From femtech to inclusive finance to coffee with impact, these are the winners of the Front & Female Awards Singapore 2025

What achievements are you most proud of in the last 18 months?
I am most proud of taking the leap of faith to leave my full-time job in journalism to run Lepak Conversations full-time. Since then, I’ve registered Lepak Conversations as a non-profit, and I’m incredibly excited to take it to greater heights, starting with our fifth anniversary fundraiser and a zine launch titled, ‘The Inquisitive Future of Malayness’.

I am also proud of the break that I took in 2024 after leaving my last full-time job to explore my interests. That precious time has led me to a deep love for batik, which today continues to ground me in tradition and the wisdom of those who came before me.

I’m also proud that I get to represent Singapore when I attend ASEAN youth leadership programmes. I’ve attended two so far—National Youth Council (NYC)’s Singapore-Malaysia Youth Leadership Exchange Programme (SMYLEP) and the Temasek Foundation-NUS LKYSPP Southeast Asia Next Gen Leaders Programme (SNLP). I appreciate getting to share Singapore’s amazing infrastructure, achievements, culture and policies, as well as encouraging cross-border exchange and collaboration by learning from my ASEAN counterparts.

What advice would you give your younger self—or the next generation of women coming up behind you?
Don’t be afraid to be the change you want to see. The world is changing rapidly and it needs brave innovators to take up the challenge to solve problems and try new ideas. Resources are aplenty, so be proactive and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need more people to create the change you want to see.

Pamela Chng is founder and CEO, Bettr Group

Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that has shaped your journey to where you are today or has been significant in how you are making change today? 
A critical point for me was in the first year of Bettr, when I was struggling with the emotional labour of balancing the business and impact work, working closely with our women in their emotional training journey. 

I witnessed one of our trainees—a 50-year-old newly single mother who had been unemployed for 10 years, suffering from undiagnosed postpartum depression and severe OCD—find her voice again. She had entered our programme withdrawn, scared and unsure of her worth, but months later, I saw her able to look people in the eye again, leading a coffee workshop with confidence and pride. It was a moment of profound clarity: what we were building wasn’t just training baristas, it was rebuilding lives. That single transformation made it clear to me that real impact is deeply human. We were creating spaces where people who have been overlooked can be seen, heard and celebrated. That experience has stayed with me as a compass, shaping the way I lead and the kind of change I want to make in the world.

What’s one barrier you’ve broken—personally or professionally—to get to where you are today? 
One of the most significant barriers I had to break was the belief that leadership had to look a certain way. Early in my career, I thought authority and leadership meant being hard-edged and always in control. It was exhausting, and it didn’t bring out the best in anyone. Over time, I realised my strength lay in creating open-minded cultures of care—spaces where people feel safe, seen and valued. That shift was transformative. Care isn’t weakness; it’s strategy. It builds trust, resilience and long-term results.

The same applied professionally. I wanted to challenge the assumption that an impact-first business couldn’t thrive in a commercial world. Running a coffee company that pays farmers fairly, reinvests in people and trains those society often overlooks doesn’t fit the typical venture playbook. For years, it felt like we were pushing uphill. But persistence—and finding the right team and partners who believed in our vision—helped us stay the course. Today, Bettr stands as proof that profit and purpose can reinforce each other, not compete.

The deeper barrier, though, has been dismantling the idea that business must be extractive: that growth comes at someone else’s expense. My journey has been about showing that commerce can be regenerative—restoring land, uplifting communities and still being financially sustainable. Once you see that possibility, you can’t unsee it. It becomes the lens through which every decision is made.

How does your work create impact for women and girls—directly or indirectly? 
At Bettr, our work creates impact for women and girls by opening doors to livelihoods, confidence and dignity. Over 60 per cent of our social programme graduates are women, many from marginalised backgrounds. They enter our programmes uncertain and often unseen—single mothers, survivors of trauma or those told they’re “not employable”. They leave as skilled baristas, trainers and confident professionals who can support themselves and their families, often with their first income and a renewed sense of confidence. 

The ripple effect is powerful. Graduates return as trainers, teaching the next generation of women, multiplying impact far beyond themselves. Through our sourcing model, we also invest in women along the coffee value chain, farming communities where women are primary caregivers but often financially invisible.

