Champions of Diversity and Inclusion: Panel Pledge

Mar 8, 2021 4:00 PM - 7:30 PM The Reverie Saigon Event Level Rating: II

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REGISTRATION GUIDELINE

Virtual and physical participation are available.

For virtual attendees, please register to receive the Zoom link.

For physical attendees, please register in advance to reserve your seat.

As a precautionary measure, we encourage all attendees to do a COVID rapid antigen self-test the day of the event prior to arrival and to please stay home if you are not feeling well.

Event Description

In commemoration of International Women’s Day, join us for our first meetup of an inter-chamber coalition of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) champions and allies at The Reverie Saigon from 3:30-7:30 PM. This event is coordinated with and co-hosted by an informal coalition of chambers dedicated to advancing DEI, including: AmCham, AusCham, BritCham, CanCham, and EuroCham, with support from AmCham’s Women in Leadership Committee and EuroCham’s Women in Business Committee.

At the event, Australian Consul General Sarah Hooper will introduce the Panel Pledge, a leading panel parity initiative which originated in Australia as an achievable step to advance gender equity. She will explain what it means to sign as an individual or on behalf of an organization as part of an effort to advance gender Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in panel discussions and beyond. Irene Oehler, Co-founder of Lightpath Consulting, in her role as Secretariat of Panel Pledge Vietnam, will then recognize prominent Panel Pledge signers, including Consuls General, Key Opinion Leaders (and frequent panelists or panel organizers), and leaders of the five founding chambers co-organizing this event and committing to future initiatives to advance DEI.

The event will also feature a panel discussion (with gender parity) featuring four prominent local business leaders who are personally committed to advancing DEI in their organizations and the broader community: P&G Vietnam Country Manager & General Director Sai Ramana Ponugoti; Standard Chartered Vietnam CEO Michele Wee; Unilever Vietnam Chair Nguyen Thi Bich Van; and Artemis Digital Founder and CEO Samuel Walter.

The panel discussion will be followed by a cocktail networking reception. Please join us either in-person or virtually to celebrate International Women’s Day in a meaningful, impactful way, including learning how you can become about becoming a signatory to the Panel Pledge. The More Information button below contains additional background information on the Panel Pledge.

We look forward to seeing you there!

More Information

SPONSORS

CO-HOSTS

AGENDA

4:00 PM	Check-in for physical guests and signing
4:15 PM	Check-in for virtual guests
4:30 PM	Welcome – AmCham Chair Winnie Wong
4:35 PM	Opening remarks about the origin and significance of the Panel Pledge as a means to promote Gender Equity – Australian Consulate General Sarah Hooper
4:40 PM	Champions of Diversity and Inclusion: Panel Pledge Signatories with Panel Pledge Vietnam Secretariat Irene Oehler Consuls General Business Leaders Panel Pledge Founding Members Chambers: AmCham, AusCham, BritCham, CanCham, and EuroCham
5:00 PM	Panel Discussion on personal and corporate initiatives to advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, with: * Sai Ramana Ponugoti, Country Manager & General Director, P&G Vietnam * Michele Wee, CEO, Standard Chartered Vietnam * Nguyen Thi Bich Van, Chair, Unilever Vietnam * Samuel Walter, Founder and CEO, Artemis Digital Moderator: Mary Tarnowka, Executive Director, AmCham Vietnam
5:40 PM	Audience Q&A
6:00 PM	Virtual event ends Networking Reception begins
7:30 PM	Event ends

COST

SPEAKERS

Winnie Wong

Chair, AmCham Vietnam

Country Manager, Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos, Asia Pacific, Mastercard

Winnie Wong is responsible for growing Mastercard’s business in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. With her experience in consumer and corporate payments and banking, she brings a fresh perspective to the markets on digital payments and solutions.

Prior to her current role, Winnie was the Commercial B2B Sales Head for the region, where she was responsible for driving growth for Mastercard’s Business-to-Business (B2B) solutions across Asia Pacific. This includes working with governments, banks and corporations on trade digitization with the aim of improving efficiency and transparency, especially for cross-border trade.

Sarah Hooper

Australian Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City

Ms. Sarah Hooper is a senior career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and most recently led DFAT’s Western Australia State Office.

Sarah has served overseas in India and in Indonesia, and was an exchange officer in the Bruneian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has also worked in the USA for a think tank, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. In Canberra, Sarah has worked in the (then) Office of National Assessments and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet as well as in DFAT with a focus on Australia’s regional relationships, including Indonesia, Timor Leste and Solomon Islands. In Western Australia, Sarah held senior executive roles in the Chamber of Minerals and Energy and in State Government. From 2018-2020, Sarah worked on reform and change management issues as the Executive Director of the Office of the Commissioner at the Mental Health Commission and in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

Ms Hooper holds an Executive Master of Public Administration from the Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) and the University of Western Australia; a Graduate Diploma in Foreign Affairs and Trade and a Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) from the Australian National University; and a Graduate Diploma in Museum Curatorship from James Cook University.

Sarah is married with two adult sons.

