International Women's Week: Spotlighting two women from APAC region

Around the globe, women in our organization strive to contribute to our success and the success of customers. As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we turn our spotlight to:

Kaw Yee Tiew, Finance and Administration, Singapore

The finance team relies on attention to detail. Accuracy is essential. Deadlines are critical. These are just some of the reasons that Kaw Yee Tiew is such a valued member of the team. She’s a perfectionist.

Kaw Yee is also a hard-working member of the team who has been with Infor over 20 years. “Every month I have many milestones to achieve – Revenue Reconciliation, Commission Expenses Reconciliation and Balance Sheet Schedule Reconciliation as well as Auditors queries during audit period. Achieving the monthly milestones gives me work satisfaction, and to me it is work-life balance,” she said.

In addition to her daily tasks, Kaw Yee is also involved in company activities and assists in administrative tasks that are above and beyond her role. She always pitches in with festive preparations for the many events the Singapore office holds. She is one of the people running the office exercise group and also assists in all the Habitat for Humanity projects the office has had to date, both as an organizer and participant. “The Singapore office would not operate as smoothly as it does, if we didn’t have Kaw Yee’s valuable contribution. She is one of our unsung office angels,” said Shamona Ranee Sinnathuray, a colleague.

Marie Anthonette Bernardino, IT Delivery, Manila
Marie is a valuable part of the Manila office, a creative problem-solver as well as a leader and mentor to other members of the team. As a part of the IT delivery team, she focuses on functionality for Infor M3, the ERP engine for solutions like CloudSuite Food and Beverage.

Marie started her career at Infor (Lawson) in 2007 as a Senior Software Engineer focusing on Lotus Notes development. In this role, she closely worked with her offshore counterparts in Sweden, and took on more responsibilities in mentoring new Manila based hires.

Then in 2012, she joined the Business Intelligence Team. This new challenge gave her the opportunity to explore unchartered territories in IT, and exposed her to a variety of new technologies, and stakeholders.

She proved her mettle by progressing her career in the business intelligence field, and moving up to manager and then later on to senior manager role in IT. She was widely successful in growing her team from 4 to 30 members, breaking new ground in owning the internal Birst system and delivering key projects with features useful to a variety of customer roles.

When asked what career advice she would offer other women in technology, she answered:

“Be brave, not perfect! Women, especially in the tech industry, need to have more confidence in their own skills, talent and insights. We have to believe that we are more than capable and that failing is part of the process. We need to believe that taking risks and making mistakes are integral ways of learning,” she said. “What's important is that first courageous step towards achieving our goal.”

Marie is also a chapter facilitator for the Women’s Infor Network (WIN) and works hard to achieve work-life harmony, something the WIN chapter tries to address through its programs. “Being a working woman is challenging enough. Being a working mom is double the challenge,” said Marie. She added that this may mean she focuses more on work sometimes and more on her family other times-- by making conscious choices and being present in the moment.