Women of the Future – Week of Women Summit 2015

Ms Stephanie Koh, a Shell Engineer, was selected to represent Brunei as a future woman leader to attend the Week of Women Summit in London 2015.  Read her guest blog about her experience at the week long Summit. 

I am very privileged to have been nominated by Brunei Shell Petroleum Co. and selected by the British High Commission to represent Brunei at the Week of Women Summit which was hosted in London and attended by delegates from over 32 different countries. Being a UK graduate, I am always looking for reasons to re-visit London for its food, shopping and sightseeing. I was overly excited when I received the good news as this was a great opportunity. The most difficult part of the trip was leaving behind my 23-month old daughter for the very first time.

The beginning of the week long programme was a Networking Evening reception for the international delegates at the Crypts at Guildhall.  International delegates were either Chevening scholars based in the UK or were delegates flown in from other countries around the world.

We also had the opportunity to meet the Sheriff of City of London, Dr. Christine Ridgen, first female to hold the position in over 700 years.

The Women of the Future Summit was held at London Hilton Park Lane. This was attended by over 300 delegates over a range of UK businesses, companies and functions. Also in attendance was the Countess of Wessex.  This is an annual global forum for future women leaders, assembling a unique community of dynamic, current and future leaders. It was a day of practical information, insights and inspiration.

This year is special for Women of the Future Summit & Awards as it celebrates 10 years of its existence. This was commemorated by a ‘10 years 10 stories’ momento book to tell the stories of some extraordinary women.  Pinky Lilani CBE DL, Founder and Chairman of the Women of the Future programme described that through kindness and collaboration these women have shattered many ceilings, letting in the light for others.

The Women of the Future awards was held in the evening as a dinner reception.  Awards were handed out to women in business, entrepreneurism, technology & digital, science, arts & culture, media, community spirits, professional, real estate, infrastructure & construction, MBA star, sport, young star, corporate and mentor. This truly shows how far women have come and made a difference in all industries and walks of life.

An inspiring story for me was winner Phoebe Gormley in the young star category, who at 20 years of age left university and spent her tuition fees on starting a business and in the last 10 months has created Gromley & Gable, London’s “made-to-measure tailors exclusively for women” and is the first women’s tailor on Savile Row, which is known principally for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men. It really does show that you do not need to follow a path of completing an education to achieve success. You just need to be passionate in what you do, persevere and stand out.

The next day, all international delegates were invited to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office for a strategy session on working together to break down barriers to female economic and political participation. Here, teams breakout to discuss hard barriers/soft barriers that affect women’s participation and leadership and also barriers that prevent us from supporting other women, followed by a session on solutions to breaking down these barriers.

Reflecting on the session, I personally highlighted that I am very privileged to be working for Brunei Shell who embrace Diversity & Inclusion as one of its core strategies. As a graduate, I was given the opportunity as the only woman to work with a team of 50 respected and experienced men. I believe being a woman on the platform brought changes to structured ways of working and also brought different strengths and advantages to how we manage our day to day operations. Proud to say that that number has grown to four and I would like to continue inspiring young individuals to pursue a career in engineering and in front line operations.

After a hard day’s work, we were treated to a private Burberry reception at its flagship store on Regent Street. We had the opportunity to go through the Autumn/Winter 15 collection.

The icing on the cake during the Week of Women Summit would be the tea reception at Buckingham Palace.

Last but not least, I would like to take the opportunity to thank my team and the Brunei Shell leadership team for the nomination and recognizing the good work that I do and also to the British High Commission for this opportunity. I am hoping to continue to build and maintain the network and relationships that I have made during the week of women in order to be able to empower women of the next generation and make positive changes for all as I believe in not only doing something for myself but to make a difference to other people’s  lives .