Keynote Women Speakers

Country & Region: Asia

Engineer by nurture, feminist by nature; Her first award-winning keynote, aged 20, was titled “Am I Being Too Ambitious?”, referring to comments she received for studying engineering. Her decades of keynote and panel moderation experience range from Cloud Asia and TechXLR8 to teaching Cloud and AI at the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisation’s ITHub.  She was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Australia, and now resides in Singapore. Shehara’s relentless passion for innovation enabled the design of game-changing digital experiences. She has taken leadership roles at SingTel, Telstra, and Cisco, in Cloud Computing, Security, and Software. She was the Head of International Cloud Portfolio at Telstra, helping the company create award-winning differentiation in Asia Pacific’s highly competitive cloud market, resulting in 6 industry awards.  Shehara recently served as Vice-Chair of the Asia Cloud Computing Association and is now a Lead Advisor for Cisco APJC.   
Dr. Damini Chawla is a dynamic speaker, dentist and author who brings a unique, global perspective to her work. Raised in India, China, and Australia, she advocates for inclusivity and the celebration of diversity. Through her clinical practice helping patients overcome dental anxiety, Dr. Damini found understanding personal and cultural contexts pivotal in providing effective care.  Dr. Damini now works with successful millennials, emphasizing the importance of ‘meeting people where they are’. Combining her clinical expertise, cross-cultural communication skills, and coaching techniques she has an engaging and humorous speaking style and ability to build trust. She excels in creating spaces where everyone feels valued and understood. Her mission is to spark introspection and enable transformation, optimising effective communication for increased fulfilment.  As an award-winning speaker, Dr. Damini delivers impactful and entertaining keynotes and workshops, crafted to inspire action and provide practical insights for both businesses and individuals.
Impactful, authentic, and inspiring, are a few words to describe Cindy Tien, a professional speaker who has worked with global clients including American Express, Citibank, and S&P. Growing up in a household of 20 people, Cindy battled with addictions, traumatic health problems, and self-destructive behaviours, but learned through her difficult circumstances that we all have the power to transform our reality. Her personal stories inspire authenticity & awakening with life-changing strategies for individuals to achieve higher levels of consciousness, connect deeply with their inner self, and develop the courage to pursue their desires purposefully. As an advocate for personal development, she is certified in Public Speaking, Neuro-linguistic programming, Confidence coaching, Emotional quotient, Social Intelligence, and Visual branding. Her upcoming book – “True Presence – Empowering you to Influence with a Purpose”, stems from her study of human behaviour over 2 decades. Cindy is sought after as a thought-provoking, entertaining, and edgy influencer who delivers results.
Aarathi Arumugam
With her humor, authenticity, and matter-of-factness, Aarathi manages to take a topic that is typically a taboo and uses it to empower other women and couples to be brave on their journey towards building a family. Based on her personal experience of building a family, Aarathi speaks about resilience and finding alternative ways to go after what you want to achieve in life. Aarathi is an entrepreneur and mother, passionate about being in business and connecting communities through causes close to her heart. With a career trajectory that has taken different paths from corporate, volunteer organizations to start-ups, Aarathi sees the knowledge, experiences, and skills gained from these roles as her personal MBA, and harnesses this power to help nurture families and individuals on their journeys, so that they may thrive and celebrate their own growth.
Ivana Fertitta is an Italian Psychologist, Facilitator, Emcee, and Keynote Speaker. With over 20 years of experience in Community Psychology, Business Management, and training, she brings a unique set of skills to each of her talks. She has helped many corporate clients increase engagement, manage stress, develop resilience, and face change positively. Leveraging her expertise in Positive Psychology, Ivana helps people feel happier and more balanced and fulfilled. She has a warm and energetic personality and connects with her audience in an authentic, engaging, and fun way. In her spare time, she is leading the highly sought-after Public Speaking Training Programme with Keynote Women Speakers and she is committed to the mission of bringing more diversity to the speaking stages of the world. Ivana also supports Aidha Singapore through mentoring foreign domestic workers in communication and leadership skills.
Uma Rudd Chia is an award-winning Executive Creative Director and co-founder of a boutique ad agency, KVUR. She has two decades of experience as a global creative director at various multinational advertising agencies. She holds an M.A. in Digital Media Management and Technology from Hyper Island. She authored ‘Hey Pastor! Your Church is Going Out of Business and ‘Who Killed Death?’ At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she authored her third book, ’10 Things Brands Could Do to Survive a Crisis’, which became a Kindle bestseller overnight and a playbook for brands to navigate the COVID-19 climate. Uma has spoken at global conferences to over 200,000 people across 14 countries in the past 5 years on topics of innovation and technology, women’s leadership, and creativity. She is the wife of one husband and mother to two human babies and one fur baby. She loves physics and wakes up dreaming of walking on Mars.