I started my sustainability journey by empowering women to protect our beautiful planet. I set up Women on a Mission (WOAM) and HER Planet Earth, two award-winning not-for-profit organisations that take all-female teams on pioneering expeditions as a way to support worthy causes.

HER Planet Earth's primary objective is to raise awareness and funds for underprivileged women affected by climate change, while WOAM aims to empower women who have been subjected to violence and abuse.

This then opened other doors and led me to work as a consultant, advisor and board member in sustainability, food tech, ESG and impact investing.

Over the years, I have worked with a variety of businesses from all types of industry sectors - startups, NGOs, government, academia and multinational corporations - to help define their purpose, develop their marketing and communications objectives, build their Sustainability, CSR and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategies and find the right partners and solutions for success.

Via my two non-profits – Women on a Mission and HER Planet Earth – my team and I organise expeditions to raise valuable funds and awareness for the social causes we believe in and the charities we support.

HER Planet Earth focuses on conservation and sustainable agriculture – supporting elephant sanctuaries in Africa, helping women farmers in Vietnam, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Philippines become more climate-resilient – while Women on a Mission partners with organisations providing entrepreneurial and life-skills education for women living in conflict-prone areas such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Rwanda and Sudan.

These past few years, thanks to my work with my two NGOs Women on a Mission and HER Planet Earth, I’ve had the great privilege of taking hundreds of women, of all nationalities, ages and backgrounds, to off the beaten track locations around the world on challenging, often pioneering, expeditions that really push them outside of their comfort zone.

We’ve run expeditions to some incredible places, from regions of the Arctic circle, to the coldest, windiest and most remote continent on earth, Antarctica. We’ve crossed the largest caves in the world in Vietnam, so big in parts you could fly a 747 through them. We’ve sailed across remote islands in Asia and experienced real Robinson Crusoe-like moments.

My teammates and I became the first all-female team to bike across the frozen Arctic Circle Trail of Greenland, the first group to stand-up-paddle board down rivers in the Kingdom of Bhutan and bike across the Danakil Depression of Ethiopia – the hottest place on earth. We’ve migrated with reindeer herders in the middle of the Siberian winter, ridden on semi-wild horses with Kazakh Eagle Hunters in Mongolia and climbed many mountains in the Himalayas, Iceland and Africa. All these expeditions have had as mission to raise awareness and funds for vulnerable women.

As you can imagine, these unique experiences with teams of women to some of the most inhospitable and remote places in the world, have truly been incredibly humbling and formative experiences for me personally. They have forced me to push my limits on multiple occasions – really testing my mental, physical and emotional resilience – while allowing me to grow, succeed and fail in countless ways. And as I take stock of these past few years and plan the next stage of my career in this post-pandemic world, I realise that I’ve learnt more about myself and about leading teams through these experiences than in my 20 years in the corporate world, and as a result, I’ve found my own brand of leadership.

Southeast Asia is impacted by enormous environmental stress resulting from global warming, urban excess, deforestation, water scarcity, overfishing and pollution. While Southeast Asian nations encourage political actions in favour of economic growth, they struggle to promote sustainable development approaches. Governments claim to work on a balanced approach that compromises both sectors.

The reality of the situation, however, reveals that governments tend to act in contradictory manners in their creations of sustainable economies. Whether it is rising sea levels, the devastation of the rainforests, or greenhouse gas emission, it has become evident that environmental issues do not halt at nations’ borders. Environmental issues ought to be seen as transnational problems. Hence, policy makers in Southeast Asia are under increasing pressure to reconfigure their environmental policies to satisfy their citizens’ needs on a national level. Furthermore, I believe Southeast Asian governments must foster a multilateral dialogue to avoid simply procrastinating problems.

One of the solutions Southeast Asia could focus on is the protection of its rich biodiversity, which could also create jobs and generate wealth. This could produce benefits valued at more than $2.19 trillion a year - while slowing down climate change - according to a new study published by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM). That result could be achieved if $10 billion was invested now, rising to $46 billion by 2030, says Eco-Business. The study’s authors point out that the investment is a tiny fraction of the possible paybacks in job creation, higher incomes, and a more sustainable environment.

Indeed, Southeast Asia is one of the most mega biodiverse regions of the globe, boasting the most extensive and diverse coral reefs and mangrove areas on the planet. These are national treasures of great sovereign worth, which need to be protected at all costs.