Chua Sock Koong

Chua Sock Koong has been at the helm of Singtel, Southeast Asia’s largest telecom provider, since 2007. Today, Chua is one of Asia’s most powerful businesswomen, but she used to get mistaken for the secretary. “You learn to laugh these things off,” she says. In the last five years, Singtel has undergone a significant digital transformation by beefing up its infocommunications and new digital business units. With nearly $13 billion in revenue and more than 25,000 employees, the company says it delivered a record net profit of S$5.45 billion ($4 billion) in fiscal year 2018, a 42% increase from the previous fiscal year.