Salwana Ali

President, IWFCIM
Managing Director @Salwana and Rahim Associates Sdn Bhd

 Salwana possesses 35 years multitude of work experiences covering the corporate world, entrepreneurship, and civil society organization. Currently, as the President of IWFCIM, she works collaboratively with the EXCO team to set organizational goals that include community outreach, organizational capacity, fundraising and capital improvements. She also evaluates progress of the planned outcomes and the strategic plan to grow organizational capacity and connect daily work with the vision and mission of the organization. She has managed and directed key programs and projects, targeting multitude segments of communities for the purpose of raising funds as well as improving the livelihoods of the B40 communities in Malaysia. She is responsible in establishing a one stop platform providing programs for women entrepreneurs to develop skills, strike partnerships, access new markets and facilitate constructive funding options. She established the benang.org, a social enterprise marketplace platform to procure tailoring services and ready to wear clothing sewn by a community of 60 B40 tailors in Malaysia – an initiative managed and operated by IWFCIM supported by Yayasan Hasanah. She co-owns a management development consulting company, Salwana and Rahim Associates Sdn Bhd, helping organizations to improve operational excellence and team efficiency. She also mentors and coaches the youth, middle managers, and future leaders. Prior to her entrepreneurial ventures, she invested 20 years in the corporate world holding management and leadership positions in the information technology industry. Her last role in the corporate world was the Public Sector Director of Microsoft Malaysia. She has authored and published a couple of books – A Handbook for First Time Managers and Give Receive Improve.

Nurul Izzah Anwar

Co-Chair. Secretariat of Finance Advisory Panel. Ministry of Finance.

Coming soon

Wan Intan Wan Suffian

IDC Committee Member, MFPC and Former HOD Marketing & Investor Development, Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Berhad

Puan Wan Intan has over 25 years of experience in the capital market industry, in various capacities and roles in entities related to Equity and Derivatives broking, Financial Planning and Regulator. 

Her portfolios throughout her career had provided opportunities to engage with extensive capital market client profiles; in both domestic and international segments; as well as public listed companies. 

Aside from her main portfolio in Marketing, she had participated in various areas but not limited to risk management, sales, business development, compliance, audit, strategy, branding & communications, financial planning, education, product development (conventional / Islamic) either directly or indirectly.

She was also a Co-Producer of a 13-episode financial literacy TV program called Penjana Ringgit that was aired on RTM.

She currently supports digital education, capital raising projects, financial literacy initiatives, community building programs and responsible financial products & services.

Raudhah Nazran

CEO & Founder, Accelerate Global

 Recently listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 2022 Asia and Prestige Top 100 Women of Power 2023, Raudhah Nazran was a Malaysian government scholar, graduated in Law with honours from the University of Essex, United Kingdom in 2019. She cut her teeth in social entrepreneurship with seven years of experience in the industry. Whilst studying in the UK she served as the President and Team Leader of a UK-based social enterprise for 2 years, managing 104 members from different countries and macro managing five social enterprises under her. She was the first Asian Muslim female to be appointed to the role by the Board of Advisors after serving for 9 months as the Project Leader of a project based in Ghana helping former sex trafficking women. She was also the first to win the Enactus President and Team Leader of the Year award in the UK after successfully leading her team as one of the Top 3 Enactus Social Enterprises in the United Kingdom. Her impact in the UK did not go unnoticed. In 2018, she was called by Lord Michael Hastings to the parliament of the UK to speak and discuss issues surrounding youth unemployment and brought home the International Student of the Year Award.

