YSN-ASM Alumni Receives UN-WOMEN Award in Leadership Commitment

The Academy of Sciences Malaysia congratulates YSN-ASM Member Ir Prof Dr Leong Wai Yie for being selected as the First Runner Up of the 2021 UN Women Malaysia WEPs Awards in the Leadership Commitment Category.

The UN Women Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards is the first awards initiative in the region to recognize exemplary business practice for gender equality aligned to the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs).

Timed with the 10^th anniversary of both the WEPs and UN Women, the 2021 WEPs Awards offer a unique opportunity for business leaders and companies to be recognized and make their efforts to advance gender equality visible amongst their customers, employees, and partners, as well as inspire others to act for wider impact.

The Director of Research Innovation from Perdana University was among the awardees that came from Asia-Pacific countries. The 2021 WEPs Awards recognised initiatives in the following five categories: Leadership Commitment; Gender-inclusive Workplace; Gender-responsive Marketplace; Community Engagement and Partnerships; and Youth Leadership for Generation Equality.

In addition to a Winner, 1st, and 2nd Runner Up for each category, there were three more SME Champion awards given to small and medium-sized enterprises.

This award also highlights the growing cases for gender equality and women’s empowerment and raises awareness of the importance of private sector action.

The full list of awardees are as follows:

Leadership Commitment

• Winner: Professor Elizabeth Lee, Chief Executive Officer, Sunway Education Group
• 1^st Runner Up: Ir Professor Dr Leong Wai Yie Director of Research Innovation, Perdana University
• 2^nd Runner Up: Tunku Rozita Malek, Non-Executive Director, abrdn Islamic Malaysia Sdn Bhd (formerly known as Aberdeen Standard Islamic Investments (M) Sdn Bhd)
• SME Champion: Yuki Aizawa, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Rinne Technologies and Consulting

Gender-Inclusive Workplace

• Winner: Intel Malaysia
• 1^st Runner Up: Nestlé (Malaysia) Berhad
• 2^nd Runner Up: Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd

Gender-Responsive Marketplace

• Winner: CnetG Asia Sdn Bhd

Community Engagement and Partnerships

• Winner: Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia and Standard Chartered Saadiq Malaysia
• 1^st Runner Up: Deloitte Southeast Asia
• 2^nd Runner Up: Forest Interactive
• SME Champion: GoodKids Malaysia

Youth Leadership

• Winner: Toh Yin Li, Business Manager, Co-Founder of Women at Maxis, Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd
• 1^st Runner Up: Fatin Fatihah Zahari, Cloud Adoption Engineer, Microsoft Corporation
• SME Champion: Prisca Wong, Founder and Producer, Threemendous Films