Calibre of entries was incredible, say judges
Professional achievement is a standard measure of success for today's career woman. But to be recognised by Hong Kong's annual Women of Influence (WOI) Awards requires two crucial additional factors - advocacy on behalf of women from within their respective organisations and a commitment to the wider community.
The awards, which were presented yesterday at the Four Seasons Hotel, are meant to help raise the profile of Hong Kong-based women who may not be publicly well known.
'We wanted to do this not only for the women themselves but so that other people in the business community would get to know them better,' said Maura Fallon, chief executive at executive advising and coaching firm Fallon International. She is also chair of the Women of Influence committee at the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham).
AmCham and the South China Morning Post jointly presented the awards and a conference that explored how top businesswomen and other female professionals created circles of influence in their lives and communities around Asia.
Ms Fallon, one of a group of women who founded the competition five years ago, said more than 50 entries were submitted for the awards this year.
The awards were bestowed in three individual categories - Young Achiever of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year and Professional of the Year. There was also a Best Company for Women Award.
This year's winners were Uhi Hui, executive director, Greater China, the PR People Consultancy, for Young Achiever of the Year; Elizabeth L Thomson, founder and president of ICS Trust (Asia), for Entrepreneur of the Year; and Julia Charlton, partner, Charltons, for Professional of the Year. Investment banking firm Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC was named the Best Company for Women.
'The calibre of entries was just incredible,' said Janet De Silva, chief executive at Retail China and chair of the judging committee for the awards. 'We had very strong candidates across the board.
'Many of the judges remarked on how humbling it was to see how amazing these women were ... able to juggle so many things.'
Referring to the Best Company Award, she cited Goldman Sachs as 'an outstanding organisation that is probably a world model for companies that adopted diversity into their organisational culture years ago.'
Past winners include FedEx Express, General Electric, HSBC and IBM/China Hong Kong. In each of the four categories, the candidates were scored by a team of four judges.
For the individual awards, the heaviest weighting was for professional and entrepreneurial achievements, which counted for 50 per cent, with advocacy for women and community involvement each representing equal amounts of the remaining percentage.
For the company award, 50 per cent of the weighting reflected the level of achievement of women within the company. The firm's commitment to advocacy for women and innovation in supporting work-life balance each represented equal amounts of the remaining percentage.
Judges submitted their scores individually. After the scores were tallied and averaged, the judges reconvened as a group and selected a winner by consensus.
'Everyone has a chance to express their views and in one or two situations, it changed the judging results,' Ms De Silva said.
Speaking on behalf of the awards sponsor Morgan Stanley, Eddie Ahmed, managing director and chief administrative officer of Asia, who also oversees the firm's talent management committee for the region, said: 'We believe it is important to develop and recognise female role models.
'This is why we find this programme so attractive and have supported it since its inception. Through our support, we want to help showcase best practices for companies and help women make an even greater impact in their organisations and in their communities.'
As is customary members of the WOI committee and sponsor organisations did not enter candidates for the awards.
Film director Barbara Wong Chun-chun, who was last year's Young Achiever winner for candidates younger than 40 years of age, said the award boosted her confidence and opened the door to new friendships, new perspectives on life and a passion to continue her life's work.
'It made me feel like I had a mission to use my films to speak up for women and to encourage them,' she said.
From meeting other career women at AmCham, the award-winning director discovered that it was possible to balance work, family life and service to the community.
'Before, I thought there was no way I could do everything. But now I think it's possible,' Ms Wong said.
Previous individual winners include former legislator Christine Loh Kung-wai, chief executive of the independent think tank Civic Exchange, and Anna Wu, former chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission.
At the half-day conference, which preceded the awards ceremony, the keynote speaker was Sue Rataj, president of Global Petrochemicals at BP.
Two discussion panels allowed women in key roles in Hong Kong to share their thoughts on the choices available to working women, and how to manage career and professional hurdles.
The first panel ('Making an Impact, Staying the Course') featured Ms Wong and Jenny Bowen, founder and executive director of Half the Sky Foundation, which is devoted to improving the welfare of orphaned children on the mainland. Ms Bowen won last year's Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Speakers at the second panel (Trends for Women: Becoming More Influential) included Ka Shi Lau, managing director and chief executive officer at the Bank Consortium Trust; Louisa Wong-Rousseau, group managing director of Bo Le Associates; Ying Yeh, chairman and president, North Asia region and president, business development, Asia-Pacific region and vice-president of Eastman Kodak Co; and Cammy Yiu, publisher and editor-in-chief of Culture Magazine.
The awards ceremony was the emotional highlight of the event. 'It makes you recognise that good things are happening, that there are people who are doing their best and companies that are doing a good job,' Ms Fallon said.
