The WeWorkingWomen 2023 Grand Impact Awards: Celebrating Achievement and Building Community
North America's largest community platform for Overseas Chinese Women 女仕界 held the 6th Annual Grand Impact Awards on October 22 at the Sheraton Parkway Hotel in Toronto. The event convened 300 guests including the award nominees, judges and media representatives.
The 6th Grand Impact Awards were generously supported by Title Sponsor Anderson College of Health, Business & Technology .
Gold Sponsors included EQ Bank | Equitable Bank Award Sponsor for the Newcomer Award, Sophy Cheng Financial Services Ltd Sponsor of Top Executive Award and Scotia Wealth Management Sponsor of the Top CEO Award.
The Grand Impact Award recognize the achievements of Overseas Chinese women, predominantly based in Canada, and their contributions to business, entrepreneurship and social impact. The nominees are women who have been featured or have interacted with the WeWorkingWomen platform. The Grand Impact Awards rely on a panel of independent judges to ensure a fair and transparent evaluation process:
This year's Grand Impact Award Recipients are:
Shelebration Lifetime Achievement Award Honouree: The Honorable Dr. Vivienne Poy
Vivienne Poy made history as the first person of Asian descent to be appointed to the Canada’s Senate. She is responsible for Canada’s adoption of Asian Heritage Month, now a prominent cultural celebration each May, and she is responsible for making Canada’s national anthem more inclusive by proposing changing the lyrics "in all thy sons command" to "in all of us command”. Vivienne says, “As a Senator I had two main focii, "One was to elevate the position of women; the other was to increase the visibility and inclusion of Asians in Canada."
Vivienne is well recognized for her many talents and achievements, she is a published author, a historian, an established fashion designer, and entrepreneur, Vivienne has passionately lent her energy to serve different communities across the country. She often enters in dialogue with youth, encouraging them to take the opportunity to learn from volunteering, especially while they are young.
Vivienne Poy is living proof that and dedicating your energy selflessly to helping others, can lead to a path of rewarding possibilities for one’s future. Now at 82 years old, Vivienne still dedicates her energy to strengthening and contributing to Asian communities, and, she continues her passion for studying and learning new things!
Vivienne’s diligent dedication and outstanding achievements, have played an integral role in realizing the social status that Asian immigrants to Canada enjoy today. WeWorkingWomen is proud to honour Vivienne Poy with the 2023 Shelebration Lifetime Achievement Award.
Grand Impact Award Honouree: Eva Lau
Eva Lau is one of Canada’s most accomplished Chinese female entrepreneurs, she is also one of the few women to lead a venture capital fund in Canada. Born in Hong Kong, Eva immigrated to Canada as a teenager and earned an engineering degree from the University of Toronto before beginning her career in the tech world. She is well known for her role at Wattpad , where she was instrumental in the Canadian tech startup’s ascent to become one of the largest online storytelling platforms in the world. As a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Two Small Fish , Eva is committed to cultivating transformative technology companies that will change the world. Eva is serves a mentor at the 加拿大多伦多大学 - 罗特曼管理学院 , and at Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), and she has lent her support to several Canadian business incubator programs. As a trailblazing Chinese female entrepreneur and tech executive, Eva has inspired so many women to follow their dreams and pursue excellence in their careers.
Top CEO Award Winner: Sylvia Ng
Sylvia Ng is CEO of ReturnBear . ReturnBear is a tech startup that has launched a nationwide network of shipping points so that customers can conveniently return or exchange items purchased online and get an immediate refund without the hassle of having to box items or print shipping labels. ReturnBear’s innovative system saves brands’ shipping costs while providing refunds to consumers quickly, which is not only efficient but also environmentally friendly. Sylvia has 18 years of professional experience in tech. She has worked at eBay and 谷歌 , and is the former General Manager of Shopify . A breast cancer survivor, Sylvia is also the founder of Amidira , a startup that creates custom care packages for breast cancer patients to give them the strength to cope and fight the disease. Sylvia is an active speaker at tech industry events. She has spoken at major events such as Elevate - Women in Tech , Big Data TORONTO, and SMX. In 2018, Sylvia was named one of the 50 most inspiring women in Canada’s tech industry, and in 2022, she was selected by the Bay Street Bull Women as one of the 30 Outstanding Women of the Year.?
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Top Executive Award Winner: Julia Zhu
Julia Zhu immigrated to Canada in the 1990s and graduated from Rotman Business School. Getting her start in door-to-door sales, she developed the courage to face rejection, and overcame her fear of operating in an English environment. Later, when Julia joined the LCBO as a programmer, her commitment to continuous growth allowed her to develop communications and leadership skills. From Manager to Director, and then to Vice President of IT Strategy and Enterprise Architecture, Julia’s path has included many promotions and recognitions. Julia is also a PCC professional certified coach. In 2022 Julia joined energy corporation Alectra Inc. Utilities as Executive Vice President, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer She has been an invited speaker at WeWorkingWomen livestream and Career Forum events, providing practical advice to young professionals. Julia firmly believes that one should have the courage to express her own ideas and goals, and bravely ask for help. Even if takes extra effort, it’s important to seek opportunities to showcase the best version of oneself!
