Letter from the Chair, NZAL

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Letter from NZAL Chair, Mai Chen

NZAL looks forward to celebrating its 5^th anniversary on November 8 this year. And it is articles like this one that reminds us that there is still a need for our organisation and that there is a lot to do.

To achieve that, I have asked NZAL advisory board members to lead on the following areas of key focus for the board. The committees are:

To accelerate NZAL’s contribution to NZ and to its members: (From L - R) Chaired by Sameer Handa, Deputy Chair, NZAL, Mitchell Pham, Co-founder, Director and head of Sales & Marketing of the Augen Software Group, Brijesh Sethi, Managing Director and Owner, New Zealand Skills and Education Group

To ensure sponsors are well looked after and get value and to ensure financial sustainability: (From L - R) Chaired by Carolyn Luey, General Manager, Enterprise Solutions & New Zealand, MYOB, Ming Lim-Pollard, Independent Director & Founding Director of Endeavour Services Limited

(From L - R) Mai Chen, Chair, NZAL, Steven Song, Chief Financial Officer, Oregon Group Ltd

To remain professional, credible and a go-to organisation for Asian leaders, Asian capability and connections with the Asian community: (From L - R, first row) Chaired by Nikhil Ravishankar, Chief Digital Officer, Vector, David Tse, Director of Sales and Marketing, NEC New Zealand, Ziena Jalil, Consulting Partner, SenateSHJ (From L - R, second row) Sameer Handa, Deputy Chair, NZAL, Lisa Li, Managing Director, China Travel Service, Terry Lee, Director, Milk NZ

The membership continues to grow and currently consists of 277 members across 14 ethnicities, with a further 14 new members welcomed below. To help you develop and for you to benefit from the various opportunities available for talented leaders, continue to engage with NZAL Chief Executive, Karinia Lee and Marketing and Communications Manager, Priti Garude to ensure we are meeting your expectations as a valued member.

Finally, I take this opportunity to acknowledge one of our NZAL advisory board members who is stepping down – Thomas Song. Thomas has been on the advisory board from the beginning and as founding chair, I have continued to value Thomas’ input and commitment to NZAL. Thomas will continue to champion the work of NZAL from the side lines. On behalf of my fellow advisory board members and NZAL team - thank you Thomas.

In his place, we have appointed a very talented young Asian leader Steven Song, CFO, Oregon Group Ltd, please join me in welcoming Steven. Steven will focus on membership - recruitment and development of our members.

Best regards,
Mai Chen

Launch of Diverse Thinking Capability Audit of New Zealand Boardrooms

A large piece of work that we are currently undertaking in the governance space with the Superdiversity Centre is the Diverse Thinking Capability Audit of New Zealand Boardrooms.

The launch will be on 23 August 2018 – more details to follow in the coming weeks. Save this date in your diaries now.

New member announcements!

(L -R) Colleen Sheldon, Regional Councillor, Horizons Regional Council (Manawatu-Wanganui) | Vimal Vallabh, Head of Energy, HRL Morrison & Co| Carolyn Wong, GM Strategic Transformation – People & Culture, Bank of New Zealand

(L -R) Iyanthi Wijayanayake, Director/ Principal Consultant, Giving Architects Ltd | Ron Lal, Co-founder/ Director, Momentum NZ | Jo Liaw-Hickey, Director, Deals Advisory, KPMG | Jenny Low, Advocate & Solicitor | Sammie Chan, Account Manager, Willis Towers Watson | Sue Anne Wang, Senior Workforce Connector, Unitec Institute of Technology

(L - R) Anna Yang, Founder & Managing Director, Futureway Connections Ltd | David Chua, Management Consultant, PwC | Dayeon Lee, Youth Advisory Council, Auckland Council | Labiba Rahman, Data & Analytics Graduate, Bank of New Zealand | Samantha Hiew, Law Graduate, Croftfield Law

NZAL Member News

Congratulations to NZAL Advisory Board member, Mitchell Pham on recognition for his contribution to the technology sector in New Zealand and NZ-Asia relations at the Kea World Class New Zealand (WCNZ) Awards.

Congratulations to NZAL Emerging leaders, Franky Wang, Commercial Partner, Bank of New Zealand and Kai Zhao, Restaurant Manager - Huami, SKYCITY for raising $8000 in funds for a kids charity.

Look what our sponsors have been up to

Mai Chen
Chair - NZ Asian Leaders

NZ Asian Leaders Advisory Board Members
Sameer Handa - Deputy Chair
Ziena Jalil
Terry Lee
Lisa Li
Carolyn Luey
Mitchell Pham
Ming Lim-Pollard
Nikhil Ravishankar
Brijesh Sethi
Steven Song
David Tse

Karinia Lee - Chief Executive
Priti Garude - Marketing & Communications Manager