PRESTIGE WOMEN OF POWER 2024 LIFTING HALF THE SKY

WHILE STRIDES HAVE BEEN MADE IN THE OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE TO FEMALES, THE WAY IS NOT WITHOUT ITS CHALLENGES. THAT'S WHY, IN THE THIRD EDITION OF WOMEN OF POWER, WE RECOGNISE EXTRAORDINARY INDIVIDUALS WHO BETTER THE LIVES OF WOMEN, THEIR COMMUNITY AND THE WORLD AT LARGE, NOT TO MENTION, OFFER THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER AT THE END OF THE DAY, WHICH ALWAYS MAKES FOR A BETTER TOMORROW. WOMEN OF POWER IS PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LOUIS VUITTON.

- LYNETTE KOH

ELEVATING ARTS AND CULTURE

CINDY KARIM

MD, CK Star Entertainment; Director, Gaia Lifestyle; Principal, Karim Family Foundation

For some, running one business is work enough. For those with an entrepreneurial mindset, like Cindy Karim, one enterprise is a stepping stone to another. She founded live entertainment event organiser CK Star Entertainment and F&B business Gaia Lifestyle, and is the lead principal of her family's philanthropic organisation, the Karim Family Foundation.

The Indonesian-born businesswoman, who studied in Singapore and now divides her time between here and Indonesia, launched CK Star Entertainment in 2018, after having amassed substantial experience organising concerts for her family's integrated hotel and resort back home in Medan. "We created CK Star to promote acts beyond the property," she says. Since then, the company has orchestrated more than 60 concerts across the region, featuring popular artistes such as Korean groups TXT and Epik High, and English singer-songwriter Arthur James.

Similarly, the experience gleaned from developing a multi-concept F&B space in Medan led to the launch of Gaia Lifestyle. Aside from operating eight restaurants in Indonesia, Gaia Lifestyle is also active in Singapore.

Together with the Han family that runs Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant, Cindy brought in mod-Chinese restaurant Social Place from Hong Kong. She also started Gyutan-Tan, the first Japanese restaurant in Singapore that specialises in ox tongue.

Along with her younger brother and sister, Cindy takes a similarly all-encompassing approach to running the Karim Family Foundation. The trio and their mum chose four wide-ranging pillars to support: arts and culture, education, sports and mental health.