She was also called to speak at the University of Essex United Nations Human Rights Conference in the UK about child’s rights to education. Returning home to Malaysia and staying true to her passion of creating sustainable change in the lives of the youths, Raudhah founded Accelerate Global (from scratch and with zero capital), a social enterprise aimed at unleashing the best in YOUths through entrepreneurship, career and personal growth upskilling programs especially amongst the underprivileged and marginalised. What started with 0 capital, led her to reach a net profit margin of 39% in her first year despite the pandemic with Accelerate currently valued at RM 6.6 million (USD 1.5 Million) after their pre seed funding round via equity crowdfunding (ECF) back in 2021. This makes her social enterprise as one of only three known social enterprises in Malaysia to have successfully raised funds through ECF in Malaysia. Despite only being 3 years in operations, Raudhah has to date led the social enterprise to directly impact over 9,000 youths and have retained a 100% alumni success rate whereby all of the Graduates are either in employment or have successfully started a business to sustain their livelihoods as well as their families’. The impact she and her social enterprise has created allowed them to further improve the lives of over 1,000 individuals (Families of Graduates who are now able to live a good life and siblings who now are in education). Raudhah’s footprint in Malaysia is also well established as she’s been given a seat in the advisory board of Curriculum Development of the Polytechnic and College Community Malaysia, overseeing the module development for the Certificate of Business Operations, making her the youngest board ever appointed. Interviewed by numerous TV and Radio Channels such as RTM 1, Astro Awani and Lite FM, Raudhah too has been invited to many speaking engagements including being invited to speak alongside the Former President of Timor-Leste and Noble Peace Prize Laureate, Dr Jose Ramos-Horta on Ethical Leadership in ASEAN as well as being invited to speak at a policy dialogue organised by the European Union Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Regions. Amongst her other accolades, Raudhah was also recognised by Tatler Asia as one of the Gen. T Honouree, Top 400 Asian Young Leaders in 2020 and was also shortlisted for the Women of The Future Southeast Asia Awards 2021.

Lennise Ng

Group CEO, Borong

Lennise is the Group CEO of Borong (formerly known as Dropee) – Southeast Asia’s largest and fastest growing B2B eCommerce solution provider that helps businesses such as corporates, multinational companies, manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors & even retailers to adopt the right technology for their procurement, inventory management, distribution management, sales channel, credit financing & innovation solutions. Borong has raised more than USD $8M and is currently servicing around 130,000+ retailers and 32,000+ suppliers/brands, such as Unilever, Petronas and many others. Lennise is also currently the SEA eTrade for Women Advocate under United Nation (UNCTAD), with a goal to create a more equitable society across Southeast Asia developing nations through empowering women to trade & go-digital. Entering the tech scene, Lennise worked with Adventure Capital, an Australian early-stage VC, and co-founded Female Founders Victoria to encourage more female entrepreneurs in the tech sector. With her move back to ASEAN, she joined Yelp Inc as Country Manager (MY) before working in Infinite Ventures, a venture-building company that generated a gross IRR of 300% under 2 years. Lennise is an avid startup cheerleader and hopes to welcome more diversity and women in tech. She is passionate on innovative solutions that transforms traditional industries in order to create a better standard of living for communities around the world. 

Ahmad Kamal Bin S. Awab 

Director and Responsible Person, Crowd Sense Sdn Bhd 

 In addition to his role as Director and Responsible Person of Crowd Sense Sdn Bhd, a start-up FinTech Company; registered with the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) as a Recognized Market Operator (RMO) for Peer-to-Peer (P2P) crowd financing; regulated under the Capital Market Services Act (CMSA), was appointed to the Board of Luster Industries Bhd, a main board public listed entity, as an Independent Non-Executive Director on 21 July 2017. He is the Chairman of Risk Management Committee; and a member of the Nominating and Remuneration Committee. He holds a Diploma in Credit Management of MARA Institute of Technology; and Masters of Business Administration from Brunel University through Henley Management College. 

A banking and business management veteran of over 35 years plus; a well-known and recognized individual for his wide circuit in handling and managing relationships of Global MNCs, Financial Institutions; and Local Corporate as well as Public Sector State Agencies and GLCs. He has proven an exemplary track record in areas of credit and risk management, global transaction services, capital markets, corporate finance, derivatives and treasury products in his years of services with global banking institutions such as Citibank, ABN-AMRO Bank and Deutsche Bank. He also had served as a Senior General Manager of Malaysia Nasional Insurance for a short period of one year before joining H2O Capital Sdn Bhd as its Advisor where he served for 6 years before leaving the company in 2008 to take up the position as the Head of Global Corporate and Financial Institutions for the Commercial Bank of Qatar QSC in Doha, Qatar. Apart from his role as Head of Global Corporate and FIs, he also oversees the International Syndication portfolios and Corporate Finance transactions as well as Remedial, Recovery Management primarily restructuring and reconstructing credit/ debt defaults. In addition, he was also entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing Audit, Risk management, Corporate Governance and Compliance where he was exposed to the aspects of another regional market covering the Middle East and North Africa. 

