Ajay Manissery Konchery is the Group Head of Diversity and Inclusion at John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd. He is a native of Kerala, India. He served in multiple HR Director roles based in Southeast Asia, India, the US and Hong Kong and spent 21 years in Colgate Palmolive before joining Swire. Ajay holds master’s degrees in Psychology and HR Management and is a published, award winning poet.

Alexandra Anselmo Sotto (she/he) is a Filipino currently studying Tourism and Hospitality Management at HKUSPACE Stanley Ho Community College. She is an aspiring performing artist who advocates for a safe space to receive sex and queer education in schools — shedding light upon queer-related experiences within the ethnic minority community living in Hong Kong.

Christine Vicera (she/hers) is a Filipino writer, researcher, and filmmaker from Hong Kong. At the heart of her interdisciplinary research and praxis lies a broader interest in the relationship between memory, migration, and “post”-/anti-/decoloniality in the context of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, specifically the Philippines. Storytelling and community building are integral to her praxis. She is the Co-founder of be/longing, a community arts-for-education lab that harnesses the transformative power of storytelling to cultivate and co-create cultures of inclusion in Hong Kong.

The Amber Foundation is the philanthropic arm of a long standing Hong Kong family who has donated scholarships for EM young women in University for many years . While interviewing a scholarship awardee it became apparent that this young woman being the first in the family to reach higher education did not have a network to assist with job hunting and further as a Non Chinese woman in Hong Kong that she was barely visible to future employers . Thus in 2018 EMPOWER by The Amber Foundation was formed with 9 young women and an Exco of prominent women . Now in our 5th year we have 45 young women in the program and our goals are to increase the visibility of the cohort to future employers to ensure their career success and financial stability for the family . Elizabeth Chairs the Exco of EMPOWER . She was trained as a lawyer at McGill University and initially worked as in house legal counsel for a private bank in Hong Kong before founding her company ICS TRUST on her dining room table in 1980 . After selling the company which she and her husband ran for 32 years they activated along with their son The Amber Foundation with two community based projects being The Toiletries Project which collects airline kits and hotel toiletries and EMPOWER by The Amber Foundation

Mr. Chan joined the Immigration Department in 1982 as an Assistant Immigration Officer. He was promoted to Assistant Director of Immigration in 2007 and Deputy Director of Immigration in 2010. He was appointed as Director of Immigration from 2011 to 2016. Mr Chan was Director of the Chief Executive’s Office from July 2017 to June 2022.

A vocal advocate for youth leadership, Fahim Hossain has actively worked with his community to provide inclusive leadership development for all. As the current President of AIESEC in HKU, he works with youth from diverse backgrounds to offer multifaceted leadership development, locally and globally. At a local level, he also works with ethnic minority youth to enrich their IT skills, so they can diversify their skillset portfolio and expand their horizons. Fahim hopes to inspire other youth to have faith in themselves, pursue their dreams, and give back to the community, regardless of where they are from.

John Lee is the Asia Pacific head of Allen & Overy’s international capital markets department. He frequently advises on various capital market transactions with a focus on MTN programmes, Rule 144A and Reg S bonds, panda bonds, corporate hybrid securities, bank and insurance regulatory capital instruments, global depositary receipts and IPOs, among others. John is also the Hong Kong DE&I Partner Champion, Hong Kong Mental Health Ally and a member of the People & Culture Committee of Allen & Overy.

As a young ethnic minority in Hong Kong, Karishma experienced first-hand discrimination by teachers in her local public school. She was also raised in a home of domestic violence. Despite these barriers, Karishma worked hard to not just change her circumstance in the future, but to help other young children find their talent and provide them with the right means to explore what is in store for them. A Diversity List 2019 Awardee, Karishma works in Financial Services where her role is to design and develop the Early Careers Development Programme for incoming graduates. Over the years in her professional role and on a pro-bono basis, she has strived to work with over 2000 students individually through universities, non-profit organizations, and social enterprises helping them achieve their goals. Currently, Karishma is developing knowledge and skills in the Mental Health Space as well as Cancer Prevention to create awareness of the importance of cancer screening in the community.

