, and previously held the roles of Chair: Australian Sports Foundation, Deputy Chair: Sport Australia (Australian Sports Commission), Director: Collingwood Football Club and Director: Methodist Ladies College. Alisa spent 16 years as a global executive with IBM from 1996-2012, leading both Sales and Delivery teams across AUS/NZ and was head of Strategy & Transformation for IBM Global Technology Services UK & Ireland.
Turning personal adversity into positivity in 2011, Alisa co-founded the charity Finnan's Gift and has raised over $2.5 M for pediatric cardiac care in memory of her son Finnan. She is also a member of faculty at the Cranlana Centre of Ethical Leadership, the China/Australia Ambassador for Sport, the Mental Wellbeing Ambassador for AIA Insurances' Vitality Program across Asia and the first ever female Patron of the Collingwood Football Club. Still very active in Australian elite sport, Alisa was the Australian Olympic Committees' Performance Manager to the 2018 Australian Winter Olympic Team and Chef de Mission for the 2012 Australian Youth Winter Olympic Team. Holding a Bachelor of Information Technology and a Doctorate from Edith Cowan University honoris causa, Alisa was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2007 and became a Member of the Order of Australia in 2018.
Bhakti Mathur
SCMP Freelancer and Children's WriterBhakti Mathur is a children’s book author with fifteen published titles to date and the sixteenth one slated for release later this year. Bhakti took to writing in 2010 when she created the popular ‘Amma Tell Me’ series of children’s picture books about Hindu festivals and mythology. Her ‘Amma Take Me’ series, published by Penguin Random House, India, explores religion and faith through their important places of worship.
She also free-lances as a journalist and writes features on topics relating to culture and health & fitness for the South China Morning Post.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Bhakti was a private banker for more than twenty years and worked for ING, Bank of Singapore and J. Safra Sarasin.
She now juggles her time between her writing, her passion for yoga, long distance running and her family. She lives in Hong Kong with her husband, their two children and two dogs. When not writing or running after her young boys, Bhakti is happiest curled up with a book in one hand and a hot cup of chai in the other.
Bhakti holds a masters degree in finance from Delhi University, India; was a CFA Charterholder (2005 to 2017) and has a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Hong Kong. She is a committed writer ambassador for Room to Read, an innovative global non-profit which seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in ten developing countries through its holistic Literacy and Girls’ Education programs.
Ada Yip
CEO of Urban SpringsAda Yip is the CEO of Urban Spring, a purpose-driven start-up with a mission to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic in Hong Kong by building a water refill network. Ada is also an executive director of WYNG43 Social Investment which funnel human capital and financial resources to early stage impact driven businesses.
Previously, she was the Program Director of the i2i (incubation to investment) programme at SOW Asia, a Hong Kong-based impact investor and accelerator. Before she transitioned to impact driven initiatives, Ada worked at a number of financial institutions in Toronto, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Ada is also on the board of the Hong Kong Institute of Social Impact Analysts, Teach For HK and Education For Good. She is part of the assessment panel of the Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership Programme under the Home Affairs Department and the Enhancing Employment of People with Disabilities through Small Enterprise Project under the Social Welfare Department.
Josephine Paris
Executive & Business Coach at COACHMEJoséphine Paris is a certified Professional Business & Executive Coach and owner of COACH ME, a Business Coaching Agency in Hong Kong. Her international career spans over 11 years in Marketing and Communications in the retail industry in the USA and the UK, including 7 years being an entrepreneur in Business Coaching & Marketing in Asia.
Josephine guides her clients with care, engagement and great professionalism. She devotes her time between Executive Coaching and Business & Marketing Consulting to support small to medium enterprises (SME’s) and Corporations expanding in Asia. Her main clients are in the retail and luxury industries including INDITEX Zara, Hermes, Richemont, Peninsula HK , Mandarin Oriental HK and Banking such as ING, Natixis and BNP Paribas. She enjoys working with people and is constantly amazed by the limitless capabilities of the human mind! She likes to watch people grow and embrace success as they go through the coaching process and work towards their personal and business milestones.