He left Commercial Bank of Qatar in 2014. In 2015, he was appointed the Advisor to COGE Global Ventures Sdn Bhd, to promote Aqua BioSystem and help introduce Green Technology and Environmentally friendly projects for Environmental Preservation & Rehabilitation including Renewable Energy (where resigned in December 2018). In Aug. 2017, he was made Director of Leverage3 Consulting Sdn Bhd. He is also the Business Development Director of Premium Capital Partners Sdn Bhd, a non-bank lender pioneer in General Insurance Premium Financing business of extending credit to policyholders (insured) to pay insurance premium. 

He has constantly re-engineered and updated himself in the field of finance, risk management and compliance through interactive with industry experts; and seminars attended in his personal capacity. 

Raja Jesrina Raja Arshad

Founder and CEO, PurelyB Sdn Bhd.

Jesrina is the Founder and CEO of PurelyB (www.PurelyB.com), a leading health and wellness lifestyle brand in SE-Asia, with a steadfast commitment to elevating Malaysian superfoods onto the global stage. Dedicated towards the transformation of people’s well-being and the empowerment of sustainable, health-conscious living – a mission deeply rooted in her own inspiring journey toward personal health transformation.

With a BSc in Multimedia Technology and Design from the University of Kent (UK) and a MA in Marketing from Kingston University Business School (UK), Jesrina’s background uniquely prepared her to become an entrepreneur in the digital marketing and e- commerce space. Following stints in executive roles at GroupM and ASTRO, the leading consumer media and entertainment group in Southeast Asia, Jesrina launched PurelyB in 2015.

Backed by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, 500 Startups, PurelyB™ combines Malaysia’s ancestral wellness traditions, with science, creating unique superfood blends for modern lifestyles globally for optimal health and beauty. Rooted in rare Malaysian rainforest botanical remedies, PurelyB’s ingredients are sourced naturally and sustainably from marginalized farmers across Asia, ensuring unmatched purity and potency.

Today PurelyB has 6 million users across the globe including Malaysia, Singapore, USA, Australia and France, as they champion sustainable healthy living harnessing the power of Asian traditions in wellness.

Jesrina’s mission is to honor and preserve Malaysia’s wellness heritage and herbal culture, to bring their benefits to world, improve the lives of PurelyB customers, communities and our planet.

Beyond her role as a founder, entrepreneur and wellness advocate, Jesrina is committed to upskilling and empowering marginalized female communities and female founders in Malaysia, and in her spare time is passionate about inventing healthy plant- based recipes with an Asian twist.

Jesrina’s awards and accolades include:

• Bumiputra Business Excellence Leadership Award 2023
• ASEAN-BAC “Rising Entrepreneur of the Year” Award 2017
• Marie Claire Malaysia Magazine’s “Top 10 Amazing Women 2017”
• Malaysia Tatler’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award 2016
• Red Herring’s top 100 startups in Asia in 2016
• MDEC’s top 20 Startups in Asia in 2017 & 2018
• Tatler’s Top 10 Power Women in Asia 2018
• CIO ASEAN’s Top 10 Innovative Health Companies in Malaysia 2018
• E27’s Top 10 Health Startups in Malaysia 2019

Shareen Shariza Dato’ Abdul Ghani

VP – Special Envoy IWFCIM
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Sorga Innovation Sdn Bhd

Shareen is MD & Co-Founder and Director of Sorga Innovation, a boutique advisory firm specialising in Sustainable Development, ESG and human capital/talent strategies and solutions. She co-designed and co-created digital solutions around talent in particular to enable an ecosystem for the future of work, connecting organisations with experts and professional talent.

