Our Story
Co-founders Donna Holder and Dawn DiCandilo worked together for 15 years at a multi-national pharmaceutical company. During this time, they traveled to Asian countries to build capabilities, deliver training, and collaborate with local affiliates. They were impressed with the many talented women they had the opportunity to work with, yet dismayed at the lack of representation of women in leadership positions. This planted the seed for their joint passion to create a community that will drive the advancement of women into leadership positions in Asia.
Meet Our Founders
Donna Holder
Donna is an executive in the pharmaceutical industry, having spent 30 years developing her leadership skills and those of others. She’s worked for the last ten years in global roles with colleagues in affiliates around the globe, including China, Japan, the Philippines, and Singapore. During this time, Donna developed a passion for partnering with women leaders in Asia Pacific to share her knowledge and learn from them. As a proud first-generation Filipina-American, Donna is excited to connect her two cultures further. Donna has navigated her career while partnering with her husband to raise three daughters.
Dawn DiCandilo
Dawn has spent her 25 year career in a multinational pharmaceutical company and has held roles in both the US and Japan markets as well as multiple global roles. A highlight of her career and life was when she, her husband and two children moved to Japan for three years, from 2013-2016. Although both of her children are now young adults, she spent most of her career as a working mother. Dawn recently became a Shared Leadership Coach through Leadership in Motion, an International Coaching Federation (ICF) certified program. She is pursuing her professional coaching credentials through ICF.
Meet Our Advisors
Tonichi Achurra-Parekh has 25 years of experience in the Customer Experience (CX) industry. She is currently Vice President of Delivery at Concentrix in the Philippines, the nation's largest private employer. Her exceptional CX career started immediately out of college when she joined Citibank as a customer service frontliner after completing a Business Administration degree from the Dela Salle University. Tonichi is currently serving her 4th term in the Board of Directors of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), actively promoting the industry there and abroad in various focus areas such as Security, Innovation and Marketing. For her pioneering leadership contributions leveraging online platforms and her impact to the CX industry, Tonichi was inducted into the “100 Most Influential Filipino Women on LinkedIn” in 2021.
Jenny Puno Diokno is a 2022 US Department of Energy Export Control fellow, currently the Chief of the Export Division at the Port of Manila and Officer-in-Charge at the Port Control Office-Manila under the WCO-UNODC Container Control Programme. She has more than twenty years’ experience in various areas of customs operations. Jenny holds a Juris Doctor degree and is a member of the Philippine bar.
Liu Changhong has 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, where she has had various roles and responsibilities across local, regional, and global remits in commercial, procurement, external sourcing, supplier management, compliance, and supply chain management. Changhong has lived and worked in her home country of China, as well as in Europe and the US in the past 20+ years and has built and developed ample and unique experiences when she explored her career and life. She is also keen and active in developing women leadership, coaching and mentoring skills through various programs and courses alongside her career. She is now living in the DC area and serves as a co-lead of Asian Culture Employee Resource Group in her current company.
Hitomi Nakamura is a global medical affairs leader in a multinational pharmaceutical company. She is a pharmacist by training and worked in her home country of Japan for 10 years in various roles of increasing responsibility. In 2019, she took on a global role and moved to the UK. In her current role, she works with many different markets such as the US, Japan, China and European and International regions which gives her the opportunity to learn multiple cultural differences and expand her personal views.