NEWS & UPDATES

KUCHING
11 DECEMBER 2020

Sarawak Energy’s professional networking group for women capped off a busy year of programmes and activities that had moved into the digital space with a Fireside Chat featuring women in senior positions in their fields this week.

The Sarawak Energy Leading Women Network (SELWN) brought together women leaders to share their career pathways with about 400 employees of Sarawak Energy on Wednesday.

The virtual Fireside Chat session titled “Discover the Leader within You” featured panelists Hajah Siti Aisah Adenan, SELWN Executive Champion and Sarawak Energy’s Senior Vice President for Corporate Services; Dr. Ts. Wei-nee Chen, Hibiscus Petroleum’s Vice President for New Energy Ventures; and Peing Tajang, SELWN External Stakeholders Engagement Co-Lead and Sarawak Energy’s General Manager for Corporate Communication.

The session was moderated by Chief Executive Officer of LeadWomen, Dr. Marcella Lucas following opening remarks by Ng Shou Fui, SELWN External Stakeholders Engagement Co-Lead and Sarawak Energy’s General Manager for Retail.

Also present were Datu Haji Sharbini Suhaili, Sarawak Energy’s Group Chief Executive Officer; Lu Yew Hung, Sarawak Energy’s Group Chief Operating Officer; Dr Mak Met, Sarawak Energy’s Senior Vice President for Human Resource; and the senior management team.

This Fireside Chat kicks off the SELWN Empowering Women Series, an initiative by Sarawak Energy to promote workforce diversity and inclusiveness in building a high performance corporate culture, aligned with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 5 on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.

During the session, Siti Aisah said that greater diversity and inclusion at decision-making levels lead to more robust decisions.

“In promoting gender diversity, we are not talking about replacing men with women, but rather we are promoting a balance of competent men and women whose different approaches and perspectives can contribute to more considered decisions,” she said.

“Through SELWN and programmes like this, we want to ensure our younger female talent can learn from the different paths to success that our speakers took, to showcase role models and to encourage and facilitate more participation of our women employees in decision-making positions,” she added.

On a question raised regarding the perception that women leaders were more emotional, Dr. Chen felt that while this was a gender stereotype, she agreed that women can use their emotional intelligence effectively in their leadership roles. She also pointed out that the attributes of a good leader are more important than their gender or age.

Dr. Chen commended SELWN’s efforts in leadership mentoring and providing support to women in overcoming challenges in a male-dominated power utility industry.

On the aspect of balancing career and personal responsibilities, Peing expressed her view that women should say yes to leadership opportunities and from there, build on their strengths and work on the gaps.

“Find your leadership style that suits your personality. Be credible and authentic throughout the journey, believe in yourself and most importantly, be excellent at what you do,” she advised.

The session also highlighted the importance of an empowering network and support circle in progressing up the leadership ladder.

This was followed by a SELWN Women Empowering Series Workshop on ‘Imposter Phenomenon’, where the all-female audience were shown how to detect situations and attributes that would hinder their career development.

SELWN was launched in 2017 to develop leadership competencies and capabilities of women employees of Sarawak Energy and to maximise their potential by supporting their career development aspirations. The formation of SELWN is in line with Malaysia’s target of achieving 30% women representation on boards and senior management team.

The company is pushing forward to enable more female employees to ascend to leadership positions through outreach and mentoring activities, networking and sharing sessions, forums and capacity building programmes.

SELWN’s External Relations workstream looks at best practices at national and regional levels for a broader understanding and application of inclusion and diversity in Sarawak Energy’s workplace.

As part of this, the team brought together PETRONAS, Maybank, TNB and TalentCorp to share the successes and challenges of Flexible Work Arrangements at a SELWN Roundtable Sharing Session in September this year and was part of the Women’s Empowerment Principles workshop by UN Women and UN Global Compact Office in November 2020.

In recognition of Sarawak Energy’s efforts, the company received a platinum award for the Empowerment of Women for SELWN at the 11^th Annual Global CSR Summit and Awards 2019.

During the Fireside Chat session. (From top left) Dr. Marcella Lucas, Chief Executive Officer of LeadWomen; Dr. Ts. Wei-nee Chen, Hibiscus Petroleum’s Vice President for New Energy Ventures; Peing Tajang, SELWN External Stakeholders Engagement Co-Lead and Sarawak Energy’s General Manager for Corporate Communication; and Hajah Siti Aisah Adenan, SELWN Executive Champion and Sarawak Energy’s Senior Vice President for Corporate Services.

Part of the SELWN Committee and members of the Group Executive Committee.

File photo: SELWN Roundtable Sharing Session with PETRONAS, Maybank, TNB and TalentCorp on Flexible Work Arrangements in September 2020.