Kay McArdle - Founder & Director, Equal Justice. Kay has been working in Hong Kong’s equality space for over two decades. In 2013, she transferred from private practice into the NGO space full-time, to help disadvantaged – typically migrant and ethnically diverse women and children - find solutions to legal and other problems.  In 2022, Equal Justice won the ALITA Outstanding Legal Innovation/Legal Tech Award for its free, trilingual, public legal information platform: Pregnant@Work. In 2023, Kay won a Tatler Asia Front & Female Award. She is a lawyer and mediator by background and a published author on access to justice. 

Matthew is Project Director at The Zubin Foundation, responsible for developing and implementing The Zubin Foundation’s initiatives around Opportunities. Prior to joining The Zubin Foundation, he had worked for a charity for 5 years promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, and responsible business. Matthew holds a master's degree in Counselling from Hong Kong Baptist University and a BA (Translation and Sociology) from the University of Hong Kong. His studies and working experiences make him passionate about making a positive social impact.

Marzoona is born in a small coastal village in Tamil Nādu, India, and moved to Hong Kong after she got married. She completed her education in BSc Zoology. She is a homemaker, who enjoys doing handicraft projects, stitching, and cooking. She loves working on projects that challenge her and enable to grow her skills and hence has participated in countless cooking competitions and won several prizes. With her children now grown up, she and her friend started working on Mama’s Café, a small home-food business to cater to the demanding halal and vegetarian food industry - To bring customised quality and tasty foods. Her motto has always been to serve- food that is tasty to the tongue and warm to the soul.

Meenail Ahmed is a student at HKU Space college, studying social welfare and social administration with the aim of becoming a registered social worker. Apart from learning in school, she likes to teach herself different skills, like cooking, photography and video editing. Meenail is passionate about volunteering and giving back to the community. In her free time, she enjoys reading and spending quality time with loved ones.

Megha is on a mission to enable people to be the best version of themselves. As an HR professional, she helps organizations have an informed and impactful approach to build leaders of tomorrow. As a mother, she is trying to understand the world of challenges and opportunities for her daughter. And as a friend, she tries to build a sense of community, especially with people who, like her, moved to Hong Kong and now call it home. 

Dr. Miron Bhowmik is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Education Policy and Leadership, The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). He is also the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Specialist in the Faculty of Education and Human Development at EdUHK. His research interests include educational policies and practices as they relate to diversity, equity and inclusion, out-of-school/dropout/school failure issues, ICT in education, and acculturative stress and coping behaviour.

Mehvesh Mumtaz Ahmed is global head of social impact for the Rosewood Hotel Group. She is in charge of leading, developing and executing global strategy to help achieve the group’s vision of becoming a business-with-purpose that impacts everyone’s lives. Mehvesh has extensive experience across the private, public and social sectors. Prior to Rosewood, Mehvesh was leading insights and strategy on CSR, philanthropy, impact investment and sustainability across 18 Asian economies. She has also worked for the New York City government under Mayor Bloomberg, and for the World Bank and the United Nations. Mehvesh engages with policymakers, business leaders and practitioners to escalate system change. She also disseminates thought leadership on strategic social investment on various platforms, including print and broadcast media.

Nathan is twelve years old and a Year 8 pupil at Harrow International School Hong Kong. Nathan joined Harrow as a bursary pupil from a local school in August 2022 having visited the Zubin Foundation Scholarships Fair last year.

Sain is embarking on a journey at Neurum Health as an account executive to bring meaningful and innovative mental health care built with ai to more people’s lives. He studied entrepreneurship and innovation at prestigious schools around the world; Stanford, UChicago and CityU. Not to our surprise, he used to be a serial Hackathon goer, winning numerous best business idea/proposal awards. Sain knows life is lived every day in the “now” and never misses an opportunity to be fabulous every single day. Also believes that you are never supposed to carry mountains but to climb over them. He indefinitely sees life as opportunity-rich and even sees problems as opportunities.