Beyond coffee, it’s about giving women the tools and belief to rewrite their stories. When a woman finds her voice, she doesn’t just change her own path—she changes her children’s, her community’s and sometimes even an entire industry. The result is measurable and deeply human: women breaking cycles of poverty, becoming role models for their daughters and proving that when one woman rises, entire communities rise with her.

What are you working on now or next that excites you?
What excites me now is creating the playbook for Bettr’s regionalisation. Over the last 14 years, we’ve built a model that blends specialty coffee, education and social impact in Singapore—and now the question is: how do we take that DNA and adapt it across Southeast Asia? The playbook is about codifying not just our business practices, but our impact frameworks, training methodologies and culture of care, so they can be scaled without losing their essence.

This means designing systems that can be localised while holding to universal principles of equity, inclusion and sustainability. It’s both strategic and deeply personal: we’re seeding future entrepreneurs, trainers, F&B professionals and community spaces that can carry the Bettr spirit in contexts very different from our own.

For me, this is more than expansion. It’s about proving that regenerative, impact-first enterprises can thrive across borders.

Lindsay Davis is founder of FemTech Association Asia 

Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that has shaped your journey to where you are today or has been significant in how you are making change today?
After relocating to Asia, I spent my first year spent (re)connecting with amazing people across the region. I recognised that there was not a regional platform uniting innovators, investors, clinicians and advocates specifically to advance the growth, reach and impact of the femtech industry. Therefore, I founded Femtech Association Asia, the first and largest specialist advisory and industry network in the region with a vision for available, accessible and affordable healthcare for all women in Asia.

What’s one barrier you’ve broken—personally or professionally—to get to where you are today?
I have challenged the perception that women’s health is a niche industry. Through advocacy, research and convening ecosystem leaders, I work to reframe femtech in the region as an untapped economic opportunity and a societal imperative, breaking through the lack of awareness and understanding that can limit consumer engagement, innovation and startup funding in this space.

How does your work create impact for women and girls—directly or indirectly?
Our network currently represents more than 80 femtech founders, investors, corporate partners and ecosystem builders across 10 countries in Asia. By amplifying the femtech industry, leaders and solutions in categories ranging from menstrual care to reproductive health to menopause and more, we are directly improving awareness and access to affordable, stigma-free healthcare products and services for women across Asia. Indirectly, our advocacy shifts policy, investment and public conversation toward recognising women’s health as critical to economic growth and overall societal health.

What achievements are you most proud of in the last 18 months?
Given women’s health has historically been under-researched, I am most proud of co-authoring two groundbreaking research papers in partnership with the United Nations ESCAP, “Femtech in Southeast Asia: Unlocking Innovation for Women’s Health”, and with Milieu Insights, “Insights into the Femtech Landscape in Southeast Asia”, the findings of which we presented at FemTech Connect Asia, which FemTech Association Asia hosted as the region’s first homegrown conference for Femtech & Women’s Health in the region.

Janine Teo is co-founder and CEO, Solve Education!

How does your work create impact for women and girls—directly or indirectly? 
At Solve Education!, we work to give girls and women not just skills, but the confidence and connections to shape their own futures. The most rewarding part is seeing how one empowered woman can transform an entire community.

There’s Tania from Kewar Village (Indonesia), who went from A2 (Beginner) to B2 (Upper-Intermediate) English in record time through our platform, edbot.ai. She introduced it to local schools without English teachers and now runs group sessions for children in her community.

There’s also Nurhidayah Tasmin from Makassar (Indonesia), a teacher and community ambassador who brought Edbot into her classroom, making learning more engaging for students with limited resources. Parents called it a “game-changer” because it allowed their children to learn at their own pace, no matter the obstacles.

And then there’s Lucyawati Setyaningsih—Lucy—who began as a learner in our Solve My English community and grew into a leader managing 23 community organisers. She’s led creative projects, fostered collaboration and shown that when learners are trusted to lead, they inspire others to grow too.

These women prove something powerful: when women learn, they lift others with them. Their success doesn’t stop at personal achievement—it ripples outwards, raising opportunities, confidence and hope for everyone around them.

What achievements are you most proud of in the last 18 months? 
In the past 18 months, Solve Education! has delivered more than 30 million lessons to almost 2 million learners around the world. Each lesson represents a learner building skills, confidence and opportunities for their future.

