Inclusion and diversity is an interesting yet polarising topic — one that’s very close to my heart. Let me be clear upfront: this piece is not a research article with data studies and market facts about I&D boosting business performance.
Rather, it’s a true reflection of how I’ve been personally lifted by women in my life — celebrating them and what I can give back, not from a transactional perspective, but because it’s the best we can do as human beings.
As a Malaysian-Australian who grew up in Brisbane and worked in the coal mines (yes, actual coal mines!), I’ve experienced my fair share of both ignorant and casual racism. Beyond race and gender (which I honestly believe many corporates still get wrong), I truly believe inclusion should extend to what you study, your background, and your ultimate will to achieve something meaningful.
Anyways, it’s March — Women’s History Month (and IWD earlier this month too) —so I’m not going to take the spotlight with my own personal Asian upbringing story (perhaps I’ll save this for another writeup sometime). Instead, I want to share how I have personally been lifted by women and how I now dedicate myself to lifting them too, through two major areas:
- Old school industries like mining, in Australia
- Operating startups in Southeast Asia, including my own
First of all, I want to make it very clear — I grew up raised by women (my mum and sister, while my dad worked overseas). In fact, my friends often point out certain ‘feminine’ elements to my behaviour at times.
And before going further—my mum is one of the strongest figures in my life, women-or-not, period. She left her own family, did long-distance with my dad, and raised my younger sister and me single-handedly when moving to Australia—no friends, family, or anyone supporting her directly. And she did a very well done job.
My first industry (mining) was a challenging ground. For me personally, it was already tough enough being a ‘baby-faced Asian supervisor managing over 60 operators. I was way out of my comfort zone. But I had the pleasure of working with some of the most amazing, strong women who shaped my career trajectory.
Specifically, I had direct women managers who took my career to the next level, and I have nothing but eternal gratitude for them. My first manager saw that I was initially struggling to transition into my new role, coming off my first graduate year which was (looking back now) absolutely traumatising (I later realised I was being bullied by the corporate hierarchy).
Though our time together was brief before she left for Canada, I remember discussing my development goals to explore something more commercial (I was in deep engineering at the time, punching out drawings and plans). Shortly after she departed, I received a secondment offer for a McKinsey project at our operations — working with financial controls. This became one of the most pivotal moments in my career.
My second manager is, to this day, a very dear friend. We were both thrown into the deep end together — she from a commercial and contracts background, me from engineering — tasked with optimising haulage production on site. We had intense meetings, endless discussions, and even caught up often after work.
We built a whole new team and strategy together — not just sharing the highs, but supporting each other through the absolute emotional lows. Our strong friendship continues even though we’ve parted ways professionally. BHP always emphasised strong I&D initiatives — and I’m proud to have adopted that culture for my future teams.
Fast-forward to operating startups in Southeast Asia. About two years after leaving mining and moving to Singapore, I found myself at a startup called Quqo, managing a team of three young women.
If I could brag a bit, I believe our team was the tightest-knit one in the company. We had our own special bond — gifting each other for birthdays and Christmas, celebrating our little team wins with bubble tea. I treated them almost like my younger sisters and, as their line manager, stood up for them when necessary.
Beyond this, it was all about development and learning from one another. We ran marketing and communications (let’s be real — I don’t have an actual background in any of these, I just knew what needed to be done for the business). I gave these young ladies complete freedom for creativity and regularly aligned tasks to their personal goals.
Our digital marketer wanted to learn more paid advertising skills, so I got her involved with LinkedIn campaigns. Our graphic designer wanted more experience with UX/UI. Our operations admin was studying for her MBA and wanted broader business exposure. In return, they gave me a sense of belonging in Vietnam—a completely different culture from my own — spoke English for me (despite my terrible attempts at Vietnamese), and taught me valuable skills in marketing and design.
Also Read: Two decades on: Women in tech see culture shift and growing satisfaction
At LFG, my own travel startup, we operated with a predominantly “girl-squad” of interns for our marketing and product teams. Not because of I&D quotas or trying to look like a woke Gen Z startup, but because they genuinely understood the vibe and needs of the LFG brand. These women helped me not only shape but execute the vision I wanted: fun, outgoing, unhinged — like your personal travel buddy.
Since we couldn’t honestly pay them much as interns, I made it my utmost effort to help them achieve personal growth goals through referrals, learning opportunities, and chances to develop different skills they wanted to improve. At the end, as students to whatever master, I believe this is all we can ask for.
To sum it all up: I’m absolutely grateful for the women who have lifted my career, teams, and business. And I believe, putting all formal I&D initiatives and programs aside, all we can do as humans is help empower one another and give the right people the right chances to shine.
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