HONOREES & REWARD RECIPIENTS

Lora Ho

Former Senior Vice President at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), where she spent more than two decades helping shape one of the world’s most important manufacturing companies. She joined TSMC in 1999 as Controller after serving as Chief Financial Officer of TI-Acer Semiconductor Manufacturing. In 2003, she became TSMC’s Chief Financial Officer and spokesperson, a role she held through much of the company’s rise to global leadership in advanced chipmaking. She later led European and Asian sales and then the company’s human resources, sustainability, and corporate strategy organizations, chairing its ESG Committee. Ms. Ho has said that TSMC’s expansion of its supply chain into the United States and Japan has been a defining challenge of her tenure. Her honors include recognition as Taiwan and Asia’s best CFO by FinanceAsia between 2007 and 2019, and a place among Nikkei Asian Review’s Nine Most Influential Women in Asian Tech in 2018.

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Jodi Shelton

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), a not-for-profit trade organization that connects the global semiconductor ecosystem. Founded in 1994 as the Fabless Semiconductor Association, GSA has grown into an international network of corporate members spanning the industry’s supply chain. Ms. Shelton is also the founder of Shelton Group, a strategic investor relations and communications firm established the same year. She has championed the advancement of women in technology through GSA’s Women’s Leadership Initiative, including its Rising Women of Influence program. She serves on the board of directors of Silvaco Group and previously served on the advisory board of Nanotronics, an AI-driven manufacturing inspection company. Ms. Shelton has long been recognized as a unifying voice for her members on the issues that shape the industry’s future.

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Ambassador Katherine Tai

Executive Director of the Coalition for New Trade and served as the 19th United States Trade Representative from March 2021 to January 2025. As the principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson for the United States, and the first woman of color to hold the office, she advanced a worker-centered approach to trade policy. Before leading USTR, she spent nearly two decades in public service, including as USTR’s chief China enforcement lawyer and as chief trade counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee, where she helped negotiate stronger labor protections in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Ambassador Tai holds degrees from Yale University and Harvard Law School, taught English in China, and speaks Mandarin.

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Kamal Ahmad

Founder of the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and President and CEO of the AUW Support Foundation, which leads the university’s strategic planning and fundraising. As a teenager in Bangladesh, he started schools for children working as domestic help. He later built a career in international development and private legal practice, serving at the World Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation, and UNICEF, and as General Counsel of the Asian Development Bank. In 1998, he conceived and co-directed the World Bank/UNESCO Task Force on Higher Education and Society. Mr. Ahmad first imagined AUW as a Harvard undergraduate, and the university opened in 2008 to educate women with leadership potential from across Asia, regardless of nationality, religion, or economic background. He is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard College, and the University of Michigan Law School, and his awards include the United Nations Gold Peace Medal.

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GALA HONORARY
CO-CHAIRS

Kelly Bottenfield

Lauren Pimpare

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EMCEES

Eyee Hsu

Board Member of Global Women Asia. A passionate communicator and storyteller, Eyee works with clients to produce powerful events through effective messaging. She lived in Beijing for over 15 years, where she hosted and produced two flagship television programs on CGTN and reported for NBC during the Beijing Olympics. Eyee is also a Co-Founder of Mountain Towns 2030, an organization supporting outdoor communities to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. Dedicated to creating and amplifying impact in social and environmental issues, Eyee also serves on the Boards of Park City Community Foundation, World Trade Center Utah, and PBS Utah, among others.

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Kelly Bottenfield

Boston-based entrepreneur, investor, and strategic advisor with more than 25 years of experience building and scaling consumer brands across food and beverage, beauty, personal care, and wellness. As Co-Founder and former Chief Sales Officer of The Honey Pot Company, Kelly helped grow the business from approximately $300K in revenue to a $380M exit, establishing it as a nationally recognized brand. Today, Kelly is Co-Founder of K&C Ventures, where she invests in and advises emerging consumer brands, helping founders navigate growth, strategy, and leadership.

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SPEAKERS

The Honorable Mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu

Working to make Boston a home for everyone since taking office, she has invested more in making housing affordable than any other administration in Boston’s history. In her first full year as mayor, gun violence fell to the lowest level on record in the city—and has continued to fall every year since. She promised a paid summer job to every BPS student who wanted one—and delivered, and has expanded Boston’s Pre-K and early education to serve more children and families than ever before.

From climate resiliency and transportation to public health and community safety, Mayor Wu has established Boston as a global leader in delivering solutions to the biggest challenges families are facing.

She has divested City funds from fossil fuels and ended their use in all new City construction and major renovations; saved residents and businesses more than $230 million in energy costs through Boston’s Community Choice Electricity Program; secured funding for thousands of new jobs to protect Boston’s coastline; and doubled the number of trees planted on Boston’s streets every year.

Mayor Wu has boosted public transit ridership in the city through fare-free Boston bus lines; installed more speed humps to protect pedestrians and neighbors on residential streets in the last two years than in the previous six combined; secured a board seat granting Boston a voice in governing the MBTA; and deployed new technology to optimize traffic signals and reduce congestion on Boston’s roads.

Under her leadership, the City settled a collective bargaining process with law enforcement that set a national standard for accountability and community policing—investing in officer education, improving family leave policies, and ending arbitration as a way to avoid disciplinary action for the most serious offenses.

Building on the success of her BPS Sundays Pilot program, Mayor Wu worked to make nine of Boston’s leading museums and cultural institutions free to all school-aged children in the city. As a Boston Public Schools mom, she has expanded early college and career programs to more high school students than ever before; invested in the District’s first long-term vision for facilities informed by clear data and community standards; and delivered more resources for academics, arts, and student athletics across our neighborhoods.

Mayor Wu’s administration has cut the ribbon on 20 new or newly-renovated public parks; supported more than 90 new small businesses in revitalizing formerly vacant neighborhood retail spaces, creating more than 800 new jobs; filled more than 18,000 potholes; and helped nearly 700 families become first-time homeowners through City of Boston programs.

Mayor Wu is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She began her career in public service interning at City Hall for Mayor Tom Menino and is an alumna of the Rappaport Fellows Program in Law and Public Policy. Mayor Wu lives in Roslindale with her husband Conor and their three children, Blaise, Cass, and Mira.

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Wenchi Yu

Founder and Chairwoman of Global Women Asia. A globally experienced leader across the nonprofit, government, media, and business sectors, she is dedicated to building a worldwide community that amplifies Asian perspectives in global affairs. With over two decades of experience at the intersection of business, policy, and society, Wenchi has held strategic roles at Goldman Sachs and the U.S. Department of State, and has advised high-growth technology companies on cross-border market entry strategies. She is a Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a board member of several nonprofit organizations, and the producer and host of media programs on foreign policy.