We were also honoured to be selected from over 800 global applicants as part of 100x Impact’s 2025/26 Cohort of Future Social Unicorns at the London School of Economics. This recognition puts us alongside other bold, high-impact organisations tackling urgent global challenges, and gives us a platform to learn, collaborate and grow our impact further.

For us, the achievement isn’t just in the numbers or the awards—it’s in knowing that our GAIN framework (Gamification, Adaptive AI coaching, Incentives, and peer Networks) is working at scale to keep learners engaged, supported and empowered.

What advice would you give your younger self—or the next generation of women coming up behind you? 
Don’t wait until you feel “ready”. Start with what you know now, and trust that you’ll grow into what you need to be. Confidence isn’t a starting point—it’s something you build along the way.

Lynette Tan is founder and CEO, Space Faculty

Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that has shaped your journey to where you are today or has been significant in how you are making change today?
My own journey. For a long time, I didn’t see a clear path for myself in a field I was deeply passionate about. As a child, I was captivated by the universe, but I was living in a region where the space industry was not a known career option. It was a dream, something that happened far away. This feeling of being on the outside looking in became the defining motivation of my career. It was the realisation that there are countless other young people with boundless passion—for technology, entrepreneurship or a myriad of other fields—who lack the pathways to turn that interest into a profession. 

This led to a career pivot where I decided to build that bridge myself. I knew that space industries were no longer just for a select few and that we needed to open them up to a much broader and more diverse talent pool. Space Faculty was founded on that belief: to demystify the space industry and if we can show youths how we can get them to the stars it would be an inspiration to all youths to find and follow their passions.

What’s one barrier you’ve broken—personally or professionally—to get to where you are today?
A significant barrier I’ve broken is the traditional mindset that certain industries are siloed and inaccessible. For decades, the space sector, for instance, was often perceived as being only for engineers and rocket scientists. I’ve worked to demonstrate that it is, in fact, a multidisciplinary domain that needs leaders, lawyers, investors and entrepreneurs as much as it needs scientists. By creating accessible educational and professional programmes, we’ve broken down that barrier, opening up these fields to a much broader and more diverse audience.

What or who do you look to for inspiration—and why?
I’m inspired by the new generation of innovators and thinkers. I have the privilege of working with young people who are unburdened by traditional thinking and are brimming with ideas that will change our world. Their audacity, curiosity, and fearless optimism are a constant source of energy for me. They remind me that the future is not something we passively inherit; it’s something we actively build, and that the possibilities are truly limitless.

What are you working on now or next that excites you?
I am preparing for a milestone year in 2027, which will mark the 20th anniversary of the International Space Challenge (ISC). This initiative connects young minds from across the globe with real-world problems in the space industry, challenging them to innovate and build solutions. This is more than a celebration, it is an opportunity to reconnect with the generations of alumni who have been part of the programme since ISC was launched in Singapore in 2007 and to showcase their achievements to the world. We are building a dedicated ISC alumni network to foster ongoing collaboration, mentorship and cross-border innovation. I am excited to see how these connections will spark new ideas, partnerships and opportunities, and ultimately strengthen the global talent pipeline for the space and technology sectors. It feels like we are coming full circle bringing the community back together to inspire the next generation of pioneers.

Durreen Shahnaz is founder and CEO of Impact Investment Exchange

Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that has shaped your journey to where you are today or has been significant in how you are making change today?
The pivotal moment came 33 years ago, when I left my job as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in New York and returned to my birthplace, Bangladesh. I walked away from Wall Street’s glass towers and stepped into the humble offices of Grameen Bank—a pioneer of microfinance (recipient of the Nobel Prize in 2006), where I saw firsthand how access to credit could transform the lives of millions of women who had been locked out of the system. That experience taught me the power of connecting “Wall Street to the back streets”—using global capital to reach the women who form the backbone of their communities.

Fast forward, from that seed, I founded Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) to create a truly inclusive financial system, one that values women’s contributions to both community resilience and climate action, and in turn reduces the financial risk. We have proven, through our own Women’s Livelihood Bonds, that when women participate meaningfully in the economy, the financial risk of an instrument actually goes down. In recent years, as markets tumbled and volatility surged, our bonds remained steadfast, delivering the promised returns to investors while continuing to empower underserved communities. That early lesson from Bangladesh still guides every step I take: inclusive finance isn’t charity—it’s innovative, resilient and the future of markets.

