10 Next Gen Women Who Are Making Difference

In 1949, Mao Zedong once famously said that women hold up half the sky. Since then, progress in the gender equality sphere has been marching forward with the occasional sputtering and odd step backwards, but never back to the starting line. The way ahead is still long and arduous, but nothing worth doing is ever easy. This year - the seventh edition of the Power List - we honour the following women who have been fearless about pushing the limits of gender equality and equity in their respective fields.

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JULIANA CHANCEO and publisher, Wildtype Media

DRIVEN BY PURPOSE

Scientist and publisher Juliana Chan is raising the Asian STEM industry’s global profile by harnessing the latest trends in media.

TEXT SHAMILEE VELLU

Talking to the energetic Wildtype Media CEO and publisher, Juliana Chan – also a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and holds four US patents – makes you feel like you’re moving in slow motion.

Many media outlets have featured her research on drug delivery and nanomedicine. Pfizer has even licensed one of her patents for commercialisation.

But the Cambridge- and MIT educated scientist arguably made the greatest wave when she left a tenure-track career in biomedical research at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) for her other passion: science communication. Chan founded Wildtype Media Group in 2018. Today, it is one of Asia’s leading STEM-focused media companies, spanning digital, print, events, custom publishing and content marketing. The acronym stands for science, technology, engineering and maths.

“It surprised me when many people thought this was a terrible decision,” she says. “Everyone told me the media renaissance was over and that I should get out, not in.”