Cartier Women’s Initiative

Honouring women entrepreneurs, catalysts for change and growth drivers in their communities and society at large, the Cartier Women’s Initiative announced the seven 2019 winners.

At the awards ceremony, held on May 2nd at the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture in San Francisco, Cyrille Vigneron, President of Cartier International, announced the winners selected from nearly 2,900 entries from 142 countries (including Japan and Switzerland for the first time). Yeon Jeong Cho (South Korea), Carmina Bayombong (Philippines), Zineb Agoumi (France), Liza Velarde (Mexico), Hibah Shata (United Arab Emirates), Ran Ma (United States) and Manka Angwafo (Cameroon) were honoured for their respective projects.

Just as it did last year in Singapore, the ceremony also hosted a TED conference – the non-profit organisation dedicated to ideas that change the world – tailor-made for the occasion, bringing together microbiologist Karen Lloyd, architect and urban planner Kotchakorn Voraakhom, founder of the Bodhi Tree Foundation, a leading figure in rural social work in India Ashweetha Shetty, and the artistic duo Climbing PoeTree. The discussions, moderated by Helen Walters, Master of Ceremonies, focused on concrete contributions to be considered in addressing the most pressing contemporary challenges.

May 23, 2019