In Sustainable Development/ESG, Shareen’s area of specialisation is in development of sustainability policies and strategies, advocating the adoption of strategies around ESG and transition to a low-carbon economy. Central to her work was in spearheading the design of a sustainability-adjusted valuation model for socially responsible investments and value creation for Khazanah Nasional Berhad.

Prior to founding Sorga Innovation, Shareen was CEO of Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad, a talent and human capital government agency under the Economic Planning Unit of Malaysia under the Prime Minister’s Office. Between 2007-2016, Shareen was Director of Corporate Responsibility/Sustainability at Khaza-Nah Nasional. Prior to joining Khazanah she was the Chief Operating Officer of Mercy Malaysia, a medical humanitarian organisation with a global footprint.

Shareen is a Member of the Sustainable Development Committee of Bursa Malaysia, a Board Member of MTT Shipping Berhad, Accelerate Global Sdn Bhd (A Malaysian start-up) and a Board of Trustee of Yayasan UEM. She is also Vice President of the International Women Federation of Commerce and Industry (IWFCIM) Malaysia and was recently appointed as the Adjunct Professor at UNITAR International University.

Shareen holds a Master of Studies in Sustainability Leadership from University of Cambridge. She also has a Master in Public Policy, from University Malaya and a Bachelor (Hons) in Mass Communications from University Sains Malaysia.

Rina Neoh

CEO and Co-Founder, Ficus Capital

Rina Neoh has more than 25 years of experience in both the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds. Rina is Instrumental in introducing two IPOs in the Australian Stock Exchange and helped execute complex cross border mergers and acquisitions strategy within the Asia Pacific region. Rina Co-founded Mercatus Capital Pte Ltd, a homegrown incubator and venture accelerator based in Singapore since 2006. Through its angel networks, it provided seed financing to promising new ventures, with more than 100 startups seeded and incubated SEA. Rina co-founded Ficus Capital, Ficus Sea Fund (2021 ) and GreenTech Fund ( 2023 ) as a joint venture with MGTC ( Malaysia Greentech Corporation ). Rina holds strategic management roles, directorships, and direct equities in RXR Cap, Ficus Capital ( World’s 1st Syariah Compliant VC ), Global Learning Solutions, Asian Institute of Digital Transformation ( AIDT ) MindChamps International PreSchools Master Franchisee, Turnkey Tech and Eclimo Sdn Bhd. Rina also served as the Board Member of Matrade from 2018 -2023. Rina often provides keynotes for in the area of entrepreneurship, impact investing, venture capitalist, M&A, sustainability, ESG and women empowerment. Rina is an advocate of women entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, educational empowerment, sustainable transformation, poverty eradication, and volunteerism work. • 2014 – Top 10 Most Inspiring Businesswomen In Singapore (Top 10 of Asia) • 2016 – Top 10 Women Venture Capitalists in Singapore (Women Founders Network) • 2017 – Top 8 Trailblazers Under ’40s (The Peak Magazine Singapore) • 2018 – Asia Pacific Entrepreneurial Award for Outstanding and Exemplary Achievements in Entrepreneurship for The Financial Sector (Enterprise Asia Singapore) • 2019 Most admired Leaders Award presented by Herald Global • 2020 TOP 100 Inspirational LinkedIn Icons in Malaysia. • 2022 Winner of Tan Sri Napsiah Omar Leadership Award For Entrepreneurship & Business

Noor Amy Ismail

Former COO, MAVCAP. Adjunct Professor UNITAR International University

Noor Amy Ismail, MAVCAP COO, brings close to 24 years of corporate and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups experience across diverse industries in Malaysia and internationally. She has held leadership roles with firms such as Deloitte Touche, Media Prima Berhad, the Prime Minister’s Office of Malaysia, MediaCorp of Temasek Holdings (Singapore), InvestKL and FGV Holdings Berhad, amongst others, and co-founded a logistic & self-storage SME since 2006.

