SINGAPORE (November 5, 2024) – Forbes today unveiled its 2024 Asia’s Power Businesswomen list, honoring 20 outstanding female leaders, including several industry veterans who set precedent by becoming the first women to step into these roles at their companies. The complete list can be found here and in the November issue of Forbes Asia.
“Forbes Asia’s Power Businesswomen list this year spotlights 20 executives, entrepreneurs and family business members who are steering their companies through industry challenges and economic uncertainties,” said Rana Wehbe Watson, list editor. “From leading property developers and financial institutions to innovating in EVs and manufacturing, they are instilling bold strategies and a renewed sense of optimism in industries across the region.”
Selected for their achievements and proven track records, the women highlighted this year represent a new generation of business leaders who are ready to face any difficulties head-on. Among those is Shina Chung, who took the helm of Kakao, the tech giant behind the popular namesake South Korean instant messaging app, in March this year, becoming the company’s first female CEO. The former management consultant plans to sell noncore assets to help streamline the internet giant’s businesses, even as she leads an AI push to further bolster earnings.
Miwako Date is looking to future-proof Tokyo-based Mori Trust Holdings by expanding its portfolio of luxury hotels. Her strategy is to build this business until it’s on equal footing with the company’s two mainstays of office leasing and property sales. At the same time, she is adding 379,000 square feet of new office space and 800 high-end condos, scheduled to be finished by 2030. Date, 53, joined the property developer founded by her father in 1998. After her two older brothers left the company, she became president and CEO in 2016—a rare move in a country which has few women as top corporate leaders. Date is also featured on the cover of the November issue of Forbes Asia.
Veteran banker Tan Su Shan will become the first woman to lead Singapore-listed DBS Group—Southeast Asia’s biggest lender by assets—when she succeeds Piyush Gupta in March 2025. Tan, who joined DBS in 2010 from Morgan Stanley, ran DBS’ consumer banking and wealth management businesses for nearly a decade before moving into her current role as deputy CEO and head of institutional banking.
Stella Li leads Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD’s operations in the Americas and Europe. She is tasked to help fulfill BYD’s goal of generating nearly half of its sales abroad, up from 30% of its annual 301 billion yuan ($43 billion) revenue as of June 2024. She set up BYD’s first factory in Lancaster, California in 2013, and is overseeing the construction of the Chinese company’s first factory for the European market in Hungary. BYD is planning a major facility in Mexico that will reportedly create about 10,000 jobs.
Bonnie Chan became the first female CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) in March and things are already looking up. In the second quarter of this year, 18 companies went public compared with 12 in the previous quarter, raising 79% more in funds. In September, Chinese home appliance maker Midea raised $4 billion, the largest Hong Kong listing in almost four years.
Nyrika Holkar is widely seen as the likely successor of her uncle, Jamshyd Godrej, 75, to lead the 161-billion-rupee ($1.9 billion) Godrej Enterprises Group (GEG), which spans everything from aerospace and appliances to real estate and security locks. The great-granddaughter of Pirojsha Godrej, cofounder of the 127-year-old group, is already playing a major role in leading its branding, legal and M&A operations. Holkar, a lawyer by training, led negotiations that resulted in an agreement dividing business assets between two separate groups of the Godrej family in April.
Mitsuko Tottori is the first woman to run Japan Airlines (JAL), having started as a flight attendant for Japan’s flag carrier. Tottori started flying for a small airline, which was acquired by JAL in 2004. In 2015, she was promoted to senior director of cabin attendants, then vice president for cabin safety in 2019, senior VP for customer experience and board member in 2023, and chief customer officer later that year. She became CEO in April 2024.
Feny Djoko Susanto took over as president commissioner of the minimart empire founded by her father Djoko Susanto. Despite the rise of online shopping and other major shifts in Indonesia’s retail sector, the Sumber Alfaria Trijaya group – which operates the Alfamart, Alfamidi, Lawson and Dan+Dan chains – has grown from 141 stores nationwide in 2002, when Feny first joined Sumber Alfaria Trijaya as president director, to 22,000 by the end of last year. Feny oversaw the company’s public listing in 2009 and its expansion to the Philippines in 2014 in a joint venture with retail conglomerate SM Investments.
Maggi Chen cofounded Taiwan-listed Chenbro Micom in 1983 with her husband and younger brother. Over the next 30 years, she guided Chenbro Micom from designing computer chassis—the housing for a computer’s main parts—to manufacturing them. Recognizing the growing demand for server chassis as the AI, 5G and cloud industry developed, Chen later redirected the company to focus on server chassis production. Today Chenbro Micom, which counts leading chipmaker Nvidia among its clients, is one of the world’s largest producers of chassis for servers.
Vicki Brady has refocused Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom by market share, on its core business of connecting people while championing its AI ambitions since she took the helm two years ago. Under her guidance, Telstra has said it will invest up to A$1.6 billion ($1 billion) over the five years to 2027, partly to expand its national fiber network, which U.S. tech giant Microsoft has agreed to use to extend its AI infrastructure in Australia.
For the complete Forbes Asia’s Power Businesswomen list, please visit www.forbes.com/asiapowerbusinesswomen2024
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