Building A Legacy

As industry leaders and advocates, Harpreet Bedi And Nana Au-Chua are leaving behind beliefs, lessons and a better world not just for their own children, but also future generations.

- Crystal Lee

HARPREET BEDI

CEO of The Garcha Group

On March 28, the Singapore government announced that women aged 21 to 35 – regardless of their marital status – can freeze their eggs for non-medical reasons from 2023. Harpreet Bedi is all over the moon with this landmark shift in policy. The vivacious mother of four with a Masters in medical law has been advocating for this change since 2012, when she founded Belris (Bioethics Legal Research In Singapore), an independent, non-profit think tank dedicated to promoting research and collaborative dialogue in the area of reproductive treatments and technologies in Singapore.

“My first research funding went to the NUS Centre for Biomedical Ethics for a paper on elective egg freezing,” says Harpreet. “We brought to Parliament issues of women’s reproductive rights, arguing that it is to Singapore’s benefit to allow single women to freeze their eggs. However, I had to close Belris after five years to take over the family business. Still, I’m happy knowing that I did all that and it finally came through.”

She may have given up Belris, but the CEO of The Garcha Group hasn’t stopped supporting women. “I want to leave women in my environment in a better situation than before, whether it’s about reproductive rights or financial independence,” says the self-professed feminist. “I’m always trying to hire women. I want the women at my company to be empowered, respected and equal with the men they work with.”