Irene Ohler

Secretariat, Panel Pledge Vietnam

Co-founder, Lightpath Consulting Group

Irene founded Lightpath Leadership drawing on her 20+ years experience in leadership development on four continents with leaders from the corporate and government sectors. Irene has been based in Vietnam since 2012 and has since become a sought-after expert for her work to promote women leadership. Irene has pioneered a number of initiatives to inspire women: she co-authored an awarded book on Vietnamese women leaders, BaTrieu’s 21st Century Daughters. Stories of Remarkable Vietnamese Women, and founded the Women’s Storytelling Salon, an inter-cultural and inter-generational events series, in 2014, which runs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

LightPath Leadership now offers cutting edge international women leadership programmes tailored to the Vietnamese context.Irene holds a Master Degree in Sinology from Vienna University, Austria, is a certified global executive coach, and has an executive certificate: Public Narrative: Leadership, Storytelling and Action from Harvard Kennedy School | Executive Education.

Sai Ramana Ponugoti

Country Manager & General Director, P&G Vietnam

Sai Ramana Ponugoti (Sai) leads P&G’s Vietnam operations since 2019, serving Vietnamese consumers through leadership brands across all P&G categories: Hair Care, Fabric & Home Care, Baby Care, Shave Care, Skin & Personal Care, Feminine Care, and Oral Care. He is focused on creating value for consumers and customers through defining Commercial strategies, leading Business Operations and building Go-to-market strategies – to drive category growth.

Sai joined P&G in 2001 as an Account Executive in India. In his various leadership roles in P&G, he has got extensive experience in leading businesses spanning diverse consumer goods categories and trade channels. He has demonstrated expertise on developing markets, having worked across Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa markets and by leading P&G’s Global Innovation center for low-income-markets. He also has extensive experience on ‘Shopper-centric retail innovation’ and partnering with retailers to create category value.

He is passionate about making a difference to the lives of consumers in developing markets through P&G brands. A strong advocate for talent development, Sai has worked across diverse cultures through his P&G career and lived in India, Singapore and Switzerland. Before being appointed Country Manager & General Director for P&G Vietnam, Sai was the ‘Sales Head of India-Middle East-Africa’ for Baby Care and a key member of the Regional Business Unit leadership team based in Geneva, Switzerland for the period 2016 – 2019.

In his current role, Sai works closely with government/industry bodies and serves on the Executive Committee & Board of Governors for American Chamber of Commerce, Vietnam. He has played a leadership role with the government, industry & non-profit organizations all through the pandemic period.

Sai graduated with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Calicut, and holds an MBA degree in Marketing & Operations from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow.

Sai is married to Swetha and has 2 children: Anshul, 13 years old and Aditi, 10 years old.

Michele Wee

CEO, Standard Chartered Vietnam

A seasoned banker with over 25 years industry experience, Michele joined Standard Chartered in 2011 as Global Head of E-commerce Sales to build an e-commerce business distribution channel for the Bank’s Financial Markets (FM) clients. Prior to her appointment as CEO of Vietnam, she was the Head of FM for Singapore, Australia, and Brunei, in which she was responsible for the development and execution of these markets’ FM strategy.

Nguyen Thi Bich Van

Chair, Unilever Vietnam

Starting her professional career with Unilever 26 years ago, Van is among the first management generation of Unilever Vietnam with extensive business and leadership rich experience in marketing, retail channel and commercial development, and has been leading Unilever Vietnam business from 2017.

Van has strong passion for consumers and customers, she has been instrumental behind numbers of leading businesses, categories in consumer product industry.

Strongly committed to Unilever Vietnam’s mission to contribute to make Vietnamese lives better, Van is an inspirational advocate of the Unilever sustainable living plan, the core of the business model which aims to make positive impacts for community and society.

Samuel Walter

Founder and CEO, Artemis Digital

Samuel Walter is the founder and CEO of Artemis Digital. Based in Australia and Vietnam, Artemis Digital provides support to businesses in tourism, retail, travel, professional services and lifestyle in building their digital presence across the APAC region through tailored digital marketing and creative technical solutions. Samuel is a passionate digital entrepreneur and proud member of the LGBTQI+ community, as well as an avid supporter and proponent of diversity in business and the wider community.

MODERATOR

Mary Tarnowka

Executive Director, AmCham Vietnam

Mary Tarnowka joined AmCham Vietnam as Executive Director in August 2019. She continues to carry out AmCham’s long-term mission to strengthen the U.S.-Vietnam trade and investment partnership and serve as the “voice of American business” in Vietnam, established when it was founded informally just after the trade embargo was lifted in 1994. Under her leadership, AmCham Vietnam has been revitalized. It is one of the largest, diverse, and inclusive foreign business associations in Vietnam. Its network of active committees and extensive range of events provide members valuable opportunities for professional networking, business intelligence, advocacy, and business promotion. AmCham strives to be the most strategic and influential business association in Vietnam – that drives innovation and sustainable growth and helps its members succeed. A community you want to join!

Mary is an international trade and economic expert with decades of experience managing organizations and policy advocacy in Asia. Prior to joining AmCham, Mary served as the U.S. Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City. As a career diplomat and member of the Senior Foreign Service, Mary has served throughout the Indo-Pacific region, including postings in Seoul, Delhi, Shanghai, and Taipei, as well as at the State Department’s China Desk and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Before joining the State Department, Mary worked as a CPA and Tax Manager at KPMG’s San Francisco Office. Mary also serves as a Director on the Board of VinaCapital GS Energy.