A Word with Avon Neo

EMpower’s President and CEO, Cynthia Steele, recently spoke with Avon, Managing Director at Nomura and EMpower Board Director in Hong Kong. They discussed Avon’s deep passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the importance of building sustainable impact through long-term partnerships, and how her personal journey inspires her commitment to creating safe and inclusive spaces for marginalised young people.

Avon, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I'd love to hear from you about what drew you to our mission of building platforms and opportunities for marginalised young people.

Thanks for having me, Cynthia. It’s lovely to chat with you. I have always been very passionate about DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). It's very clear that many forms of inequality still exist today despite the work that has been done, especially in emerging markets. I grew up in Singapore, and I always think of it as growing up in a DM Market within an EM market, so to speak. Particularly, I think within the EM markets, particularly for girls and young women, there's still a lot of inequality. 

I'm clearly drawn to EMpower because it is specific to our focus of working within EM markets. I mentioned to you earlier that my mom is Indonesian and EMpower is also present there. So, it hits very close to home for me. Also, our focus is on working with local partners and crafting solutions that listen from the ground up, and then taking those voices and integrating them into the programmes we support actually help change the lives of some marginalised young people. What further convinced me to join the Board was when I was invited to the grantmaking call, as that resonates very closely with my day job. I was able to experience the grantmaking model first-hand and witnessed the level of diligence that went into reviewing the grantee partners, the level of transparency and information provided, and the impact we have as a group. 

Our long-term partnerships with the grantee partners added to my conviction. Then the final nail that really convinced me was that 100% of the donation goes directly to empowering marginalised young people! There isslippage in the financial markets. And there's no slippage here: 100% of your donation goes into the grantee partner, knowing that the cost of the operations is underwritten by the Board of Directors and by our underwriters. That gave me extra conviction. Overall, I think that the strength of the governance, the Board, plus you and the team, have added to that confidence, and the years that I've been on the Board are the strongest evidence of the work that we've done and continue to do. We can actually focus on our mission of changing young people’s lives, enhanced further with our focus on gender and inclusion. That's the other journey that I hope to co-travel with you moving forward, to see how we can deepen this work together. 

I love that, and I'm so glad that you specifically lifted up gender and DEI because those are, as you know, such important throughlines and embedded values of EMpower. Yet we are seeing increased hostility in the world towards those who are seen as different, however that may be defined by the beholder. It's more important now than ever to ensure that rights are upheld, and that young people feel included and supported, no matter what their identities are. 

Yes, I think Covid brought out a lot of marginalisation and a lot of inequality. With mental health, we saw firsthand the deep need that exists, and I think about how we can truly support women, especially at the intersection of gender and sexual orientation. If you were already marginalised as a woman and also part of the Pride community, resources could be even scarcer, right? By partnering with the right grantee partners, we can find ways to reach this intended audience, ensuring we provide the support they need through these difficult times. 

I agree 100%. That's a whole other conversation I'd love to have when I see you in Asia because we’re doing so much more on the mental health front. When I had the good fortune to meet with you in New York last year, you talked about being on a philanthropic journey – to learn more about it, as a discipline, if you will, and a sector. I'm curious to know what you want to learn more about how philanthropy operates.

One thing I want to learn is how do you build sustainable impact. What draws me to EMpower are our 10-year partnerships, where we work closely with grantee partners over the long term to track, assess and witness the impact firsthand. We help our partners in terms of programming. We listen to them, but we also try to export or import some of these best practices for other grantee partners. I am very interested in that—is that a model that can be easily transferable where we can then help grantee partners scale up, so they can run independently and sustainably, be effective, and be impactful?

I'm also keen to continue learning about the robustness of frameworks, the right matrix to put in place and programmes that are fit for purpose.  I'm also very interested in exploring how grantee partners are thinking about what I mentioned earlier -- intersectionality and looking at marginalised communities, not just based on mono-pillars, so to speak, like gender alone, but many other intersectionalities to consider and to make sure that each group is being appropriately supported so no one feels excluded. I spend a lot more time focusing on women, and I’ve also been learning & quietly advocating locally in Singapore for the Pride community. Given the context here, we approach advocacy carefully, focusing on how we can ensure rights and equality for the community. As you know, Singapore is not as forward as some other nations, so we tread lightly, but we are committed to identifying safe areas—especially in the workplace—where we can gently push for progress. There are two topics I’m focusing on and learning more about, and I feel there's always more to understand. On a more personal note, last year I had ACL surgery, which gave me a brief glimpse of how it feels to be slightly disadvantaged in terms of mobility. When we talk about disability, combined with gender or an LGBT identity, it adds layers of complexity to the daily inequalities that people face. That’s another area that I'm dipping my toes into, finding out how different dimensions intersect to create barriers. Certainly, there's no end to what we can learn about marginalised communities and how we can each play a role in creating a better environment for all. 

So much of what you spoke touches my heart. Thank you for sharing with me—this was fantastic.