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SUPERdiverse WOMEN Voices
Join us for the inaugural SDW Voices – a line-up of top diverse leaders who will share their diverse journeys and key takeouts, chaired by Mai Chen, Founder and Inaugural Chair of SUPERdiverse WOMEN.
Venue: Wintergarden Room, The Northern Club
Time: 4:30 pm networking for 5 pm start till 7:30 pm
Registration fee: $50 per person
Sponsored and brought to you by SUPERdiverse WOMEN and nib NZ Limited, supported by the U.S. Embassy
Spaces are limited. Register now.
Speakers include:
Keynote speaker:
Supported by U.S. Embassy, and speaking for the first time in New Zealand
Lili Gil Valletta, Award Winning Entrepreneur, Co-Founder and CEO of CIEN+
#hervoice: Unlock the power of cultural intelligence: as a competitive advantage in life and business – in a global, diverse and highly connected Technologically transformed society and marketplace today, EQ and IQ are not enough!
Lili is an award-winning entrepreneur, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a regular contributor to various television news networks like Fox News, Fox Business, and CNN en Español – and has been featured in Forbes, The Huffington Post, CNN Money and many others. She is the co-founder and CEO of CIEN+ a firm that helps business leaders and Fortune 500 companies unlock the power of today’s diverse marketplace with research, creativity and purpose. She is also the creator of Dreamers Ventures, a product innovation accelerator bringing together a best-in-class alliance of business experts to search, mentor and launch products created by Latinos on TV in partnership with HSN.
Her methods of Cultural Intelligence and ability to use big data and AI tools to mine cultural insights, have been presented at numerous conferences and universities like Princeton and Cornell, and been published by Harvard University.
Prior to launching her company, she had a 10-year career at Johnson & Johnson where she was one of the youngest executives, pioneered diversity and multicultural marketing initiatives and co-founded the Hispanic Employee Resource Group HOLA. Lili serves as a board member of the Harvard Women’s Leadership Board, National Board of Directors of the YMCA USA, mentor to the Stanford Latino Entrepreneur Leaders Program and member of the New York State Council on Women and Girls.
Barbara Ala’alatoa, Chair, Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand
Barbara Ala’alatoa is a New Zealand Samoan born and raised in Auckland. She has over 30 years’ experience in teaching, and working across the education sector. Her experience includes lecturing at Auckland College of Education and co-ordinating schooling improvement at the Ministry of Education. Barbara is Principal at Sylvia Park Primary School – a job she describes as the best job ever by miles! Amongst other achievements in this role she and her team have designed a unique home school partnership based on the sharing of data in a comprehensive and methodical way with whanau – Mutukaroa. This work has resulted in significant shifts in student achievement and is currently being rolled out in clusters of schools across Aotearoa. In 2015 she was appointed as inaugural Chair of the Education Council of Aotearoa NZ.
Bic Runga
Since the release of her first single Drive in 1996 – a top ten hit when she was just twenty – Bic has been awarded almost every musical honour in New Zealand, including the prestigious APRA Silver Scroll songwriting award. Bic has won the most Tuis (New Zealand Music Awards) by any individual, ever (twenty). She has won Best Female Vocalist four times and Best Producer three times. Bic’s debut album Drive was certified seven times platinum and featured the enormous hit Sway. The follow up in Beautiful Collision in 2002 was certified an incredible eleven times platinum and featured the hits Get Some Sleep, Something Good and Listening For The Weather.
Beautiful Collision was followed by an album recorded live with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. This album included beautiful orchestral versions of all her hits and a recording of the classic Jacque Brel song Ne Me Quitte Pas, which was an early indicator of Bic’s next move to relocate to Paris. Paris life resulted in the more cinematic Birds album in 2005 which also won Album Of The Year and featured the hit Winning Arrow.
Her songs have featured in film soundtracks (American Pie), her records have been released around the world, and she has won loyal followings in Europe, Asia and North America.
In January 2006, The Queen made Runga a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Zealand New Year’s Honours List.
In 2016 she was the recipient of the Legacy award at the New Zealand music awards and inducted in to New Zealand Music hall of fame.
Carolyn Luey, GM Enterprise Solutions and New Zealand, MYOB
Carolyn Luey is the General Manager, Enterprise Solutions & New Zealand at MYOB and is responsible for MYOB in New Zealand and its Enterprise Solutions business across Australia and New Zealand which is focused on delivering technology solutions for large businesses. MYOB is a technology business that is focused on helping businesses succeed across Australia and New Zealand through delivering intelligent, intuitive tools that make business life easier.
Prior to joining MYOB, she held executive roles at NZME one of NZ’s leading media organisations as Chief Operating Officer responsible for operations across the digital, radio and print and Group Strategy and Operations Director where she brought together the technology group through the transformation to NZME and was responsible for strategy, product and development of new businesses. One of the key strategies she lead for NZME was the development of the ‘Diverse Audience’ strategy to enable NZME and its’ clients to connect with all New Zealanders and the growing Asian community.
At The Radio Network, as Group General Manager Product, Digital and Technology she grew the digital business and launched iHeartRadio in New Zealand. Carolyn has also worked at Telecom New Zealand in marketing, strategy and product roles. Carolyn has over 15 years of experience in digital media, strategy, product management, marketing and business development across a range of industries including fast moving consumer goods, telecommunication and security services.
Priti Ambani, Co-Founder & COO, The Next Billion
Priti Ambani is co-founder and COO at The Next Billion, an impact-driven enterprise founded on the belief that by gathering our collective resources to invest in women, we can positively impact/change the world for the better. (Significantly improve GDP, job creation, access to education, housing and healthcare for all as well as lower infant mortality and even poverty globally.)
The Next Billion builds collaborative platforms that leverage the power of the “Crowd” through Crowdfunding, Crowdsourcing and Crowdspeaking as a means to enable the growing number of women-led enterprises worldwide with ‘Access to growth opportunities’ in the form of: Access to Finance, Access to (Business/Development) skills, Access to Markets and Access to Networks. The company is set to launch Globally Spotted – a discovery platform for smart and innovative women led business from the world over.
Priti is a thought leader on the crowd and digital economy and the Principal Strategy Consultant, at CSW2, a global think-tank of experts that helps organisations create value with crowds.
She is a Professional Engineer, born and raised in Mumbai, India. She moved to Auckland with her husband and sons in 2015 after 13+ years in the United Stated. She is a lover of the outdoors, traveling and from-scratch cooking! Follow her on Twitter @envirotarian
Riahn Hoani, Team Leader Claims, nib nz limited
Riahn Hoani (Te Rarawa & Nga Puhi) is a Team Leader in the Claims Department at nib nz limited. She has been with the company for 7 years and has dedicated her time to the Claims Division. Outside of work, she is the Secretary for the Northcote & Birkenhead Tigers Rugby League Club and you can also find her on the side-line on game days managing their Premier 1st side. Grew up on the North Shore of Auckland, she also has ties to the Hokianga, on her father’s side, and Queensland, Australia, on her mother’s side. A big motivation for her is her family. Her brother has two beautiful daughters and sister has three amazing boys, not to mention the extended Whanau, there are a lot of reasons to keep striving for more.