Celebrating International Women's Day 2023 #Embrace Equity

Catherine Smith is Chair of the Professional Women’s Network (under the Chamber) and has been an active board member of the Chamber for more than 4 years. She has lived in Myanmar for more than 7 years, where she has established several successful startups, in business services and tourism, acted as advisor on market entry to overseas companies, and consulted to foreign and local businesses on tourism, marketing, property and consumer services.

Catherine is currently running her own business – Pragma Ventures – which is focused on reviving sericulture in Myanmar. Pragma works with, and trains farmers in Chin State to support mulberry planting for silk production, and then develops hand-woven product for local sale and export.

Catherine is passionate about female empowerment in her business - Pragma runs regular training programs with farmers and weavers to encourage farming communities to amplify the voice of women in daily life, and elevate them to leadership roles.

Tiffany Dawson is the founder of Tiffany Dawson Coaching.

Tiffany helps burnt out women in STEM become poised, intentional leaders. She coaches women to develop their unique leadership styles and become top level leaders in their fields.

Having worked at global engineering consultancies across Australia and the UK, she experienced the many challenges women face in male-dominated industries. After overcoming her own battles with impostor syndrome and poor work-life balance, she now teaches other women to do the same.

Tiffany has worked with women from companies including Youtube, Salesforce and Expedia and helps individuals around the world through her multi-award winning podcast, How to be a STEMinist.

Alex Nyi Nyi Aung heads the Communications and Corporate Affairs unit for Unilever’s operations in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. Having worked in various multinational organizations including the United Nations Development Programme and Asian Development Bank for several years, he has extensive experience in the field of strategic communications, public relations, inter-agency/governmental coordination, journalism, policy advocacy, regulatory affairs, industry relations, humanitarian and development, social media, business management, program/project management, crisis management, corporate social responsibility and business sustainability. Alex Nyi Nyi Aung is one of the BoD members of SUN Business Network in Myanmar and two international chambers of commerce in Myanmar. He is also an executive member for two not-for-profit social enterprises namely Myanmar Business Executive Association (MBE), and Myanmar Public Administration Network (MPAN).

Zarchi Sawnai is an Executive Producer and Entrepreneur. She started her career in advertising in 2012 at Ogilvy & Mather Myanmar as an Account Executive and was eventually promoted to Associate Account Director.

In 2016, after spotting the gap for quality creative video production, Zarchi took a step towards her dream of being an entrepreneur and founded Z Productions, the first woman-led commercial production house in Myanmar. Z Productions is now one of the leading production companies in Myanmar, working with more than 70 brands such as Heineken, ABC Extra Stout, Tiger, Bawdar, Grand Royal, and Unilever and producing over 100 commercials in a wide array of products and services.

In addition to delivering high-quality content for brands, Zarchi is also passionate about creating short films that raise awareness on environmental and social issues such as; The first film, “Bo Bo & Mo Mo,” advocating for the end of illegal wildlife trade, has won two awards at the Luang Prabang Film Festival, organized by WWF and the British embassy. Her second short film, titled “Behind the Silence,” “aimed at raising awareness on domestic violence, now reached over 4 million people and is used by the United Nations as a part of their Activism Against Gender-Based Violence in Myanmar.

Zarchi is recognized for her strong commitment to finding creative solutions, and she continues raising the bar in Myanmar's production industry.

Myo Kyaw Thu graduated from City University of Hong Kong in 2014 with a major in Business Economics. He worked as a Corporate Affairs Executive at an international law firm for two years. He later joined a local bank in Myanmar as a senior associate for Corporate Banking Division and then promoted as an Associate Manager for Trade Finance Division. He was a banking consultant for one of the International Financial Institutions from 2019 to 2021.

He is also one of the founders of the first Sign Language Book Café in Myanmar and a co-founder of a small retail store in Thanlyin.

He is currently working as a Head of Business for one of the Non-bank Financial Institutions in Myanmar. During his free time, he works as a part-time mentor and trainer for SME owners, a lecturer to bankers and a consultant.

Myo is an active member of Myanmar Young Entrepreneurs Association, and one of the Obama Foundation Leaders: Asia-Pacific program.

Gracy is the Managing Director of Calibre Corporate Services (CCS) and also directly heads up CCS’s accounting and tax compliance services.

Gracy has over 10 years of experience in accounting roles in foreign companies in Yangon. She previously served as the Chief Accountant of the pioneering Myanmar subsidiary of US law firm Herzfeld Ruben Meyer & Rose before joining Mission Legal (fka. “Livingstons Legal”) as Finance Manager, where she managed all of the Mission Legal internal tax and accounting activities along with establishing the firm’s outsourced client tax and accounting practice.

Gracy became the Managing Director of CCS on its ‘spin out’ from Mission Legal. She actively applies her professional skills and experience in giving back to her community, having acted as an accounting lecturer at Myanmar Institute of Theology’s Liberal Arts Program.