APP Inspiring Women 2023: It’s Time for Women to Inspire

To commemorate International Women's Day (8/3) and Kartini Day (21/4), Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) Sinar Mas has organized a series of interesting activities as a platform for women to share their inspiring stories. For the past two months, APP Inspiring Women has been running with a video competition that is open for all women in APP Sinar Mas, whether they are employees from the headquarters, business units, as well as supplier partners. The pinnacle of this event was the Inspiring Women Webinar: Be Inspiring & Be You, which featured remarkable women in APP Sinar Mas and their experiences about leadership, career, achievements, and life (13/4).

Celebrating Inspiring Women

The webinar was kicked off by Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) APP Sinar Mas Marcus Budimulia with an opening speech that underlines the Company’s support for diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. The speakers for this event were women of APP Sinar Mas with interesting and inspiring stories, from Global Accounting Head Megawaty Tjendra, Sustainability Compliance Head Sera Noviany, as well as 2022 Best Employee & Culture Ambassador winners Sherly Margaretha Surya (CIT) and Puti Wulandari (BU Industrial).

The event received high enthusiasm, as seen by the more than 250 webinar participants and dozens of video competition submissions from APP Sinar Mas headquarters, business units, and supply partners. Throughout the webinar, participants also actively asked questions to the speakers to delve deeper into each speaker's story.

Women Support & Inspire Each Other

"This special day (IWD & Kartini) reminds us of the importance of gender equality and women's rights - we all have the right to choose," said Megawaty.

After pursuing a career for almost 30 years, Megawaty shared the challenges she had to face and managed to make her more resilient in navigating life. According to her, APP Sinar Mas provides equal opportunities for everyone to work and climb the career ladder.

In her session, Sera shared APP Sinar Mas' role in fulfilling sustainability commitments, including women's rights and gender equality, both within the Company and for the community. Support for women in communities around the Company is organized through women empowerment activities and support for alternative livelihoods to increase their income, independence, and welfare.

"We have to be leaders for ourselves, so that when we have the opportunity, we can be leaders for others," Sera expressed her support for women in leadership.

The next session featured two women who were winners of the annual Best Employee & Culture Ambassador event. Sherly and Puti shared their experiences in life, challenges at work, and perspectives on competition. Competition must be done positively as it is inevitable. Always do your best, accept the situation, and continue to open yourself to opportunities.

Sherly also encouraged us to always have the courage to learn new things. According to her, being strong is how we can bounce back after falling and being under pressure. Puti shared that we need to identify our strengths and weaknesses to improve ourselves. She also reminded us that we can all take a role to bring positive change.

At the end of the event, winners of the video competition were also announced. Congratulations to the winners and keep inspiring!

Together, Women Create Positive Changes

The theme of the webinar, "Be Inspiring & Be You", invites women of APP Sinar Mas to be proud of themselves and move forward. Every woman has the capacity to be the person she wants to be and achieve her dreams.

Each speaker in this webinar is a great woman who has their own challenges. With strong determination and persistence, they were able to break their limits and achieve significant milestones. Through their stories, we can also be inspired to become better individuals. Let's support each other in bringing positivity!