Having spent years in London, she has contributed to the United Kingdom’s (UK) Department of Business, Energy, Industrial and Strategy in the development of a RM3 billion anchor collaboration initiative supporting over 30,000 SMEs in the UK to level-up their digital strategy and execution and co-founded two F&B outlets in London. She is a Sloan Fellow from the London Business School and currently a Final Year Doctoral (PhD) candidate at Brunel University, London, specialising in Malaysia’s SMEs & Start-ups inter-collaboration framework for digital adoption. She has been appointed as an Adjunct Professor at UNITAR International University. She is also a council member of a global social impact organisation supported by Social Value International

Tunku Danny Nasaifuddin Mudzaffar

Founder and CEO, MicroLEAP

Tunku Danny is an ex-banker having held senior positions at 2 international banks in Kuala Lumpur and London. He has 15 years of financial services experience and brought all the knowledge and skills he learnt from lending into his P2P microfinancing start-up, microLEAP. Tunku Danny holds an MBA from the Nottingham University Business School.

Amy Baum

Consultant
Women Economic Empowerment, UN Women Regional Office for Asia Pacific 

Amy Baum is an expert consultant supporting the Women’s Economic Empowerment portfolio at the Regional Office. Since joining the team in 2020, she has conducted research and developed briefs to guide gender-responsive private sector response strategies to COVID-19, provided technical guidance on private sector engagement for gender equality to UN Women Country Office teams around the region. She has also supported the development and implementation of programming and research on innovative, market-based approaches to transform the care economy and is the program lead for the Asia-Pacific Care Accelerator. As the regional focal point for the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), Amy also leads the region-wide UN Women Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards process and oversees WEPs activities and private sector engagement in Malaysia. Amy holds a BA in Socio-cultural Anthropology from the University of Virginia and was the recipient of a Rotary Foundation Global Grant Scholarship to complete an MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at Sussex University in the UK. 

Sofea Farida Mohd Shukri

Co-Founder and Director of Planning and Development Eco Garage

Sofea is the Co-Founder of EcoGarage and is a Business Economics and Finance graduate. Her passion for business management finds deeper meaning through EcoGarage, where she strategises the company’s ventures to maintain positive ROIs whilst contributing to long-term community development. She designs monetization strategies to capture market value through marketing and partnerships. She believes businesses require support and further understanding of sustainability to slowly solve their dilemma between economic benefit and environmental preservation. Her experiences in events and e-commerce management helped her understand the many challenges businesses face to be environmentally sound.

Juliana Adam

CCEO, Biji-biji

Juliana is the CEO of Biji-biji Initiative, an impact-driven enterprise that champions sustainable living and practices. She has also founded other social enterprises focusing on creative education, sustainable event management and sustainability consultancy. Juliana is driven to reach out to the masses in building impact and awareness towards sustainable living. She is an Acumen Malaysia Fellow, and strongly believes in creating changes through understanding the links between human behaviour, culture and sustainability. 

Sasibai Kimis

Sasibai Kimis left a successful career in the finance industry to start the award-winning, Malaysian conscious lifestyle brand and social enterprise, EARTH HEIR®, in 2013. Earth Heir’s story began with a desire to create thoughtfully designed; contemporary heritage pieces handcrafted by master artisans in Malaysia. Earth Heir is Fair Trade certified by the World Fair Trade Organisation, and is a certified BCorp, working with disappearing heritage art forms handcrafted by women, refugees and indigenous persons. 

Earth Heir in collaboration with the Sea Monkey Project is now a Pioneer of Collaborative Space for Education, Empowerment, and  advocacy; known as Sustain.ed, an innovative hub dedicated to advancing sustainability and social impact. The establishment of earthheir.com as a social impact marketplace is poised to amplify market access for Malaysian impact organizations, contributing to economic growth, job creation, and sustainable development, as Malaysia embraces the global shift towards social procurement. 