Social Impact Award Winner: Dianna Jiang
Dianna Jiang immigrated to Canada in 2001. She has been an invited speaker at Canadian citizenship naturalization ceremonies and has been shortlisted twice for the "Top 25 Canadian Immigration Awards". Dianna has been honoured with awards including the Catharine Parr Traill recognizing female immigrants’ contributions to Canadian life, the New Era Television Life Style Award, the Toronto Chinese Media Award, the Ontario Ten-Year Volunteer Award, and the Queen's 70th Anniversary Platinum Commemorative Medal.
Dianna's daughter was diagnosed with autism when she was 2 years old. Doctors said her daughter would be incurable for life. While battling autism, Dianna hoped to share the ups and downs, as well as rewarding experiences, with parents in similar situations. This led her to established the Gifted People Services in 2012. This is the first Mandarin language non-profit organization to provide comprehensive services to families of special needs children, and has served over 1000 special needs families to date. In 2015, the Hope Center was established to provide professional training in language, cognition, and behavioural habits for special needs children. The results are remarkable and have helped many children manage life with autism.
Newcomer Award Winner: Mia Yang
Mia Yang is Founder of ECHO Creative Media . Mia graduated from Shi Hsin University in Taiwan where she majored in journalism and communications. She worked in broadcasting, hosting and news communication for 10 years, working and living in Beijing and Taipei, and finally settling in Toronto. After graduating from Fanshawe College with a major in journalism Mia was actively involved in community work in the City of London. She went from being a Cultural Communications Specialist to participating in the planning the construction of Dundas Place in the city center. Mia participated in the 2020 Miss Chinese Toronto Pageant, and has emceed many large-scale events in the Chinese community. For Asian Heritage Month in May 2023, she took part in the Vancouver and Toronto the #echoupforsickkids online and offline charity action, and documented the process into written content and stories to share on social media, gaining more than 100,000+ online followers. In the process, Mia realized, "Everything that is happening in this place is related to "me". We, the newcomers, were never just bystanders, we are creating our new hometown together!"
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As an international student, Coco worked tirelessly to become the Toronto branch manager at RBC . Since 2020, Coco has participated in many activities in the women's industry as a volunteer. In work and life, she has passed on the concepts held by the We Working Women community to her peers, and tried to help WeWorkingWomen link to various resources. Coco feels that every volunteer activity is a rewarding process. She participates in sharing the stories behind successful women and experiences a different positive life up close. In particular, the words of Cindy Lee , the founder of T & T Supermarket and winner of the 2021 Shelebration Annual Award, touched her deeply. Cindy said: "My father often said: You will never see water boiling if it is less than 100 degrees. So you must work hard. Only at 100 degrees can you see the results and enjoy the fruits of success. Never give up because you are a woman. Since you have talent and interest, you must persevere and survive all the hardships, and you will reap the rewards."
Readers'?Choice Award Winner: Elena Ji
Elena is the founder of B&E Finance and Taxation. As a certified public accountant in the UK and Canada, she has served well-known Fortune 500 companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Motorola. After immigrating to Canada, Elena experienced a short period of downturn. But, with her perseverance, she finally got an offer from the a Western accounting firm three months later and was lucky enough to meet her current company partner. In 2020, she and her partner decided to start a business together, however, COVID-19 and the lockdown made it extremely difficult to launch their business in the market. Nonetheless, Elena and her partner decided not to fear the pandemic and buck the trend. They established a solid customer base in the first year, quadrupled their turnover in 2021, and doubled it again in 2022. The company's business and team size have expanded rapidly. Elena believes that being recognized by customers is a blessing, and being trusted by customers means responsibilities. She will continue to provide high-quality services that exceed expectations to reward every customer!
Rising Star Award Winner: Queena Yu
Queena is a junior at the 加拿大多伦多大学 - 罗特曼管理学院 currently majoring in international trade and economics. Academically, Queena has received honours such as the University of Toronto Scholar Award Innis College Alumni & Friends Award. Queena has also achieved top three results in business pitching competitions held by 微软 , United Way , and 满地可银行 . As a student representative on the Minister’s Student Advisory Council, Queena was responsible for proposing an anti-bullying rectification plan to the Ministry of Education. Presently, Queena serves as president of the Rotman Commerce Law Association . During the pandemic, Queena worked with local city councillors to understand the living needs of over 2,000 residents and speak out for them. Out of her love for writing, Queena founded the non-profit organization "Write-Minded" in 2019, with the purpose of allowing young people to comment on social issues, while receiving guidance from established writers. In 2020, as founder of "Write-Minded," Queena was interviewed by Global News and Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. She received funding from Canada Service Corps to support this work in the same year.
WeWorkingWomen is grateful participant in the 2023 Grand Impact Awards, and to all the members of our amazing community.
We look forward to celebrating the achievement and contributions of our community next year at the 7th Annual Grand Impact Awards!
Follow WeWorkingWomen's work via our website: www.weworkingwomen.com
Thanks for the honour.