How does your work create impact for women and girls—directly or indirectly?
At IIX, we don’t see women as victims, we see them as ‘victors’. We put them at the centre of financial markets. Our Women’s Livelihood Bonds channel capital directly to enterprises that empower women, whether that’s giving smallholder farmers climate-resilient tools, enabling micro-entrepreneurs to expand their businesses, or improving access to clean water, energy and healthcare. The success of our Women’s Livelihood Bond has allowed us to create a whole new asset class in the financial markets called the Orange Bond (Orange being the colour of SDG 5 of gender equality) where women, children and minority groups are formally now a part of the financial markets and they are the champions of climate action. 

Every Orange Bond is designed with a gender lens: measuring how many women are reached, how their incomes grow, how their decision-making power expands, and how their communities become more resilient. The result is a ripple effect—when a woman thrives, her family, community and even the planet benefits.

What’s one action you believe we can all take to advance equity and inclusion?
Go Orange. The Orange Movement™ is about reimagining finance so that gender equality and climate action are not “nice-to-have,” but non-negotiable. You can sign the Orange Pledge, assess your organisation’s impact, and earn the Orange Seal—a global marker of equity and inclusion.

It’s a commitment to put women and girls at the heart of decision-making, to invest in climate resilience, and to measure the results. Because equity and inclusion aren’t just moral imperatives, they are the smartest investments we can make for our shared future.

What are you working on now or next that excites you?
Three years ago, my first book, The Defiant Optimist: Daring to Fight Global Inequality, Reinvent Finance, and Invest in Women was published, and it’s been deeply rewarding to see it resonate with readers around the world. The book not only told my own journey of challenging the status quo in finance, but also inspired investors, policymakers and young changemakers to believe in the possibility of a more inclusive financial system. 

On the heels of that success, I’m now starting my second book, The Defiant Optimist: Painting the World Orange. This next chapter, both literally and figuratively, will tell the story of the Orange Movement™ and how it is transforming global financial systems by embedding gender equality and climate action into the DNA of capital markets. 

Alongside that, I’m spearheading an Orange Nature-Based Solutions programme to connect climate-positive projects with global capital, creating Orange Guarantees for the Australian (and hopefully other developed countries) markets and structuring Orange Bonds for state-owned enterprises in Bangladesh and Indonesia to integrate general equality and climate action principles into national growth strategies. It’s about scaling the change we’ve started—and inviting the world to join us.

Helen Wong is Group CEO, OCBC

Helen Wong made history in 2021 when she became the first woman to lead one of Singapore’s “big three” banks, taking on the role of Group CEO at OCBC. It was a full-circle moment for Wong, who began her career more than four decades earlier as a management trainee at the same bank, before spending 27 years at HSBC, where she rose to become CEO for Greater China. Her return to OCBC marked not only a personal milestone but also a watershed moment for women in finance, breaking long-standing barriers in an industry traditionally led by men.

Under Wong’s leadership, OCBC delivered record profits for three consecutive years through 2024, including S$7.59 billion last year, with the bank’s share price rising 40 per cent since she took the helm. Beyond financial performance, she is recognised for her strategic clarity and forward-looking vision—driving digital transformation, spearheading sustainability initiatives including joining the UN-convened Net-Zero Banking Alliance, and embedding an inclusive and collaborative culture within the bank.

A strong advocate for women’s empowerment, Wong launched the OCBC Women Unlimited Programme in 2024 to support female entrepreneurs across Asia with financing, mentorship and networking opportunities. The initiative has since helped hundreds of women-led businesses scale and thrive, demonstrating her commitment to closing the gender financing gap and shaping a more inclusive economy.

As Wong prepares to retire from her role as Group CEO at the end of 2025—while remaining Chairwoman of OCBC China and a Director of OCBC Hong Kong—Wong leaves behind a legacy of sustainable growth, digital modernisation and inclusive leadership. Admired for her empathy, dedication and pioneering spirit, she exemplifies the qualities of a business leader whose impact extends beyond the boardroom.

NOW READ

Amanda Nguyen: The first Vietnamese woman in space is rewriting the rules on earth

AI leader Ayesha Khanna’s mission is to build a smarter, fairer future through artificial intelligence

Singapore’s most decorated Paralympian Yip Pin Xiu on breaking barriers in sports and society