The women who inspire us
To celebrate International Women’s Day, team BLLNR takes a look at who drives our passion to be better women
Poppy Skinner – Managing Editor BLLNR SG & HK
Beryl Crockford
I was lucky enough to have Beryl as my rowing coach for eight years. Around the rowing circuit, we were aware of how much people revered and respected her but it was only when I got older that I realised what an absolute legend she was. Not only did she win the first medal achieved by a British woman at a World Rowing Championship but she represented Great Britain in three Olympic Games’, was the first woman to be invited into the formerly all-male Leander club and firmly put rowing on the map in England. Under her tenure, my school became the most successful junior women’s rowing club in the country and Beryl was known for being as tough as she was talented. A real, original strong woman, sadly Beryl passed away from a cycling accident in 2016 but her memory lives on in everyone who ever met her.
Sam Simeonov – Social Media Manager
Joan Beauchamp Procter
Joan was the first female curator of reptiles at the London Zoo and over time, she became a world-renowned zoologist and an expert in snakes and lizards. Having become fascinated by snakes and lizards at the age of just 10, her fascination with reptiles developed during her time at secondary school in London by which time she had managed to adopt a young crocodile and would regularly take it to school with her. Although she was plagued with chronic illness, she would never let this hold her back and won a place at Cambridge University. During her short life, she was able to make significant innovative findings to help the veterinary and zoological fields, especially towards the behaviour of Komodo dragons.
Mary Lai – Junior Editor
Rachel Eng
Hailing from right here in Singapore, Eng is considered somewhat of a trailblazer in the traditionally male-dominated legal world and is dedicated to proving that women can hold as many of the top jobs as men. In 2010, she became the first woman to lead one of the largest law firms in Singapore at WongPartnership before she moved over to PwC in a move that at the time was ground-breaking and is now considered a smart and interesting career step. Less than a year after joining, she was appointed to Pwc’s global legal leadership team, overseeing the firms 3,600 lawyers in around 100 countries. This action made her the only woman in the nine-member team and now, PwC’s Singapore member firm is named Eng and Co. Her advice for fellow women is simple: “We sometimes doubt our own capability, so believe in yourself. That will go very, very far.”
Connie Yeung – Publisher
Lucy Yueting Liu
At just 29 years old, Lui, alongside her three co-founders have built a company which is now valued at close to $1.9 Billion. The company is Airwallex which helps customers conduct multi-currency cross-border transactions at a cheaper rate than banks. Started in 2015, they have raised over $363 Million in funding from the likes of DST Global, Tencent and Sequoia. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Airwallex employs over 440 staff in 10 cities including Tokyo and Bangalore and this year started to partner with WeChat Pay, Xero and virtual Visa in Australia.
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