Cover Diversity, equity and inclusion leader Lyn R Lee (Image: Lyn R Lee)
Diversity, equity and inclusion leader Lyn R Lee (Image: Lyn R Lee)
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For diversity, equity and inclusion leader Lyn R Lee, meaningful change happens when policy becomes culture—and small, intentional acts begin to reshape institutions from within
Most people would have passed through the doors without a second thought. At Shell Centre in London, the global headquarters of the integrated energy company, the automated doors on the bridges linking its buildings were designed for ease: opening, closing and folding seamlessly into the rhythm of the day. Then one stopped working. For some, it was a minor inconvenience. For someone in a wheelchair, someone who was blind, or anyone whose movement already required calculation, it became a barrier.
Lyn R Lee remembers the incident because of the person who noticed. A leader she had worked with on disability inclusion saw the fault, reported it, and followed up when it remained unfixed. “He made sure that it was working,” she says. “It comes down to the execution level. The policy is there, people understand, but do we behave in that way to help remove barriers every day?” For Lee, inclusion begins in the willingness to notice what others overlook, and to act before a barrier becomes someone else’s burden.
In that small act sits much of Lee’s life’s work. Inclusion, to her, is a discipline of attention, repeated until it becomes culture. In April, she became the first person from Asia, and the first recipient from outside the UK and Europe, to receive the Disability Smart Impact Lifetime Achievement Award from the Business Disability Forum, at a ceremony in London hosted by HSBC. “It’s a milestone for me, and also for the work [of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI], reflecting the growing voices and perspectives from Asia,” she says. “It’s a moment where I can say that I have helped make a difference.”
Read more: Asia’s journey towards disability inclusion
Above Lee spent more than two decades at Shell, including six years as its first female and first Asian global chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer (Image: Lyn R Lee)
Lee spent more than two decades at Shell, including six years as its first female and first Asian global chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer (Image: Lyn R Lee)
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Lee spent more than two decades at Shell, including six years as its first female and first Asian global chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. Appointed in 2018, she found herself at the heart of a global conversation that was moving beyond what institutions put in place to how those commitments were lived day to day. This meant shaping policy, building culture and driving structural change, from strengthening psychological safety so employees felt able to speak up and thrive, to reinforcing the company’s commitment to accessible environments and continuous improvement.
“When people think about DEI and say, ‘So what do you have to do now?’ The answer is, it depends,” Lee says. “It depends on where you are, it depends on the impact you want to make. It depends on the dynamics that you are looking at.” The opportunity, she says, sits in those gaps: between mature markets and emerging ones, between global frameworks and local realities.
At Shell, she was an Asian woman leading from outside the traditional centres of power. It reinforced her belief that effective leadership requires challenging assumptions and making room for different perspectives. “Too often, organisations rely on the views of people who are the centre,” she says. “But people who live with the consequences of decisions often see things that leaders and experts miss. That’s why listening to different experiences is so important to the work.”
Above Lee received the Disability Smart Impact Lifetime Achievement Award from the Business Disability Forum this April (Image: Lyn R Lee)
Lee received the Disability Smart Impact Lifetime Achievement Award from the Business Disability Forum this April (Image: Lyn R Lee)
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Disability inclusion sharpened that principle. For Lee, the older charitable lens—pity, limited expectations, token hiring—still shadows the way many societies see disability. “Should [persons with disabilities] be viewed through the lens of pity or through the lens of possibilities and capabilities?” she asks. The shift she argues for is precise: away from diagnosis, towards barriers. A person’s disability, she says, does not equate to incompetence. The incompetence often lies in the design of buildings, digital systems, processes and habits built around a person assumed to have no access needs.
This is where the conversation becomes urgent for Singapore. For Lee, the challenge now is moving beyond policy towards genuine inclusion in everyday culture, behaviour and decision‑making. “There’s still a gap between policy and culture, between what we say and how we act,” she says. In an ageing society, accessibility must be considered across boardrooms, workplaces, schools and public spaces—not only as social responsibility, but as better business.
“Inclusion is not about creating separate solutions for different groups; it is about designing organisations and services that recognise the diversity of human experience,” she says. For instance, if a banking form cannot be read by a screen reader, or a digital platform fails to account for different cognitive needs, the issue is not only accessibility. It is a failure to understand and serve customers effectively.
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Since leaving Shell in 2024, Lee has carried that thinking into social sustainability. The phrase can sound institutional, but she makes it tangible: education, mental health, intergenerational work and curricula that ask students to consider impact rather than simply perform service. As chairwoman of the advisory board at Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies, council member at Ngee Ann Polytechnic and board member of the Singapore Association for Mental Health, she is concerned with systems that enable people before crisis makes need visible.
Her first book, Tiny Rice Grains, is “a nod to my Asian background” and to rice as a staple. “For me, the small actions of kindness and inclusion are like grains of rice—they may seem small, but they are the building blocks that create something much bigger.”
For leaders accustomed to measuring return, Lee argues that inclusion is not an intangible ideal—it creates tangible outcomes. When people feel seen and heard, they are more engaged and better able to contribute. The same applies externally: organisations that understand their customers’ diverse needs are better positioned to build trust, loyalty and stronger experiences. “If your voice is heard and you’re seen, you’ll perform better,” she says. “You’ll be more engaged.”
As Senior Editor of Tatler Singapore, Hashirin champions and refines the storytelling across platforms—curating and crafting compelling profiles, cover stories and features that spotlight visionaries shaping culture, business and impact. Driven by curiosity, she draws inspiration from the artists, changemakers and trailblazers she encounters through her work. Beyond the pages of Tatler, she is an avid supporter of local theatre and delights in seeking out art in every city she visits.
