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Julia Charlton
Managing Partner at CharltonsJulia, LL.B (1st class Honours), A.K.C (Kings College, London) was admitted as a solicitor in England & Wales in 1985 and has practiced as a solicitor in Hong Kong since 1987. She was named a “Leading Lawyer” by Asia Law & Practice for the years 2002-2018.
She was a long-standing member of the Listing Committee of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong from 2012 to 2018. Among other office positions she holds, Julia is currently a member of the Takeovers Panel and the Takeovers Appeals Panel of the Hong Kong SFC. Julia’s firm has had an office in Yangon since 2013 and Julia has advised on restructurings, fund raising and M&A in Myanmar across a range of industries, including in the microfinance and fintech areas. In Hong Kong, Julia has advised extensively in recent areas on transactions in the blockchain, crypto and fintech and financial services sectors. Julia is a Mandarin speaker and has extensive experience in China and Myanmar work in the field of corporate finance, including mergers and acquisitions, securities, derivatives and funds, private equity investment advising European, the US and Hong Kong based funds on investments in a range of sectors.
Rita Nguyen
Group CTO at Yoma strategicRita is a serial entrepreneur based in Yangon. She has been building and launching consumer technology solutions internationally for 20 years. These products range from gaming to ePayments and voice over IP services. In addition to her own technology startup, Rita acts as the Group Chief Technology Officer for Yoma Group, is a Venture Partner at Seed Myanmar, a local VC firm focussing on early stage technology startups and sits on several of the Boards for Seed’s portfolio companies. Prior to moving to Asia, Rita led the creation and development of the online marketing, community & social media teams for Electronic Arts, one of the largest gaming companies in the world. In 2014, she was named on Forbes magazine’s “Asia’s Power Women to Watch” list.
Catherine Smith
Director of Pragma Ventures LtdCatherine Smith has been an active board member of the Chamber for more than 4 years and is Chair of the Professional Women’s Network (under the Chamber). 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 (www.pochisilk.com). 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.
She has 25+ years working in Hong Kong, Indochina, Sri Lanka, Scandinavia and Russia working for, among others, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros; and has experience across a range of business sectors. She holds a degree in French & Italian from studies at the universities of Leicester, Bordeaux and Pisa, and a business diploma from London Business School.
May Myat Mon Win
General Manager at Chatrium Hotel Royal Lake YangonMs. May Myat Mon Win is General Manager of the 5-star Chatrium Hotel Royal Lake in Yangon.
May is an all-round tourism & hospitality professional; she has served on the Tourism Executive Committee of Myanmar since 2018 and is Chairperson of the Myanmar Tourism Marketing Association and Vice Chair of Myanmar Tourism Federation. She served on the Board of Governors of Amcham in 2018, is currently visiting lecturer at the National Management Degree College for Hospitality Management Studies and is a founder of the Professional Marketers Association in Yangon.
May holds a BA (Hons) in English Language & Literature from Yangon University, multiple professional certifications in hospitality marketing and an MBA from Yangon’s University of Economics.
May has a passion for travel (and was recognised as tourism’s Industry Figure of the Year in 2019 by Myanmore) her leisure time is filled with music, arts, literature, operas and movies.