Shraddha is the founder of Munchin Chocolatier. She traded the world of interior design and teaching for her passion and love for chocolate. Shraddha's experiments in making handmade chocolate during occasions led to the idea of taking her skills to the next level leading to the launch of Munchin Chocolatier. Its signature taste is born out of experimentation. Not one to fear experimenting, Shraddha is all game to give twists and turns to make chocolates that fit different palettes.

Olivia Wong recently joined MTR Corporation Limited as General Manager of Environmental & Social Responsibility. She is responsible for formulating and implementing clear and effective strategies in achieving MTR's social and environmental objectives and in championing the corporation's ESG efforts and commitments. Prior to joining MTR, Olivia spent 30+ years with the Swire group in different business units including Cathay Pacific and Swire Properties. Her most recent role in John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd was the Group Head of Diversity & Inclusion, a role that was created in August 2018. She developed a coherent diversity and inclusion (“D&I”) strategy and aligned D&I initiatives across the Swire Group. Olivia was Director HR & Administration at Swire Properties Ltd. Before that she was General Manager – Leadership Development at John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd and Managing Director at Ethos International Ltd, with responsibility for recruiting and fostering talent for the Swire Group. She joined Cathay Pacific as management trainee had almost 20 years of broad management experience in Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong, South East Asia and Europe. Olivia graduated with a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She also has an MBA from the University of Michigan. Olivia is a dedicated volunteer with Habitat for Humanity for over 16 years. She currently serves as the chair on their board in Hong Kong and as a director on their international boar

Paul is a clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong. He has been involving in suicide prevention research and mental health promotion and practice since 2003. His recent research projects include youth social withdrawal behavior, using animals as part of educational and psychological interventions, youth positive development of local and non-Chinese young people, and family care giving for people with psychological issues. His main research theme aims to promote social inclusion in our society. He is also Fellows of the Hong Kong Psychological Society and the Hong Kong Professional Counselling Association. He is the Programme Director of the Master of Social Science (Counselling). He is the recipient of the 2015 and 2020 Faculty of Social Science’s Research Output and Knowledge Exchange Awards, respectively.

Born in Greece, a diplomat’s daughter, Penny has travelled extensively throughout her life. Having completed her own schooling and university degree in the UK, she worked in international sports management before changing career to become a teacher of Latin and Greek at leading independent prep and senior schools. As Head of Scholarships and Bursaries at Harrow International School Hong Kong, Penny is passionate about ensuring that a top-class education is accessible to all

Rabia is a counsellor at The Zubin Foundation’s Ethnic Minorities Well-being Centre. The Ethnic Minorities Well-being Center offers free counselling support to grassroots South Asian and Southeast Asian communities. At the Well-being Center, Rabia is responsible for providing counselling support to adolescents and adults and running awareness workshops for the ethnic minority community. Rabia holds a Master of Counselling degree from Monash University, Australia, and a Master of Science in Applied Psychology from University of Punjab, Pakistan. Rabia is ethnically from Pakistan and is living in Hong Kong since 2009. Currently, Rabia is actively involved in supporting forced marriage cases at our foundation through counselling and mediation.

Rachel Diane is a year 2 student, pursuing BA in Creative Arts & BEd (Visual Arts) at the Education University of Hong Kong. She is one of the recipients of the 4-year Full Scholarship of The Zubin Foundation. Pursuing a career in the education field has always been a dream of Rachel's and she hopes to become a teacher after graduation. Along with university, Rachel takes part in volunteer teaching work to gain experience, give back to the community and make a difference in the lives of students.

Ravina is a clinical psychologist. She specializes in humanistic existential psychotherapy, EMDR and mindfulness-based interventions for individuals suffering from grief, loss, depression, anxiety and trauma. At The Zubin Foundation, a think tank and charity based in Hong Kong, she heads up a number of initiatives. In addition to managing the foundation's Children Counselling Centre, she designs and leads autism and ADHD workshops for parents of non-Chinese speaking children with special educational needs, conducts parenting support groups, and is responsible for Call Mira - Hong Kong’s first helpline aimed at supporting marginalized ethnic minority women and girls in Hindi, Urdu and English.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Saajandeep is an Associate at Hugill & Ip Solicitors. He is the city’s first locally trained turbaned Sikh Solicitor. He completed his tertiary education at the City University of Hong Kong. Outside of work he is an avid hockey player. In his spare time, Saajandeep is dedicated to community service. He is the co-founder and CEO of a non-profit organisation named Pargaas.

