The Emergent 25: Asia's star businesswomen

Jyoti Deshpande, President of the Chairman's Office, Media and Entertainment, Reliance Industries, India
Image: Sachin Kadvekar/ Fotocorp

What do Joanne Kua, a 33-year-old scion of a wealthy Malaysian family who is transforming her father’s staid insurance and finance business, and Indonesian grandmother Nurhayati Subakat, 67, who has pioneered halal beauty products, have in common with Miki Ito, a Japanese scientist who plans to scrub the cosmos clean of space junk, and Vietnam’s Dang Minh Phuong, who founded and runs a logistics company? They are on Forbes Asia’s first Emergent 25 list of women making their recent mark in regional enterprises.

These listees reflect the broader impact women are having in the Asian business world, even as the number of women in senior business positions globally retreated over the past year, according to consultancy Grant Thornton. Its 2018 “Women in Business” report says APAC firms gained gender diversity but notes that results across the region were patchy: A strong uptick in India, with the number of women in senior roles rising to 20 percent from 17 percent, but disappointment in Japan as the rate there remains stuck around 5 percent. This group of 25, chosen for the money they generate, the influence they wield and the ideas and trends they are advancing, bring fresh perspectives to Asia-Pacific’s growing business world.

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Research and additional Reporting by: Caroline Chen, Ron Gluckman, Jane Ho, Joyce Huang, Sunshine Lichauco de Leon, Lan Anh Nguyen, Jane A Peterson, Anuradha Raghunathan, Elaine Ramirez, Jennifer Schultz Wells, James Simms