Josephine is a professionally trained Business & Executive Coach (ICF & WABC, Master certified) ) and holds a Masters degree in Marketing & Advertising from ESG Paris Business School. She is the Co-chair of the AWA WISE steering committee. She has a family of two young girls and enjoys traveling with them all around the world.
Karen Leigh
Editor at Bloomberg NewsKaren Leigh is the China Government Editor at Bloomberg News, covering politics in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China and appearing regularly on Bloomberg Television and radio. Previously, she was the Wall Street Journal's Deputy Bureau Chief for Middle East and North Africa, helping to oversee the region from Dubai.
Before joining the paper, she was based in Istanbul as the managing editor of Syria Deeply, an independent digital news platform covering the Syrian war, and freelanced in the Middle East, Germany and West Africa for publications including Time, The Atlantic and Foreign Policy. Karen also worked as a reporter at Mint newspaper in New Delhi and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh.
A native of Los Angeles, she is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara and enjoys yoga, a good book, a glass of wine and attempting to learn Mandarin.
Tingi Ko
Co-founder of Connected Women Hong KongTingi Ko is a co-founder of Connected Women Hong Kong, a community focused on inspiring women to learn more about technology, its innovations, trends and career opportunities.
Originally from Canada, Tingi’s international career experience brought her to Hong Kong in 2007 where she found her passion in start ups and built the app based business, The Entertainer Hong Kong. She then moved from the start up to large tech firms Apple and LinkedIn where she specialized in tech sales.
Throughout her career, Tingi has always been passionate about supporting Hong Kong’s female community through her experiences at AWA WISE, The Women’s Foundation, Co-Leading Women at LinkedIn and currently through events run by Connected Women Hong Kong.
Tingi is now fulfilling her dream as an entrepreneur as she recently launched her own consulting company which specializes in training individuals and corporate businesses on building their brands on LinkedIn.
She is a graduate from McGill University in Canada and lives in Hong Kong with her husband and young daughter.
Nerice Gietel
Founder of The Career LoungeNerice Gietel is passionate about supporting individuals to combine work and life so they can become the best versions of themselves. She is the Founder of The Career Lounge: a coaching practice that supports experienced professionals access meaningful job opportunities through coaching, advice, skills training and making connections. She also specializes in supporting people returning to work from a career break in her role as Director of Back to Work Hong Kong: a coaching company she runs with her business partner Shirley Adrain. Together they provide consultancy services to companies on reintegrating and retaining staff who have had career breaks. Her work is grounded in HR Development and Consultancy, Law and Social Sciences. In addition to her coaching practices, Nerice continues to research the Hong Kong labour market and has had a number of articles published in Sassy Mama HK and China Daily on the topic.
Birgit Rappold
Executive Coach and Wellbeing Specialist at Rappstone Professional CoachingBirgit’s passion is supporting people in achieving their strongest selves. She is committed to helping clients unlock and expand their inner power to lift off towards a brighter future. Birgit gets her energy from seeing the powerful growth people can achieve when their true inner nature is unleashed.
Birgit is the founder of Rappstone Professional Coaching and is a leading executive and professional Coach, certified by the University of Texas at Dallas and IFC credentialed. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Organizational Development and Leadership as part of her own inner drive and enthusiasm towards personal and professional growth.
Birgit has a Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Ludwig-Maximillian’s Universität, Munich and is a trained cognitive behavioral therapist. She is also a certified Pilates trainer and Mindfulness expert, seeing the importance of integrating the whole human being to achieve greatness. Birgit has lived in various countries across Asia for the past 13 years and has worked with people across the globe.
Her diverse professional experience in psychological, emotional and physical wellbeing and her engagement with various cultures uniquely positions her to support people in achieving their true passion, transformational goals and inner balance.