Sangeeth is a International Tax Partner with EY Hong Kong. Sangeeth was born in India, and has lived and worked in multiple countries with diverse teams. Coming from an ethnic minority background, and as a working mother, Sangeeth is closely connected with the challenges and opportunities that come with having a diverse background. In 2020, she helped set-up EY HK’s Cultural Diversity Network (CDN), the first of its kind in Asia, and now plays a lead role as Co-Chair of the network. The CDN is aimed at building a culture, that prioritizes inclusiveness both within EY and externally,  and in its initial years has conducted a significant number of activities towards this goal. This includes collaborating with multiple community organizations to run workshops, mentoring programs and ither initiatives. In 2020, Sangeeth was selected for The Zubin Foundation’s (a non-profit focused on diversity) Diversity List. This list endorses Sangeeth’s skills to the HKSAR government, with the aim of improving the representation of ethnically diverse women in decision-making positions to serve the Government and its statutory advisory bodies. Her experience in professional services and her contribution to community initiatives, has led to this achievement that will allow her a voice on policy discussions that impact our diverse community.

With over 20 years of experience specialising in customer experience, process efficiencies and change management across multiple industries in Malaysia and Hong Kong, Sudesh Thevasenabathy shifted his career towards his passion for inclusion. He is currently Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Asia at Manulife Financial responsible for driving the DEI agenda across the region. Sudesh won the 2019 LGBT+ Hong Kong Ally Award by Community Business and was named 2019 Global Top 50 LGBT+ OUTstanding Role Model (Involve.org). Through his leadership, Manulife won HKIHRM’s Excellence in DEI Award and PRWeek Asia’s Best in DEI Asia. He is an advocate of diversity and inclusion, and actively works and speaks in supporting inclusion of all forms be it disability, race, gender, sexuality and multi-generational employees.

Shalini is the Founder and CEO of The Zubin Foundation and the Founder and previous CEO of Community Business. Shalini is also a member of the Commission of Children. Shalini has written extensively on diversity. She is ethnically Indian and is from Hong Kong where her family has lived since 1911.

Dr Cunanan joined the College of International Education at the Hong Kong Baptist University in 2001. She is Associate Programme Director for the Division of Arts and Languages at CIE.

Before joining HKBU, she taught at her alma mater, Diocesan Girls’ School, for ten years, upon graduating from the University of Hong Kong. She received her Ph.D. from the University of East Anglia, and her research was in the study of the segregation of ethnic minorities students in Hong Kong. She recently received her MBA from the University of South Australia. When not teaching, her community services include contributing to the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Hong Kong Housing Authority.

Vinee is a Project Manager at The Zubin Foundation. She is ethnically Indian and is living in Hong Kong since 2010. Her work at the Foundation includes running the Scholarship programme for low-income tertiary education students, providing food to the needy, and tackling period poverty in young girls. Vinee has a Master’s degree in Economics and has always been very active in community service. She has worked on projects with The World Bank, GE-Community Service Fund, HKUST Sustainability, and for the Asian Migrants Credit Union in Hong Kong. Her interactions within the community and support to families and individuals keeps her motivated to do more!

Zulaiha is born In India and came to Hong Kong when she was really young. She has done all her schooling in Hong Kong. She is Masters in Education from the University of Hong Kong and is working as a full-time Science and English Teacher at a secondary school. Zulaiha and her friend Aysha, support their mothers’ dream of running Mama’s café, a small home run bakery. Their vision is to promote halal food and cakes. The girls take care of the managerial responsibilities alongside helping their moms to bake. Mama’s Café has been a fulfilling journey so far- being part of people’s celebrations. We are delivering a piece of our dreams and hopes to their homes and hearts!