Earth Heir won the British Council and Arthur Guinness Projects Social Enterprise Award 2015 and Sasibai was one of Wharton’s “40 under 40” award winners in 2015 and an Eisenhower Fellow in the 2015 Women’s Leadership Program. She is also a Vital Voices Grow 2019 Fellow, and an Asia21 Young Leader 2017 with the Asia Society. She was also awarded the Tatler Hero Award and the National Foreign Trade Council Foundation’s “Trade Leadership for the Digital Age” Award in 2020. 

Prior to Earth Heir, Sasi was a Vice President in the Investments division at Khazanah Nasional (Malaysia), a Director in the Private Equity team at First Avenue Partners LLP (London), worked in Ghana with Opportunities Industrialization Centers International and the United Nations Development Program, and in New York as an Investment Banking Analyst at Lehman Brothers. 

Sasibai received a B.S in Economics (Finance and Management) cum laude from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an M.Phil in Environment and Development from Cambridge University. She has spoken widely at companies, universities, conferences (such as TEDx) and forums, in Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, Indonesia, U.K., United States, Switzerland, Japan and Australia.

Dr Melati Nungsari

Deputy Dean for Research, Asia School of Business
International Faculty Fellow at MIT

Dr. Melati Nungsari is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Asia School of Business and a Research Affiliate at MIT Sloan School of Management. She is an applied microeconomist specializing in industrial organization, public economics, market design, and economic education.

She received her Bachelors of Arts in Mathematics and Economics (Magna Cum Laude) with Honors in Mathematics from Knox College and her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on two-sided matching platforms with search, and how firms use pricing to correct for negative externalities on the platform. She also studies public policy issues such as the labor market integration of refugees, policy design for retirement markets in Chile and Malaysia, and labor market discrimination. Additionally, she has published research on pedagogy in economic education.

While at UNC-Chapel Hill, Dr. Melati was a Chancellor’s Fellow with the Royster Society. She has won multiple teaching awards throughout her career, and is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the most prestigious academic honor society in the United States. She is an active Op-Ed writer and her pieces have appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Prior to joining ASB, Dr. Melati was a professor of economics at Davidson College at Butler University. She has given research talks all over the world, and is originally from Penang, Malaysia.

Samantha Chee

Managing Director, Glasfil Polymer Sdn Bhd 

Samantha Chee is a 2nd generation owner and managing director of Glasfil Polymer Sdn Bhd. Glasfil Polymer is a manufacturer of plastics products in the automotive, water works, construction and electronics industries for more than 32 years. Combining her knowledge as an Electronics Engineer with her design thinking passion,she utilized her 15 years of manufacturing experience in helping her clients in producing more than 400 parts and products in the automotive, water, construction and industrial electronics industries. 

While driving ESG in her own company, she is on a big mission to help corporations create circular sustainable products by assisting them from design ideation to market using the holistic approach of ESG. She uses her vast knowledge to replace conventional plastic material with other alternative materials such as tapioca starch, coconut husk and ground coffee in her product design and strategize manufacturing processes to help clients have breakthrough profits. She also believes any SMEs who adopted the ESG concept of governing their business will see both short and long term profits in the business. 

Coming soon

Gina Phan

Secretary, IWFCIM
Co-Founder and Managing Consultant, Zinfinity Consulting Sdn Bhd

Gina Phan is the Principal Trainer and Consultant at Zinfinity Consulting. As a certified trainer, she focuses on equipping people by improving their workplace performance skills, such as Purposeful Leadership, Consultative Selling, Negotiations, Problem-Solving, Conflict Resolution, Business Communication, and Business Presentations. She is also a Certified Brian Tracy Trainer.

Prior to this, Gina spent almost 30 years in technical, marketing, and leadership positions in the IT industry. During these formative years, she was involved in product development, product roll-out and support, sales and key account management, corporate marketing, as well as being part of her company’s IPO team. She was the Managing Director of a subsidiary of an international software provider, in which she successfully set up and expanded the business in Malaysia and regionally. In this role, she was responsible to build her team as well as the channels of distributors and dealers. Her previous employer (Dr. Vinod Chachra) describes Ms. Gina Phan as a competent and soft-spoken manager. “She has great leadership and teaching skills. She mentors her employees to the benefit of the users and customers.”