Now four years running, in honour of International Women’s Day, I’ve named 5 awesome women; women who I appreciate, admire, have learned from and who I personally know.  Here are my 5 for 2017.
Helene Raudaschl – I had the opportunity to recently meet Helene in Thailand. She is the owner of Indoguna a gourmet foods purveyor based out of Singapore. In 2016 she was named EY entrepreneur of the year. Inspired by her family’s passion for food, she started Indoguna 20 years ago, growing the company in both Hong Kong and Dubai and serving clients all over the world.
Arpiné Grigoryan – I first met Arpiné almost 10 years ago while working in Rotterdam. She is not only a tech wiz, but is quite crafty in also being able to make other things (such as her own clothes!). She is co-organiser of TEDx events in Armenia and is currently the operations director at News Deeply a media company that provides in-depth reporting on the world’s most important and underreported stories.
Alexa Mabonga - Alexa is truly a global citizen having lived in several countries and currently residing in Brussels. She is passionate about driving organisational growth through innovation. She is currently making an impact in FinTech through her innovation work at ING, which last year came in the top 3 in ING’s global innovation competition.
Sandra Tappermann-Pieper – I’ve had the opportunity to work with Sandra since 2009 on various brand identity programmes. She is sharp, driven while at the same time caring & personable. Most of all she is a person who strives to always be consistent in what she says, thinks and does; recently she’s been promoted to the role of  Global Marketing Director of LeasePlan Corporation.
Ruth Fothergill – I was fortunate enough to have had Ruth as a mentor and a Board member when I was leading AIESEC Canada. She had a wealth of knowledge which she always had the time to share, even though she was quite busy developing Canadian business and trade relations with Export Development Canada (EDC).